Hi, I'm Annabel! My 9 week old Hav, Suji, has been home with us for a week now. I've searched through several posts to help guide us through the first week and, so far, I've found this forum incredibly helpful! Thank you all for your insight!

So far, there are just a couple of things I'm confused about (which I know translates into her confusion). I have a 24" crate attached to a 16' ex-pen. Initially, I closed the ex-pen to probably 4 feet of space. From her crate, she has access to both the living room and to her pen (when the doors are open, of course). On the other side of her ex-pen, directly across from her crate door she has access to pee pads. For the most part, she has been GREAT at using her pads. If she happens to be out during the day when it's potty time, I lure her through the crate doors to the pads and either I'm decent at timing and/or she is learning to potty nearish command once there. Basically, she knows what the pee pads are for!

I work from home and typically only have to leave the house for 2-3 hours once a day. While I'm home, she's on a schedule of 10-15 minutes of playtime/training outside of the crate/pen with me and then 45-50 minutes in the crate/pen to hang out & entertain herself. So far, even when i'm not home, she has been great at using the pads for potty time. But! She also seems to prefer to sleep on the pads as well. This hasn't been too big of a concern (although it's definitely something I want her to not do). I've been clueing in that she may just generally be confused about her "bedroom" space versus her "bathroom" space. Today kind of confirmed that for me when she went potty on her crate blankie twice--once while I was a way and once when I was attempting to give her the "go potty" command. To help remedy this, I've closed her ex-pen to an even smaller space--it's just big enough for a regular sized pee pad. So, for now, unless anyone else has a better suggestion, she only has access to her crate and her pee pad, which is immediately outside of the side door, into the ex-pen. My thinking is that instead of giving her total access to a 4 ft space of ex-pen, now she only has access to her pee pad. What I'm not sure of is if whether or not I should keep the pee pad/ex-pen door closed (so she is fully enclosed in the crate) until it's her scheduled "break" time. Although, I didn't feel bad about leaving her in her crate & ex-pen area for 45 minutes at a time, I do feel SO bad about leaving her just in her crate for that amount of time--I feel like I'm locking her up!

Is this the right way to teach her the difference between bedroom & bathroom? Or is there a better way?

(Also, if this is not the place to post this, I will gladly edit and move it to the appropriate thread!)

THANK YOU!

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Even though I won't be able to answer your questions, I want to welcome you. What a cutie! Hopefully one of the more knowledgeable members will see your post. There are some real experts on this forum. Glad you found us!

You are doing a great job, I hope someone answers your question because I know you’re on the right track by making it smaller! It worked for me every single time. Mine started indoor potty with the breeder so I feel like we were just one step past this stage, but that it would have been exactly my question.

I didn’t crate train but I do think that your schedule is completely reasonable, even if she’s in the crate. I followed a similar schedule and it made a huge difference in helping me productively work from home during the first couple of weeks with our new puppy. Sleep time, potty time, play time, repeat it only took a couple of weeks until I could stretch potty breaks to every couple of hours. The few minutes of play time before I went back to work always wore him out and gave me a nice block of time. I think it will make all the difference in your puppy settling well in the crate.

Thank you for your reply, Jackie! I'm so happy to be here and have really loved (and relied!) on the posts here. Thank you for the warm welcome!

Thank you for your reply, EvaE1izabeth! It came right at the right time. I had been feeling so confident with the change I posted about above (making the area smaller, just to fit the pee pad). For a few days, Suji was SO great! She would even make her way to the pee pad I have outside of then pen if she had to go while we were playing on the living room floor. But the last couple of days she has started a new fun thing--digging at and destroying her pee pads! She can't even get one toe nail on it and she immediately zooms in for a big immediate dig! It's been frustrating to constantly redirect her away from the digging. I'm thinking we might actually give a grass pad a go to see if 1) it prepares her for outside potty in a few weeks and 2) discourages her from digging the pad (bc it won't be there haha!) . Cleaning up the destroyed pad is one thing, but I am so nervous that she will eat the pad.

Thank you for your positive feedback! I really needed to hear it on a particularly frustrating puppy day.

Oh it’s so common, my puppy immediately ripped up the only pee pad we ever used. Our breeder trained on paper not pads, which I actually think is preferable, but better than that is pellets. I almost gave up on indoor training until pine pellets. If you want to keep up some reliable indoor training as an option for when you travel or to use in bad weather, definitely look through those threads here on the forum that talk about the trays and pine pellets. Otherwise you could try a tray that secures the pad.

I really wanted to use the fake grass indoor tray because I’m weird and I think it’s cute. But I was warned they hold the smell. If you want something like that go with sod, especially if you’re going to move to outdoor potty exclusively. I didn’t want to deal with another subscription but there are services, and I know a lot of people just buy a square of sod from a local nursery.

Welcome! What is your ultimate pottying plan? Shama has a crate within a 2x6-foot ex pen. She originally had a training tray (securing pad) in the ex pen. We removed it when we realized she never used it anymore. Now she always goes outside to potty. Now she has a fluffy bed where the tray used to be. Good luck! Can we see some more photos of Suji?

Hi, ShamaMama! Thank you for your reply! Our ultimate potty plan is to outdoor train. I'm anxiously waiting for the day of her 4th vaccination so that I can feel comfortable taking her outside. I live in the downtown area of a large, urban city and just don't feel good about the amount of stray and even wild animals that come through my very small "yard". But! Good news...and hopefully not jinxing anything...Suji has been really great at using her pee pads the last several days. Initially, I was watching her like a hawk and putting her on the pad every 30-45 minutes to potty, whether she was out of the pen or in. Lately, I'd say for the last week, she is able to make her way to her potty pad from the living room floor on her own for both tee-tees and poops! For a few days immediately after making the switch in the pen set up mentioned in my initial post, it seemed like she was still confused about where to potty while she was in her kennel and play pen (she would still go in her kennel). Because of this, I was very hesitant to buy a nice, big, fluffy puppy bed because I was convinced she would potty on it. One night I broke down and bought one and it was the magic charm I needed at the moment! As silly as it sounds, it seems that having a big nice comfy bed really changed the game for her in being able to differentiate where to potty and where to not go while in the kennel/pen. Fingers crossed, but she hasn't pottied off the pad in a week! I know puppies learn and sometimes regress but I feel good at what she's learned so far. I know she's capable of learning and that is so exciting!

Now, she goes through weird phases of being totally uninterested in the pee pads and just fine using them for her restroom breaks. Other days she acts like the pee pads have a magic drug on them that makes her CrAzY! On those days, one toenail could touch the pee pad and it immediately triggers a mad rush of zoomies and shredding the pad. It both infuriates me and cracks me up at the same time! Puppies are so funny! I've switched to cloth pads and because that's what the breeder used, I think she's had an easier time of understanding where to go and she can't shred them. Haha!