Senior Member
Join Date: May 2018
Location: Summers: Crested Butte, CO. Home Base: Stillwater, OK
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I had a friend who used Invisible Fencing inside her home for her dog/s. It worked for her. I used Invisible Fencing for many years for a Schnauzer and Poodle around my yard. The problem with Invisible Fencing it does quit working from time to time. Either there's a problem with the fence or the dog's collar stops working. The dog does not receive an Electrical Shocked but receives an uncomfortable vibration. I've tested on my hand.
I decided not to use the Invisible Fencing around my yard when we got our Havanese a year and half ago. We were using it for a large Golden-doodle who is so docile she stayed within the boundaries without the fence working. There were a few reasons I decided to fence the yard instead of using the Invisible Fence: They go off. It does not keep critters out of the yard. And, more importantly I just couldn't bring myself to train such a tiny puppy to the Invisible Fence and it's probably due to my older-more-sensitive age.
I, also, have an open floor plan. You probably have rooms where you can gate them off. At one point I had seven gates around the house during the housebreaking stage. Some semi-permanent, others I moved around. In the beginning, we put up an ex-pen in a kitchen-family room area which is where the family hangs out most of the time. There were two openings. The ex-pen door opened into the kitchen at one entrance (closing off that entrance/exit) and we put up a gate in the second door way. The floor was tile and Patti could roam in and out of the ex-pen into this family kitchen area. When we didn't have eyes on her, she was confined to the ex-pen where she had a bed, toys, food, water and a potty tray. She loved her ex-pen. Patti was trained almost immediately to that one room. If she needed to Go, she went into the ex-pen and did her job on the Potty Tray. We had a few accidents but were watching and caught her each time. The ex-pen was 3ft x 6ft. When we needed to leave the house, she stayed in the ex-pen. At night, she slept in a crate in our bedroom.
The next room I trained her in was a TV room, which had two open door ways. I gated those off with large expandable gates. Initially I kept her on a leash, so could have eyes on her, when introducing her to a new room and showed her where the a potty tray was for that area of the house. As I introduced her to new areas of the home, I always limited her space to where I could watch her. I kept the gates up because when I left a room I could pick her up and take her with me. Of course, we took them down when needed. Most of the gates came down by the time she was 10 months. We still have one Gate and she still doesn't have access to the whole house. When we leave the house she stays in our bedroom. There's a potty tray in the Master Bathroom.
My dog is indoor potty trained. Now that she's older she, also, goes outside but knows where the potty tray is in the house if she needs to go and we aren't around.
You should NOT give your puppy the run of the house. It's important to keep her confined while housebreaking her, as well as, teaching her not to chew on anything but her toys.