How to potty train if we can never catch her in the act!

[TheAudreys]

Like a little james bond 007, our little Pinky goes pee pee in an instant like some sort of secret mission, how can we teach her where to pee if we can't catch her peeing, only after the deed is done?

[Nancy1999]

You can't, you have to really train yourself first. There are several methods of house breaking, but they all involve the owner doing the work. The easiest way is pad training and keeping pads in an x-pen, and slowly reducing the amount of pads in the pen. The dog seems to catch on without the owner doing much of anything. There is also the method of crate training, where you keep the dog in a small crate and take out every hour or so and place on the spot in which you want them to go pee, you then praise them and give them a treat and allow them a bit of free time play until they are placed back in the crate. The human has to keep a schedule to do this right, and it's best if you keep a diary so that you will learn her habits. This website has some great schedules and tips for both crate training and pee pad training. Free House Training for Puppies and Adult Dogs - No More Accidents Starting Today!

Nearly everything written has found that the old methods of punishing after the fact seldom work, and if they work, they often cause more problems such as submissive urination, or even eating poop to hide the evidence.

[megansmomma]

You need to keep your puppy on a leash and harness at all time and tethered to your side. You are allowing too much freedom for accidents to happen. Here is a link with some really good information that was posted the other day about housetraining

http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/tra...ms-solved.html

[Kirby]

I just bought these wee wee pads (Jump Start by Simple Solutions) and the spray to encourage where to potty and it's working well. I have a small area in the house by the washer and dryer papered. I haven't started reducing the number of pads, yet. I also am using the crate, following as a guideline the instructions in the book, "How to Housebreak Your Dog in 7 Days."

[MaddiesMommie]

With lots of prayer and luck! LOL
We are currently facing a similar problem. We crate trained Maddie with no problem. However, our newest edition, Cooper was a rescue. She was left in a taxi for long periods of time where she had to poop or pee. So she has become ok with laying in pee.

I can easily let my girls out and didn't want them using the bathroom in the house, ever. So we are crate training. Cooper is NEVER left out of her crate unless I am with her and only after we have went out to potty. If I get busy or cannot watch her closely, I take her out for a potty break, treat her, and in the crate she goes. She gets taken out every couple of hours and I always try to leave her out for a little bit as kind of a reward for pottying outside, but she is always with me. We even have her crate in the living room so that she is still part of the family.

I also have her on a strict schedule. She eats at the same time and goes out to potty at pretty much the same times each day. As mentioned in previous posts, lots of work for me! It does take time and LOTS of work.
We have been at this for about 7-8 weeks and are finally seeing improvement. She is going to the door, sometimes it is after she pees a little. but when I let her out she always runs to the grass to finish. We have almost completely eliminated accidents though. yeah!
Cooper is a destructive little devil so she would just tear up pee pads making an even bigger mess. GOOD LUCK! I am here for support!

[manolos mom]

You need to keep your puppy in one area of your home only. Take frequent potty breaks, every 30 min, give a command dont let her play and bring her in as soon as she has done her buisness. REPETITION is the key. GODD LUCK TO YOU...

[smallmans]

We had good success potty training our little Bella. Here's my best pieces of advice.
1. Be patient, calm, and encoraging. No matter how frustrated you feel never show it in your voice OR body language.
2. Watch carefully, each Yorkie has body language that lets you know they are getting ready to potty. Sniffing, circling, walking perimeter of room.
3. Take out every 30 min. Say your command, ours was "go potty". Keep leash short, don't allow them to wander more than to find their potty place. If they go, praise, love, special treat they really like.
4. Accidents happen. Clean up. We never showed any reaction to accident accept we would say, "outside, go potty".
5. The more time you put in the faster it will happen.
6. We did no pee pads, just outdoors.
7. Repetition, praise, tasty treat, lots of love and excitement when she was successful.

Hang in there. It does happen and you do forgot what hard work and dedication it took to accomplish the task. But, believe me, it is worth it.
They can be potty trained. It just takes time.

[Cinq1964]

One more suggestion: Take her out ever 30 minutes, also about 10 min. after eating and after a nap. Best of Luck!