9 mo Yorkie Housetraining Problem

Question
Hello, my dog is semi-trained to pee on wee wee pads that are left in the kitchen.  We give him free run of the house (which we have been doing for the past 3 mos despite him still making mistakes).  He got the hang of the using the wee pads, then reverted back to his old habits, which are going #1 on the pads, but #2 on the floors.  Now, it has become worse, he sometimes goes #1 on the floors.  When we catch him in the act, we put him in the kitchen with bed, toys, food enclosed by a gate.  He cries and whines and throws water bowl and rips up his pee pad.  

So, we need a change because it seems that this is not working. After reading your advice, we are confining him to the kitchen while we are gone/sleeping. However, we know that he associates the kitchen with bad. So, we are trying to play with him in there to make a fun/play area. Do you have any other advice for this?
I am also going to do a food schedule. We prefer him to use pee pads (i think I will try that cat liter box) I could start to take him outside in the morning, when I get home from work and before bed time.  Is it too confusing to have him learn to use the pee pads and outside to go to the bathroom?

Answer
You've given him too much freedom too quickly, as you now realize, Alicia. Why do you think 'he associates the kitchen with bad'? Honestly, I wouldn't worry too much about that.

The food schedule should help quite a bit. At his age, he >>should<< be able to 'hold it' for up to 8-9 hours at a time, but he's been able to 'get away with' pottying on the floor for so long now that it may be more difficult to train him to go to the bathroom outside only. If you want to teach him to only 'go' outside, then you are going to have to completely do away with the pee pee pads/litter box idea and start crating him whenever you are not home or able to keep an eye on him.


I have had much better success with a litter box than with pee pads, and for litter, I like to use compressed pine pellets like what is sold for horse stalls (it is also marketed to pet owners as Feline Pine cat litter). When I first begin litter box training a dog, I use mostly Feline Pine clumping litter, which is more like sawdust. I gradually add in the compressed pine pellets over a period of several weeks, until the pellets are the only type of litter in the box. When they get wet, they turn into sawdust. Each day when I clean out the poopies, I 'turn' all of the litter and mix the wet areas around to disperse it throughout the box. This allows all the wetness to 'dry' and makes the litter a little more 'fluffy.' This is the way it is designed to be used, and the reason it lasts so much longer than regular clay or paper litter.