Has anyone had success housetraining a puppy using outside as the primary potty spot

[phylny]

and then using some sort of potty space (pee pad with tray on deck or in the garage) without encouraging in-home accidents or thwarting success?

We're picking up our dog in a week, who is about 4 months, and will be potty training outside, but I'd love to have the option of having her use something more sheltered in case of bad weather.

Thanks!

[hlthe2b]

1. I have potty trained using the outdoors ONLY but it took basically being home & constantly aware

for two weeks. As soon as she woke up from napping, I'd take her out and effusively praise her as soon as she urinated or defecated outdoors then, back inside. I would take her out regardless of any signals every couple of hours and I did not feed late in the evening--making sure to get her out as late as possible, though. A few accidents on the first day or two, but she learned quickly and by week 2 was coming over to me to stare at me or whimper and I knew. I haven't had a dog who did not thrive on cold and snow in a long time, so I never felt compelled to teach them to use any garage or other alternative. I did kennel her early on a bit if I thought I was going to be gone a bit too long (week 3) with urine pads, but she soon was able to hold her urine overnight and through the day if I was careful about long walks before leaving. Young puppies can't hold their urine more than a few hours, but that capacity does "grow" with them (fortunately).

Good luck.

[phylny]

2. Thank you.

She'll be our sixth dog in 31 years (third puppy) and we've trained all of them, but I was hoping to be able to have a dual system, for lack of a better term, for severe weather.

For instance, we had that terrible snow and ice storm here in Virginia that ended up developing "snowcrete" and had we had a dog, it would have been hell to try to get out and potty. We just lost our wonderful Blake a month ago on January 16th, before the storm.

I appreciate your response!

[hlthe2b]

4. I get it. I know people who live in hurricane territory that have trained for the garage on artificial

turf. They did so ATER the puppy was fully housebroken, I think--maybe by a few months. I think they probably just rushed outside without letting the pup go and directly into the garage, having placed some urine-soaked pads on the turf or maybe ammonia--not sure.

[phylny]

8. Thanks, this is what I was thinking of.

We will absolutely be focusing on outdoor potty.

I cannot WAIT to get her. One more week!

[MontanaMama]

3. Yes!

In my experience, I’ve found it much easier to take puppies outside to potty. They learn it early, I don’t have to deal with pee pads and then reteach them to go outside later on. I live in Montana so when the snow is deep, it’s a little more challenging but I’ve also found that the cold and snow encourages them to get their business done more quickly. Multiple potty places have been difficult for me to be consistent with them. Maybe others can weigh in on that.

One technique I’ve employed for a long time is when they do have a pee accident in the house, I clean it up with an old rag that I store in a zip loc bag. When it’s time to go outside, I pick puppy up and say “let’s potty outside”, carry them out, put them down and toss the rag on the grass. They run to it, give it a smell and it usually triggers a pee instantly. It works really well! When they’re very small, I take them out about once an hour, maybe every two hours. For sure take them out when they’ve woken up from a nap or after playing. It doesn’t seem to take very long to form the habit. The pee rag works great. I know it’s kinda weird, but I hate cleaning up accidents in the house!

Pooping usually happens right after they eat or first thing in the morning and when they’re small, I don’t let them trot to the door, I pick them up and plop them on the grass and say “go potty’ until they go. Lots of praise when they do.

I’m excited for you! Puppies are so fun. Work, but fun.

[phylny]

5. Thanks for the response.

I have a schedule already printed. We are planning to teach potty outdoors as I have with all of our others, just wishing we could add puppy pads OUTSIDE of our house, in the garage or out on the deck, for the bad weather. From what I'm reading and hearing, it just won't work LOL!

[bamagal62]

6. Our dog was house trained.

She went outside in every kind of weather. (Even Chicago!) When she was 9 she had nerve a condition that caused her not to be able to blink on her own. If it’s too windy or well below freezing, we can’t take her out. We bought a product called fresh patch and put it in the garage. Works like a charm because it’s real grass.
They last about 2-3 weeks of you only use it during bad weather. Our dog had no problem understanding.
However, I would think you’d need to establish potty training first? Or, maybe it can be part of training since the garage or deck is “outside”. I’m not sure about wee-wee pads. But, I do know lots of little “city” dogs use both inside wee-wee pads and going outside.

[phylny]

7. Yes, this is just what I was hoping to do.

We live in a rural place and I imagine that most of the time, it'll be potty outside and absolutely we know we need to establish that first, but I think the fresh patch might be a good idea.

I'm planning on using temporary fencing in the front of the house to give her an outdoor space to go potty so she associates it with peeing and pooping.

We've had five of our dogs in this house since 2008 and they all went potty outside. We live on a lake and have three sides fenced in, and used to let the dogs out the back at night to pee and come back. We stopped that when our dog Blake was kicked by a deer in November. After that, we took him out in the front on a leash.

We're going to put a fence from the corner of the house to one of the side fences to give her a secure place to play when she's older. She, like the others, will one day learn the exciting words, "Wanna go down to the dock??"

[bamagal62]

9. I'm sure your puppy

Will do just fine! Let us know how it goes.
It’s very exciting getting a new puppy!!!! Congrats!