# potty pads to outside!



## hillary&lola (Apr 4, 2006)

ok...lola is now one year old and we are moving to a new apartment next week and i want to switch her from pads to going only outside. pad are just too messy (she misses a lot) and i don't like the smell or the cost! how do i train her to do something completely different. right now she will go potty on walks if i tell her "go potty". i don't know if i should buy a crate to leave her in while at school or work (only gone 6 hours max, not usually that long though), or if i should gate her in the kitchen. even thought the kitchen is small, i think there might be too much room to pee or pooh. is it too late to put her in a crate since she's always had rome of the apartment when i'm gone? will she catch on fast? i hope she doesn't have too many accidents in the new place, i want it to stay pee-smell free!!


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## Guest (Aug 2, 2006)

Hi, we have had 2 Malteses- at different times. Both were trained to go outdoors. I will tell you what we did to train them, but we did not have the "pad" situation. This a situation where the utmost patience is necessary. The bad weather, the dog not doing his/her thing, and the aggravation of preparing yourself to go outside are 3 big factors that determine the success of outside training. We got "Tucker" as a pup. The day we bought him home we had him on the leash outside. Sometimes he went, sometimes not. When he went outside, we praised him/her , patted the head and when we got inside, got a piece of dog food. (this is what we use as "snacks". If Tucker messed in the house, we did NOT HOLLER at him. We showed him the mess, said "NO" and gave him a gentle tap on the rear with a rolled up newspaper. Then outside he went. If he went again outside, another praise, treat, etc. This all takes time, how much and how long is difficult to determine. After a few weeks, Tucker got the idea and went by the door if he had to go out. Once in awhile he messes, usually urinenation if we do not see him by the door, or if he gets excited and cannot hold it. I hope you have good luck with the switching from the pads, and that everything else works out for you.


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## precious paws (Jun 7, 2006)

> Hi, we have had 2 Malteses- at different times. Both were trained to go outdoors. I will tell you what we did to train them, but we did not have the "pad" situation. This a situation where the utmost patience is necessary. The bad weather, the dog not doing his/her thing, and the aggravation of preparing yourself to go outside are 3 big factors that determine the success of outside training. We got "Tucker" as a pup. The day we bought him home we had him on the leash outside. Sometimes he went, sometimes not. When he went outside, we praised him/her , patted the head and when we got inside, got a piece of dog food. (this is what we use as "snacks". If Tucker messed in the house, we did NOT HOLLER at him. We showed him the mess, said "NO" and gave him a gentle tap on the rear with a rolled up newspaper. Then outside he went. If he went again outside, another praise, treat, etc. This all takes time, how much and how long is difficult to determine. After a few weeks, Tucker got the idea and went by the door if he had to go out. Once in awhile he messes, usually urinenation if we do not see him by the door, or if he gets excited and cannot hold it. I hope you have good luck with the switching from the pads, and that everything else works out for you.[/B]





I hope you won't take the advise of hitting your dog with a newspaper. I can't believe it was even suggested.


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## a2z (Aug 23, 2004)

Try moving the pad closer to the door every day, then just outside the door and keep moving until you get to grass.
However I can't see why you'd want to grass-train your doggie. Pads are cheap at Target and are so convenient in th middle of the night or when it's pouring down rain or snowing...


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## Max & Rocky (May 20, 2004)

> ok...lola is now one year old and we are moving to a new apartment next week and i want to switch her from pads to going only outside. pad are just too messy (she misses a lot) and i don't like the smell or the cost! how do i train her to do something completely different. right now she will go potty on walks if i tell her "go potty". i don't know if i should buy a crate to leave her in while at school or work (only gone 6 hours max, not usually that long though), or if i should gate her in the kitchen. even thought the kitchen is small, i think there might be too much room to pee or pooh. is it too late to put her in a crate since she's always had rome of the apartment when i'm gone? will she catch on fast? i hope she doesn't have too many accidents in the new place, i want it to stay pee-smell free!!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


For a little history, we have two boys who are 3 years old now and were 98% potty trained within 4 weeks after we got them... and now we have a Maltese rescue who is 16 months old who we are having to redo some of her acquired potty habits.

It's pretty hard for any of us to specifically answer your questions. We don't know your daily schedule and how many hours at a time you spend outside of your home and I really don't know for sure how well your pup has learned to not just eliminate whenever it feels like it. In my opinion, this is the primary reason for crating... This teaches the pup to hold it's bladder until it can eliminate at a more suitable time/location. If your pup holds it now, you might be able to get by without a crate... but if you decide after a few days you need one, you can always just go get it. I don't see this as a large issue in either case. Just do what you need to.

As far as how to potty train to outside... you just start taking her outside and giving her the potty command. 
You probably have a pretty good understanding now of what times of day and in what sort of situations she will need to potty and so you will need to make sure you incorporate this info into the routine. I can not stress the word *ROUTINE* enough... Same basic times during the day, as an example. Also, I would even extend this routine thing to the point of taking her to exactly the same area when you do take her outside. When we take our 2 + 1 outside the last thing before bed, the routine is such that we have to open the gate to the pool and let everyone go into the pool area... before they seem totally ready to potty!! I know it is sort of silly, but they seem to appreciate and understand it, so we do it.

Also, if you spend any significant time away from your house during the day, you need to take this into account. As an example of what I mean, you might be able to expect her to hold her potty for 4 or sometimes even 6 hours a day. She might even be successful to 8 - 10 hours ... sometimes. But she will not be able to do it every day. If you will be leaving her for a period of time toward the upper limits of what I have mentioned... you will need to provide her some method of taking care of her needs. The worst possible thing is for her to have an accident in her crate and then be forced to stay there for hours.

Also, do you have a method you would want her to tell you she has to potty? People usually don't give this much thought but from the dog's point of view, she is going to know when she has to go... but how should she tell you she has to go? I know people who have a little bell mounted on a stand they place near the door to outside and this seems to work well.

I am not sure how well this or even the outside potty thing might work in an apartment...

We live in a house with a very nice small and secure back yard and we have a doggy door in our house... so if our boys NEED to go, they can on their own. Our little rescue girl was used to going potty only while on a leash while outside on a walk. This can work just fine... but you have to have a schedule where you can walk her *EVERY* day at the same time. For our rescue girl's previous owner, this did not really work. Her schedule was not regular enough and some days, she didn't get walked, when she needed to go... and so she got used to having inside accidents.


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## LMJ (Feb 16, 2006)

If she understand what "go potty" means then I don't think it will be too difficult to train her to go outside. I say, start taking he outside every 45 minutes to 1-1/2 hours and say "go potty". When so does potty, give her a small treat and praiser he a bunch. Keep this up until you are confident she will alert you to take her out. I put a small bell hanging from the door knob about 3 inches from the floor and taught Jeffery to ring it when he wants to go out. I also leave pads out just incase (I trained him on both) he has to go while I'm gone. He is 15 months old now and holds it all day so he has used a pad in a very long time. I even wonder if he knows what they are far anymore.

I think the key is to be routine and consistand in your training. Malts are pretty smart and it usually doens't take long for them to learn something new.


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## hillary&lola (Apr 4, 2006)

thanks for the great advice everyone- i don't know if we are going to leave her in the kitchen or get a crate but we'll see. i'm thinking since we are moving to a new apartment next week she will not be in a routine of peeing inside on a pad so it might be a bit easier then where we live now where she's always peed inside in the same spot. although it is an apartment there is a grassy area right at the bottom of our stair case (second floor) so i think it will work out well. we are going to do the bell thing on the door too, do i just have her touch her paw to it before i take her out while training? i will buy some yummy treats to give her everytime she goes outside. i just hope she catches on fast, and lets us know when she needs to go!


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## 2maltese4me (May 8, 2006)

When training Cooper to go from pads to outside. I had to start time toileting him again. And I would place a pad on the deck and also take him down to the grass.....he transitioned rather quickly and easily.

Gracie was a blessing.....she is indoor and outdoor trained.....and she did it on her own...







Its very convenient for rainy nasty days.....I wish Cooper was indoor/outdoor trained.


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## LMJ (Feb 16, 2006)

> thanks for the great advice everyone- i don't know if we are going to leave her in the kitchen or get a crate but we'll see. i'm thinking since we are moving to a new apartment next week she will not be in a routine of peeing inside on a pad so it might be a bit easier then where we live now where she's always peed inside in the same spot. although it is an apartment there is a grassy area right at the bottom of our stair case (second floor) so i think it will work out well. we are going to do the bell thing on the door too, do i just have her touch her paw to it before i take her out while training? i will buy some yummy treats to give her everytime she goes outside. i just hope she catches on fast, and lets us know when she needs to go![/B]


I took Jeff's paw and rang the bell with it each time we went outside. I also said "go potty". It only took 3 or 4 times before he started ringing it on his own. He uses his nose or he will walk really close to the door catching the bell against his body. 

Jeffery also rings the bell when he just wants to go outside, which is more times than he has to pee. If your little one likes to be outside like Jeffery, she will be ringing the bell quite a bit.


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## Laceys mom (Nov 12, 2004)

Lacey is trained to use the pad and to go outside. She would rather go outside but she will use her pad. She has no problems with neither. She was only going to be trained to be an inside doggy, she is the one that trained herself to go outside.

I would love to teach Lacey to ring a bell, but I'm afraid she would do it all day long since she loves to go outside to play.


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## doctorcathy (May 17, 2004)

i would wait till winter break to teach her. so that you can watch her 24/7. i taught my dogs to go outside only. and i only put wee wee pads down at night. just cuz i still feel bad for them holding it. lol. 

and since you're moving to an apartment, i would put sod on the balcony so that she can go out there to go potty. move the pads near the door to the balcony. try that for a few weeks. and then when she needs to potty she'll sit by the door.


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## hillary&lola (Apr 4, 2006)

here's an update- 
its been almost a week with only a few accident







i have been home most days so i'm sure thats why we've had good success. i take her out every few hours or when she rings the bell (sometimes she just want to go sniff outside







) the few times she's gone inside have been in the bedroom so we're keeping that door shut now (mostly she's used the room when we're gone). in a few more weeks i hope there will be no accidents and she will hold it a few more hours so i'm not always outside. this is definally better then pads, there is just no place to put them in a small apartment that will not be in your way!







i guess i'm lucky b/c in so cal we can take our dogs outside any day of the year


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