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Housebreaking Question

2K views 6 replies 7 participants last post by  Lalla 
#1 ·
Hello Everyone! We'll be bringing home our puppy on Columbus Day weekend when he's 8 weeks old. He's only 4 weeks old and the breeder has him using piddle pads. We visited him this weekend and he was really reliable with them! My question, is it better to go straight to crate training him and never use the piddle pads when he comes home or is it better to still use them so that he has a bit more freedom? We have an ex pen as well as a crate and I was thinking that he'd be much happier in the ex pen with a piddle pad than in a crate if I can't watch him like a hawk. Will that slow down housebreaking? I was thinking that I could put a used piddle pad in the yard to encourage him to go outside. I'm just not sure if starting with a piddle pad will be a mistake. Any advice is welcome! I want to start my little guy off right! A name and housebreaking are all I'm thinking about!
 

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#3 ·
I always did an x pen with a large piddle pad area. I wanted them to have more room to move around. I put a bed or open crate, toys, water etc. I would line the rest with pads. Slowly I would take away pads until 1 was left. I always took them outside to do their business but always wanted them to have a place to go in a pinch. The pee pads indoor and taking then outside did not confuse them at all.

Welcome and good luck!
 
#4 ·
I always did an x pen with a large piddle pad area. I wanted them to have more room to move around. I put a bed or open crate, toys, water etc. I would line the rest with pads. Slowly I would take away pads until 1 was left. I always took them outside to do their business but always wanted them to have a place to go in a pinch. The pee pads indoor and taking then outside did not confuse them at all.

Welcome and good luck!
This sounds like a good approach. I think several of the forum members use both indoor and outdoor options especially while their dogs are young. Welcome, your new baby is adorable!
 
#5 ·
What a beauty! He's so sweet looking! I agree with Linda. I also think once you get to know him you'll know more about how to approach this with him.
 
#6 ·
I'm all for an indoor and outdoor option. Kodi came trained to a litter box, and learned quickly to use the outdoors too. (he learned that on his own, with little encouragement from us) It's REALLY nice having an indoor option for bad weather, or when on the 20th floor of a hotel!!! :)
 
#7 ·
Totally agree, Karen. In a funny way, I think the thing that is hardest is when the weather is so consistently nice (I live in the UK, this has been an amazingly dry summer, totally unusually!!) it's harder for them to know the difference between indoors and outdoors - same temperature, long days, light early mornings, hard floor both indoors and out in my case; maybe it's easier for us, but it may be harder to make sense of for a puppy than a warm, lit indoors and then out into a colder, darker different, easily differentiated winter world. I've thought the litter box might have slowed things down a bit - Cuba does still sometimes come back indoors and pee in her litter box, having had plenty of opportunity to do so outside - but maybe it's the summer factor. Anyway, she's still only 6 months old, and it is completely wonderful, in horrible weather or when she just can't hang on, to have the indoor option.
 
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