I have started taking Zumba outside to go potty. I am not sure how to do this right, and have gotten conflicting info from the 'net. If she doesn't go when I take her outside, do I just put her back in the ex-pen, or do I put her in her crate to wait out the 15- 30 minutes before I try again?
The Florida sun has been brutal. I had her outside ex-pen in the sun, where she did her business every time when I'd put her there, but could not take her to that spot between 10am - 3:00pm because of the sun. I moved the ex-pen to the area to a shady area under a tree but she would NOT go in that area whatsoever. After trying for a whole day, I moved the ex-pen back over to the sunny spot and instant success! But that puts me back to the dilemma of how do people potty train their dogs in an unbearably hot climate? All I could come up with is an umbrella to cover both Zumba and me from the sun. Is that my only resort? Or accept that it will be outside when the weather is tolerable, and inside when it is too hot, the opposite of what some people do in colder or wetter climates?
Yesterday I was gone for a couple of minutes short of 3 hours and came back to a stressed Zumba. There were still people in the house - - my husband, my mom and a caretaker, and I know the caretaker and mom hang out in the kitchen, where they see Zumba, but I don't think they go in to pet her, but Zumba can definitely still hear there are people nearby and should be able to see them if she goes into the crate part of the set-up. They're just not me. She's fine with me leaving for awhile but she is used to seeing me at least every 1/2 hour, if nothing else for a "hello" and a rub. Though these last couple of weeks, I've been working with her, so we usually end up doing 5 - 10 minutes of some kind of training and fun before I go do something else for awhile. I was wondering if she would have been happier if I had crated her instead of leaving the crate open and with access to her ex-pen area? She is now almost 14 weeks old.
Thank you so much for your insights!
The Florida sun has been brutal. I had her outside ex-pen in the sun, where she did her business every time when I'd put her there, but could not take her to that spot between 10am - 3:00pm because of the sun. I moved the ex-pen to the area to a shady area under a tree but she would NOT go in that area whatsoever. After trying for a whole day, I moved the ex-pen back over to the sunny spot and instant success! But that puts me back to the dilemma of how do people potty train their dogs in an unbearably hot climate? All I could come up with is an umbrella to cover both Zumba and me from the sun. Is that my only resort? Or accept that it will be outside when the weather is tolerable, and inside when it is too hot, the opposite of what some people do in colder or wetter climates?
Yesterday I was gone for a couple of minutes short of 3 hours and came back to a stressed Zumba. There were still people in the house - - my husband, my mom and a caretaker, and I know the caretaker and mom hang out in the kitchen, where they see Zumba, but I don't think they go in to pet her, but Zumba can definitely still hear there are people nearby and should be able to see them if she goes into the crate part of the set-up. They're just not me. She's fine with me leaving for awhile but she is used to seeing me at least every 1/2 hour, if nothing else for a "hello" and a rub. Though these last couple of weeks, I've been working with her, so we usually end up doing 5 - 10 minutes of some kind of training and fun before I go do something else for awhile. I was wondering if she would have been happier if I had crated her instead of leaving the crate open and with access to her ex-pen area? She is now almost 14 weeks old.
Thank you so much for your insights!