# potty training from inside to out - Help!



## damara23 (Nov 24, 2012)

Paris knows to go on her spotty. Most of the time I don't need to be with her, she'll just run to her spotty and go. :chili:

I want to move her spotty outside because the smell of her pee is overpowering.

*Here's my problem:* I placed her spotty on the concrete driveway. There's leaves, dried up slugs, lil patches of weeds growing in the cracks, etc... When I bring her out, Paris pays no attention to the spotty. She just wants to be outside sniffing & eatting EVERYTHING off the ground. (Let's not even talk about the one time I put her on the grass, it became an All You Can Eat buffet to her). She's more excited to sniff and trying to eat all those yucky things instead of using the bathroom.:smmadder:

SO, I started letting her walk around to get the sniffing and curiosity out of the way then drag her over to the spotty while saying the same phrase I used while training her indoors, "Paris, pee pee on your spotty" ...once she's on it, she'll sniff a lil then lay on it like she's Cleopatra. :smilie_tischkante:


Also, I try to make her hold out until she really has to go but it's not working. I'll be playing with her and she'll take off to her inside spotty area and pee. It's automatic to just go there for her.

Any tips on how I can work with her on using her spotty outside?


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## IvysMom (Dec 24, 2012)

Well, first off, I wouldn't take the pee pad outdoors. As long as she is trained to a word/phrase, it is unnecessary and may confuse the process. The purpose is to wean her away from the pads, not bring the pad outdoors.


I had, what am I saying, HAVE the same problem with Ivy though we went straight to outdoors almost from the day I brought her home. She is a canine vacuum cleaner and will eat EVERYTHING.

What I did was pick an area with fairly thick grass cover and clear one small circular area on the lawn, no more than about 6 feet in diameter, the area she could reach while on a leash with me standing in the middle. I raked away any leaves, sticks, etc., leaving nothing but boring grass. Since it was such a small area, it only took a couple minutes to clear. Then, every time (about every 1-1/2 hours during the day) I took her outside, I would pick her up and carry her to this spot, stand in the center of the area while putting her down, and repeat the "key word". She caught on very quickly because there was nothing there to catch her interest; grass gets boring quickly. After only a few times she knew what this new spot was for. Eventually, I could shift to different areas of the yard but I am always careful to pick areas with no "fun stuff" like sticks, mole runs, etc.


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## Oakley Jackson (Feb 7, 2013)

I've started to work with Oakley on going potty outside too. I don't take the pee pad out though. He knows what "go potty" means. I always take him to the same spot.


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## CorkieYorkie (Apr 10, 2012)

IvysMom said:


> I had, what am I saying, HAVE the same problem with Ivy though we went straight to outdoors almost from the day I brought her home. She is a canine vacuum cleaner and will eat EVERYTHING.


I am so relieved to hear that my Lisa is not the only "canine vacuum cleaner"... taking her out to potty is quite a chore... :smilie_tischkante:


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## IzzysBellasMom (Jan 16, 2013)

Going to agree with the vacuum cleaner...Izzy only goes outside, being in Louisiana, our winters are not too bad, besides all the rain we have had lately. Our grass needs mowing so bad, but she also tried to reach and eat everything out there. She tries to burrow her nose in the grass to get to the dirt.


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## damara23 (Nov 24, 2012)

*I read on some old threads that some fluffs can do both grass and peepad if weather is bad.

Her spotty is a tray with grid top, the pee pad sits inside of it. 

I would like her to use both. 

*


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## DeniseA. (Dec 5, 2012)

I'm trying to move from pads to outside only. Right now we go outside a few times a day, and Benni has no problems with going outside...he just wont, "tell" me when he has to go....grrrrr He has a bell and rings it when he gets board and wants to go outside to play....he is a total bell abuser!

He is also a canine vacume...he will lick the sand on the sidewalk....and don't get me started on the dried dead frogs... ugh!


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## IvysMom (Dec 24, 2012)

Denise, how old is he?

"A few times a day" isn't enough when potty training to outdoors. You need to take him outside - on a leash to control his behavior - at least every 1-1/2 hours round the clock, except for bedtime. If you do this even though you do NOT want to, he should train quickly.

Clear a potty place outside the diameter of your leash. I recommend no more than a 4 foot leash while potty training, which means you'll need to clear an 8 foot diameter circle of all sticks, leaves, dead frogs, worms, everything that might be of interest to a pup. You want the area to be as boring as possible so he learns this place means potty, not play. Then every 1-1/2 hours put him on his leash, CARRY HIM from the house to the potty spot outside (this prevents him from getting so interested in everything on the way to the potty spot and helps him realize WHY he goes outside). Pick a word to repeat until he gets the job done (Ivy understands two different words for number 1 and number 2) then praise praise praise and immediately carry him back inside. Very soon he will understand outside means time to potty. Since you take him out so frequently, he will potty indoors much much less because his bladder is never given time to get so full.

Once they are rock solid with their training, you can increase the time between trips outdoors gradually, but even an adult dog should be allowed potty trips outside a minimum of 5 or 6 times a day. And puppies need to go much more frequently.

Only bad thing about teaching Ivy outside using this method until she was rock-solid house trained is that she now refuses to use the pads. When it's torrential rain and strong winds, I wish she would!


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## DeniseA. (Dec 5, 2012)

Benni is now 9 months. We live in a condo so I have to take him to a common area to go potty, so I'm not always able to have a spot with no distractions. I grit my teeth everytime he is about to go and the neighbor kids or other dogs interrupts him. I will increase our trips outside, and stop walking him. 

Is it because they are so small that they need to go out so often? My miniature schnauzer would "ask" to go out only 3 to 4 times a day. He was never pad trained and was 100 percent by 4 months old....Benni is giving me a run for my money


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