Can someone please relate!!!!!

[VACowboy]

Ok so I have somewhat potty trained my Yorkie, her name is CoCo. So basically I have setup a "bathroom" for her at my house, its a corner under my stairs where I setup potty pads and at first I would walk her over there and she would go and now she goes on her own, which is great so she can run freely when I am home.

She is about 3 months old and I have had her since she was 10 weeks old so she has picked up faster than I anticipated.

Well heres the thing, I have been reading about seperation anxiety, which I am certain she suffers from, she has no problems going in her cage when I am home, I can put her in there and close it, very small crate, and she will lay there or play with tools and only really cry when she wants water, or is hungry or needs to go to bathroom, sometimes random cries when she wants to play which I can't blame her she is a puppy. But anywho I put her in the cage when I leave, here is her schedule from M-F

Wake up at 7, taken out of crate and poops and pees
Eats breakfast at 730
Pees again at around 8
Crated when I go to work
I come home around 12:30-1 to let her out of crate to play and go pottie
Feed her small lunch and water
around 130 goes poop and pee
Back in crate until about 530 when I get home from work.
again she is feed an poops and pees
than around 11pm she goes again.

So as you can see I have her schedule down and I try my hardest to keep this as consistant as possible....

but here is where the problem has started.......

I think she is suffering from seperation anxiety because randomally I will come home from work and she has pied in the cage, I know I am not keeping her in the cage too long because max she is in there for 4 hours when I am at work, and furthermore she has never done this till recently. She won't poop in the cage but about 4 different occassions I have come home to take her out and she has pied in her cage.

I have been working on the point where I section parts of my house off, hardwood floors, with gates to let her run around my house while I am at work, again is sectioned safe areas, but now I have to rethink this and figure out why she is doing this.

Do you guys think its the crate? seperation anxiety? maybe a phase she is going through? Any advice or anyone that can relate please do so. Thanks.

[DaisyMaesMama]

Hey Neighbor!

Welcome to YT! I am in Richmond.

I think 4 hours in a crate can be a little long for such a young pup. They have very small bladders. You also need to be careful that she doesn't try to hold it too long because she could get a UTI (urinary tract infection).

You may want to set up an area with a larger space for her to hang out in when you are at work. In the kitchen is great as long as she is safe. Or, you can get an xpen or superyard xt (which is what I have) and use pee pads for her to use while you aren't there.

Don't hesitate to ask ???, we are all willing to help new owners as much as we can. Look me up anytime as well.

Good Luck. sounds like you are doing a great job training her so far!


~Kathy

[cataholic]

Maybe she has developed a bladder infection. She should be able to hold it that long if she has been doing it. Maybe there is a problem. Also welcome to YT fellow Virginian.

[Marta_n_Chanel]

Does she not get thirsty or hungry when she's in the cage for 4 hours?

I'm curious to know how you managed to train her that fast.

Also PS I like her name, its like she's a name counterpart to my Chanel.

[Nancy1999]

At 3 months she is still a little young to hold it that long. A rule of thumb is they can hold it for one hour per month of age, so at three months 3 hours is the maximum she can hold it. You are requiring her to hold it 4 1/2 hours, and this can be painful. Of course there are always exceptions, but this is typical, and you may be just asking too much of her. Have you thought about pee pads?

[chloesMama]

Since she uses potty pads I would suggest a X pen / play yard for her so she can have a potty pad and toys and food/water in with her while you are at work. You can leave her crate in the pen also so she can go in it if she choses. She may just not like the crate when no one is with her, she is very young still.

[VACowboy]

Thank you all for your reply, I was shocked myself that she has picked up so quickly but I think what I heard read on the boards is the more consistent you are with your routine the quicker they will pick up so essentially I took that to heart and it has seem to work, well here ya go, yesterday I actually setup the play ring or whatever you call it, had her little bed in there, few toys, no food or water, and a couple puppy pads.

I came home and uh huh, she managed to get out, I think she realized the plastic gates bend so she pushed and than wiggled, I walked around the house, she heard me came down the steps and was happy and acted like nothing was wrong, As I looked around nothing had been chewed, except for a napkin left on the floor upstairs, this made me laugh because I realized it was my fault for not securing the area enough, so I could not punish her not that she would know why she was punished.

But with everything I said at the start of this thread, not a single drop on pee or poop anywhere.....Strange? don't you think? and than when I took down the gate she ran over to the potty pads immediately and pee'd.

So maybe it is me keeping her in the cage too long, but one thing I will try to do is limit the amount of water she is drinking, actually measure it out, because I have one of those dog water things where its a big bottle that keeps refilling the dish, maybe need to take that away cause possibly as I am eating breakfast and running around she could be drinking away.

Thanks for the feedback I will keep you updated.

[Nancy1999]

Originally Posted by VACowboy

Thank you all for your reply, I was shocked myself that she has picked up so quickly but I think what I heard read on the boards is the more consistent you are with your routine the quicker they will pick up so essentially I took that to heart and it has seem to work, well here ya go, yesterday I actually setup the play ring or whatever you call it, had her little bed in there, few toys, no food or water, and a couple puppy pads.

I came home and uh huh, she managed to get out, I think she realized the plastic gates bend so she pushed and than wiggled, I walked around the house, she heard me came down the steps and was happy and acted like nothing was wrong, As I looked around nothing had been chewed, except for a napkin left on the floor upstairs, this made me laugh because I realized it was my fault for not securing the area enough, so I could not punish her not that she would know why she was punished.

But with everything I said at the start of this thread, not a single drop on pee or poop anywhere.....Strange? don't you think? and than when I took down the gate she ran over to the potty pads immediately and pee'd.

So maybe it is me keeping her in the cage too long, but one thing I will try to do is limit the amount of water she is drinking, actually measure it out, because I have one of those dog water things where its a big bottle that keeps refilling the dish, maybe need to take that away cause possibly as I am eating breakfast and running around she could be drinking away.

Thanks for the feedback I will keep you updated.

Please don't limit the water she's drinking, you are actually doing really well on her housebreaking, she is going to make mistakes, but limiting water isn't a good way to help train her. When she drinks water and holds this for a while, it actually stretches the bladder a little, and this helps her learn to hold it longer. So the idea is to gradually allow her to hold it longer, and this will come with time. Limiting water can actually cause a bladder infection, and then they can't hold their urine for long at all.

[VACowboy]

Originally Posted by Marta_n_Chanel

Does she not get thirsty or hungry when she's in the cage for 4 hours?

I'm curious to know how you managed to train her that fast.

Also PS I like her name, its like she's a name counterpart to my Chanel.

Marta - You know it all depends, sometimes she likes to eat all her food at breakfast and sometimes she doesn't, so depending on the day, really depends if she is hungry or not, typically I will make note of how much she is eating at any given time and try to supplement that with snacks at a later time, for instance little breakfast, than I give her extra snacks for being good or doing good things like potty or give her a little extra food for her next meal.

To answer your question on how we managed to train her fast is my girlfriend and I read about 11 books from the library on Yorkshires prior to her coming to us, than we found many people that owned multiple Yorkies in the area through friends (trust me when I say everyone knows someone that has a yorkie) than we actually took notes and were tentative to people's advice, the funny thing is everyone's method was different and not a single person did the same things. So through the first 2 weeks we did a test run with different methods we learned and eventually came up with a hybrid of all that seemed to click. I have mentioned this in another thread but for the potty trained part, it clicked really quick for her, literally and I am not exergerating, about 1 week and half she picked up on it.

I created a bathroom basically, imagine 3 plastic gates that are attached in which I make a U shape so there is only one opening. If you look at my schedule from the first post I put of when I would come home and take her out, what I would do is take her out at all given times, but I believe the trick was I never dropped her in the area, I would start on the other side of the room from the bathroom area and walk her over, but heres the thing I learned the hard way, when I was first doing this she didn't care and just went while we were going over there, so to stop her from doing this, I would literally bend over cradle her back underside and walk with her, I used the analogy on the other thread, like a doggie wheel barrel walk. She it forced her to walk where I was pointing her, I did this straight for one week, didn't try testing her or anything, just did the cage than wheelbarrel about 4-5 times a day for a week straight, didn't let her out long only when we play and when she was supervised, so was in crate alot. On that following Monday I got brave and basically got on my knees and prayed, I let her out put her down on the opposite side of the room, began making my lunch cause I was home from work and there is goes, she walked over there pee'd and poop'd and than came over and started playing with me. That was about 3 weeks ago and since than she has been good, but don't get me wrong she has had her random accidents as we expect from puppies. So outside of the whole peeing in crate thing she has been really good. Oh and of course she got lots of praise and treats while this training was going on.

So some things that did not work for us, in case anyone reading this is in the midst of training:
1. Outside because unfortunately by the time we got her it was already cold so she sat there and stared at me with a look like "are you crazy?" Something I will work on when it gets warm

2. Placing pads in random places, I think she appreciated the consistency, because when we got her we were clueless so it was almost like "where is she"....."I don't care wherever she is put a pad there"

3. Letting her out every 20 minutes, because we were doing this we could not pick up on her pattern, but once we slowed this down and became more observate and trust me when I say we had an excel sheet writing down times, did we realize its not about how many times you let them go its about when you let them go and sure enough she never failed us.

4. Keeping her on a single pad, saying the word potty a gizillion times, one thing Ive learned if they don't have to go, they aren't going to go, which in many cases I sat there for hours at a time pretty much begging her at that point.

Theres some more but my brain is fried from writing this novel to you guys, which I hope no one gets mad for having to read my unorganized thoughts on this forum.

One thing to say is there is hope, I almost cried when I see all these people say its impossible to train a Yorkie, but my little girl seems to be doing better than I anticipated.

Also the name CoCo, we were original suppose to get a boy (but we wanted a girl) we came to the house of the breeder and uh oh she gave her a bath to give to us and turns out the wee wee disappeared, so needless to say anyone with the a dog named Dallas (orginally his name, hence VA Cowboy, I am a big cowboys fan) I have dog tags I had engraved that I no longer can use! :-)

[Chipmunk01]

Originally Posted by cataholic

Maybe she has developed a bladder infection. She should be able to hold it that long if she has been doing it. Maybe there is a problem. Also welcome to YT fellow Virginian.

I agree. I have heard that puppies can hold it 1 hour for each month of their own age. Maybe she has developed an infection but you can tell if she is continually going in small amounts even when youre home. If not, perhaps it is sep. anxiety.

[mstrooperwife]

we've always put Tyke in a bedroom when we leave. it's all tile floor and his bed, toys, pee pads, dry food , and water are in there. We put a baby gate in the doorway. He's always done great with his training. he's only put in a crate at night to sleep.

He does do alot better at no accidents when it's warm weather. When it's cold he seems to have a few accidents sometimes.

don't know if this will help you or not, but this is what we've always done since he was 12 weeks old and it's always worked. He's 7 monthes old now.

hope this may help. also i leave at 9 am and come back home at 12 to feed him and take him out. then i get off at 5, but sometimes my daughter comes home after school and he gets out before then. so he has a schedule just like your yorkie does. but i've never liked the idea of putting him in that crate when were gone from home. Since he gets in it only at night he goes right in like he knows his bedtime. no whining, crying.........

this has always worked wonderful for us.