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In my experience, getting dogs to go out by themselves won't teach them much. You need to LEASH HER UP AND GO OUT WITH HER. Please look at my training post to which I referred you above.
Have you thought about getting a dog walker? What are you going to do when she's older and you're gone for 8+ hours/day. I can't 'hold it' for 8 hours and I doubt that that's something a dog is able to easily do.
I have read your method and understand and agree with it, but outdoor training is difficult at this time. Please see my above my post.
I would never send her out by herself, as we do not have a yard! My husband and I will always be with her when she starts going outside.
We will get a house in about a year or so...at that time we will get a doggy door!!!!!
You can already start training her on the pads. You can train her to 'go' on command (my dog learned that way): every time she goes, tell her 'Good potty!!!!' and give her a party with incredible treats. If you decide to use clicker training (which is great, because you can actually MARK the event that you want to reinforce (check ClickerSolutions Home to read about how clicker training works)). If you say that every time, you can get her to 'go potty!' on command. Take a look at Pat Miller's book, "The Power of Positive Dog Training." It's worth its weight in gold.
Please, do NOT get a doggy door. They're frankly NOT what they're cracked up to be and you should be going out with your dog. And other things can get IN (not to mention the heat pouring out of your house).
Now she is eating dry food that we make a little wet since all her teeth are not in.
She is already going on the pee-pee pads most of time which is pretty good for 6 weeks. We get really excited and praise her every time she goes (except when we are not there)!
I was thinking about a prior post that talked about using turf. We have a little patio so I could put a few pieces of turf out there just so she could spend some time playing outside in a safe non-dog contimated area. I want her to acclimate to the outdoors and she still has 6 weeks until she will be in clear with her shots.
You can absolutely give her treats!!! For training, especially potty training, as outlined in my post, make them HIGH VALUE: chicken, cheese or steak. TINY pieces are just fine.
Dogs rank their treats as low value (kibble, for example), medium value (carrot) and high value (chicken, cheese or steak). The harder the task, the higher value the treat should be!
Using pee pads then teaching to go outside is Easy! When you & she is ready just put pads outside! Slowly cut them smaller & smaller til there is none LOL Right now I keep a pad down all times. You never said her breed! IF she going to be a small breed when she full grown you could put the pads in a litter box or even put plain cat litter in a box now!
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