I am a long time yorkie owner. We lost our 16 year old boy recently, and once he was trained he never had accidents and never marked but was neutered at around 7 months.


This week we rescued a 2 year old male yorkie. He was intact but has been neutered now and is recovering from surgery. We were told he was trained to go outside and did not mark. OMG, this little guy is a heathen! He will pee outside every time we take him out, but will pee indiscriminately whenever and wherever, and the same with the marking. I can keep him outside 20 minutes, he'll pee three times and come right back in the house and pee again. It's making me nuts. I even thought - maybe he has a UTI and that's why he's peeing constantly. Nope. He's perfectly healthy, and no UTI. We had him checked.


I swore I would never resort to the belly bands. That seems sort of counter productive, as he is being prevented from marking rather than learning not to do it, but after a few days of cleaning up after him, off to petsmart we went. He did fairly well with the belly bands. He only wet in the band twice (Lots easier to change the pad than scrub the carpet or furniture) and it seemed like he was figuring it out. Then he went in for neutering yesterday, came home and immediately started peeing and marking everywhere again. Grrr.... Afraid to use the band right now as he just got neutered and is probably sore. But believe me, I am counting the days till I can put it back on him.


However, I am wondering if using the belly bands is the right answer. Will we have to use them forever, or will he be able to learn using them? So far we've been rewarding him when we take the band off to go out and it's dry, but I seriously don't think he understands why he's being rewarded. Rewarding him when he goes outside doesn't make much sense either because he'll go outside three times every time we take him out.


I could really use some advice on this.


Diana

Thanks everyone. I am going to have to be more deligent. He does go out as soon as I get in but my daughter and husband do not do that for him. My husband came home first and found the pee on the couch. I have to get my daughter and husband to be more deligent with him.

I feel for you Diana. That is what he does. Will pee outside and then come in and lift his leg and pee on the chair or the bunny cage. Sometimes he pees on the pad and then 2 hours later go into my dining room an pee on the rug. I am just praying that he is still young and will change. I even prayed to my dad and grandmother last night to please let him get trained so I don't have to consider finding a new home for him.
+ I am desperate!

Mindy,


Have you tried using the belly bands?


Diana

My boo wears a belly band. If i take him out and he just plays i put it on when he comes in. Will he forget going outside to potty no. He loves going outside. He wakes me up in the morning by climbing up my side and licking my ear. Hes 6 months old and sqwats to weee and so far. ( knock on wood) has showed no sighns of marking. If he does he will have a belly band on inside period.

Graneet, there is nothing better than waking up to those sweet yorkie kisses!


We may have hit the panic button with our boy a little too soon. He had an excellent day yesterday. We are unable to use a belly band because he was just neutered on Friday, so we kept him in line of sight every minute of the day. We caught him trying to mark twice, early in the day, but not once past noon. We took him out every 45 minutes. Even though at 2 years old I am sure he can hold it longer than that, I didn't want to give him any excuse for an accident. Overnight I was determined he would sleep in his crate, but I woke up this morning and my husband had let him out of the crate and was sleeping on the floor in the family room with him. I don't think he moved all night long, and not one pee in the family room! Good boy, Ranger!


Thanks.


Diana

dog
 

Come to my house and you will see blankets on the couch and chairs. Two doggie doors and a pee pee pad hanging outside on the fence. Usually my boys will go out but every so often there is an accident. I get after them and they know I am mad. Yorkies are smart and they will learn if you keep after them. My house is not kid proof, it is doggy proof. Good thing my husband doesn't mind the fences and blankets, bowls and dog beds. All for the love of our Yorkies! What is a little pee when you can have the love of a dog? So precious are those kisses yet those pee accidents must stop.

Sandy, I get that. We lost our 16 year old Scooby in October. His last couple years he had arthritis and trouble getting around on hardwoods. We have hardwoods in the kitchen and family room. He did best on those rubber backed bathmats. So the whole two rooms were laced with them. I would buy them whenever/wherever I could find them on sale, so we had a variety of colors and sizes. I'm sure anyone that came to my house thought I was nuts because we had quite a patchwork quilt on the floor, but we would have put up with just about anything to keep him comfortable.


Our little rescue is doing great with the potty stuff this weekend. For the first three days he was here, it was horrible. He peed and marked and marked and peed, no matter how many times I took him out. He would do it outside and come right back in and do it in the house. On Friday he was neutered. Saturday morning he tried it twice, and hasn't marked or had an accident in the house since noon yesterday. I also noticed that he is not constantly peeing outside either. Initially we were taking him out at least every hour, and he'd go three times. Now today he's done great on a normal schedule that our other two dogs are on, going out every few hours, peeing once and coming right back in and he also made it through the night -out of his crate- without an accident. I'm wondering if all that before was just him feeling unsafe and insecure. I'm not naïve enough to actually trust him yet, but I definitely am not in the same panic mode I was in yesterday!


Thanks for your input.


Diana

Lilah is almost two and for the most part does very well with the potty scene. She has a potty pad in our bathroom and we keep a baby gate up for the back half of the house - she would like to go potty there, I figure because it's colder and farther away so it seems like it's no part of 'the den'?- but is mostly only inclined to go there if her potty pad is not pristine. We started out with our ex pen and two baby gates and around a year/year and a half we got down to one baby gate. If I had a boy that marked or had potty issues I would not hesitate to use a belly band. Good luck with your little buddy and make sure to read those great potty training stickys yt has.

Maybe the surgery is causing some of the issues. We have to get boo fixed soon. Nervous hope it dont cause problems.

He should be contained in a bathroom or large kennel while you are gone. My two are 6 years and 4 years old and still do not get 100 % free roam when we are gone. My husband comes home at lunch to let them out and then they get to come downstairs and hang out. I know they could not hold their bladder for 8 hours, so we keep potty pads out for them to use and we still have occasional accidents (usually poop).

There are a few things I'd try:


Firstly, do not allow him up on the couch as/when he pleases. Either ban him from the couch altogether or make him understand that he can only come up when invited. You need to make him understand that the couch is your space - not his.


Also, he has way too much freedom if he's not consistently going to the pads. I would do what someone else has suggested and put him in a x-pen when you're not home. I tried leaving my dog out at 8 months and it was an epic fail! He didn't know how to manage the house on his own and panicked as a result. Therefore, when we leave now, he is put in his crate.


With regards to marking, Teddy did this at about 8 months, too. I caught him doing it three times. Each time, I clapped at the same time as saying, "NO" and took him to his pad. He has never marked in my house since.


Now, to clarify, marking is different from peeing. They can mark all day. The reason for putting him on his pad was to let him know that it's the only acceptable place to lift his leg. I have found that walking him and letting him mark outside to his hearts content makes things better. He is not neutered, btw.


You have to be very diligent and not take for granted that they are trained especially before one year old. I think you are disappointed in his behavior because you're expectations are in error. You and your husband need to be viewing him as a puppy meaning that he still needs supervision and correction.


It will get better but you have to put the work in!!

Getting neutered actually seemed to help. Or maybe its coincidental that he has started to settle in and feel more safe here. We have never had a rescue before. Always puppies, and trained them ourselves, so not sure what to expect with bringing in an older dog. He's two and we've only had him a week. We also have two other dogs - an eight year old male toy poodle and a 2 year old female toy poodle. Anyway, Saturday seemed to be a turning point for him. He hasn't had an accident or marked in the house since around noon Saturday (which was day 5 here for him, and one day after neutering) and he is starting to show us his personality and become more playful with our other dogs.


I am sure there will be other issues that come up with him, so I am glad to have a place to come for advice. I am pretty anal about caring for my dogs, and they are pampered and spoiled family members. This little guy has been mostly kept outside, ate crap food, never been groomed, no vet care and basically raised himself. We don't even know if he's a full yorkie. He looks like a yorkie, but is around 12 pounds and has cute floppy ears. :) Its hard work teaching him to be a gentleman!


Thank you again.


Diana