.....to toilet train. I know yorkies are known for being difficult to toilet train, but Jake is proving a real challenge. He is almost a year old and I have had him since he was 4 months old. He has made slight (and I mean very very slight) progress. When I take him outside he will wee, I give him a treat and praise him but he still wees in the house immediately he comes in. He will wee in one place and while I am clearing up he will wee somewhere else. I went up to bed last night, accidently left my door open and he weed on the bed (this isn't the first time he has done it, hence door being closed). He will go to the door to be let out and wees outside only to come in and wee again. It has been difficult from day one as I would take him ouside and he would perform, I would think I could take him out again a little later but he would wee constantly. At first I thought it was nerves as he had come to a new home but he still has times where he is like that. We do have some "good" days but the bad ones outweigh these. I did have the vet look at him a while ago and he said he was fine but I can't help wondering if there could be a medical problem. Any ideas??
jane

It sounds to me as if he has learnt that when he wees he gets a treat so he thinks that if he wees inside he will still get a treat. Back to basics I'm afraid and use a hurry up word to go to wees etc. So that he only goes on command when you ask him to. No more treats for weeing etc just treats for training. :-)

Are you sure he isn't marking? Sounds more like it to me.

Hi,

I would certainly get him checked out at the vets to rule out a medical problem.

Karen

Yes, have a think about whether it's actually marking rather than weeing.
However if he literally does it when you come back in - hmm. Is it possible giving him the treat interrupts his weeing and he's not empty? Don't get me wrong, I recommend rewarding with food outside and it's always worked very well for us and others I know, but perhaps timing may mean the Yorkie is either confused or something.

It may not be a bad idea to get in a trainer or behaviourist to check out you are doing everything right - oh, and whatever you do, don't use disinfectant to clean up after him.

Did you use puppy pads or newspaper at all? wondering if he was originally taught it was OK to go in the house.

Did the vet actually do some tests? as inappropriate weeing can be due to all sorts including malformation and infections...

Lindsay
x

Hi all, thanks for your replies. It isn't marking and I only reward when he has finished weeing, but I have been thinking about everything we have been doing to try to think if I could be confusing him. Whenever he wees in the house we make a fuss and out he goes and recently I have noticed that he goes to the door after he has weed to wait to go out. I'm now wondering if he thinks he needs to wee to go out and this may be the problem, so maybe I have confused the poor little thing somewhere along the line. Just wondering how to go about solving that though. Should I take him out once he has weed or should I ignore it and wait a while. My other two dogs followed the training "rules" and were fairly easy to train but Jake is proving more of a challenge!!
jane

I think the idea is to just not acknowledge any accidents in the house - so he gets no attention whatsoever for doing it in the wrong place.  If he wees indoors, I would still take him outside and praise lavishly when he goes in the right place. :)