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We have a very young puppy...6 weeks old. She is going on the pee-pee pads now and is doing a pretty good job for her young age. When would be an appropriate age to start trying to get her to potty outside?
I would start now, as long as the weather is not too cold.First thing in the morning and then again after the pup has eaten. Will get the idea in no time. Might help by saying outside each time you go out, and if pup does his business outside, lots of praise. I always crate trained my pups.
Just a note of caution: do NOT take her out on the street. ONLY on your property. There is a LOT of Parvovirus out there and can also be brought in on your shoes. This causes diarrhea that can be FATAL in puppies. I would frankly wait at least until her third set of vaccinations at 12 weeks. Better safe than sorry. She should also NOT be meeting other dogs yet for this same reason.
Take a look at my training method post here: https://www.city-data.com/forum/7403225-post11.html Follow it TO THE LETTER (ESPECIALLY the part about going out with your dog) and you'll have a trained dog. Not right away, but relatively quickly
Go outside ASAP!!! You are essentially training your dog to go to the bathroom in your house. I wouldn't be surprised if this becomes a difficult habit to break. While it is important to be cautious before your dog is fully vaccinated it is also important to socialize, socialize, socialize. A friendly dog is exposed to many dogs and people from an early age. Your dog should be fully vaccinated by 16 weeks.
I agree...start pronto! Eliminate the puppy pads...your just teaching her it is ok to go to the bathroom indoors. It may take a bit more work...like going outdoors with her all the time, but it will payoff in the longrun. Good luck!
Right away. I cut about 4 good size squares of turf out of my front yard and put it inside and got him going on that. In a couple days he got the hang of it so I put the pieces back in the lawn and he'll let me know when it's time to go out.
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six weeks is a bit on the young side to even have the puppy, but there is no reason to wait for housebreaking. It just gets tougher the longer you wait.
Well we work during the day and do not have a doogy door, so right now pee pads are the only option. She cannot hold it in a crate for 8 hours! We are going to take her outside in the morning, after work, and before bed, but during the day we have no other option but to use the pee-pads until she gets older and can hold it longer.
She is very scared of the outdoors right now being so young. We do not have turf we can bring in the house so that won't work. We thought about just spending time with her outside on the grass so she is less scared.
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.
Alot of our working friends have small dogs in apartments/townhomes and leave them at home and the dogs are okay until they get home. Of course this would not be until she is alot older.
Living in a townhome we do not have a yard, so taking her out to green areas around our house is risky until she has her shots. We may have to keep her house trained until her shots because the only grassy areas around us are community grassy areas and there have probably been other dogs there...we are not totally sure, but better to be safe than sorry. I guess we could start transitioning her to outside at 12 weeks...even though this way will be more difficult.
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