# Transition from paper training to outdoor



## Gates1026 (Mar 14, 2007)

I am a first time poster to the forum, I appreciate any feedback I can get.

I recently brought home an 8 week old Papillon puppy. She has adjusted very well and everything is going great. I was hoping to get some advice on making the transition from "paper training" to outdoor potty training. All of the reading that I have done so far suggests using the crating method for potty training. I have a few reasons to go against this advice, here are my reasons.

1 - My schedule is fairly consistent throughout the week, but there are times where I dont get to come home for lunch. Even though this is not all that often, I am never able to predict when I may miss lunch and would have to leave the puppy home for ~7 hours. We dont want to leave her locked up for that long at once while she is so young so we have decided to let her have some space in the kitchen and trained her (fairly well so far anyway) to use a "potty pad". 

2 - I live where it is very cold and the snow has been piled up over 12 inches until this last week. She is less than 2 lbs and would probably get lost 

3 - The apartment I live in has a lot of dogs that use the limited grass area to go to the bathroom. It was suggested by my vet to avoid letting her trudge around these areas until she has been properly vacinated (scheduled for next Monday).

I was hoping that someone could give me any advice that they may have on making an easier transition from paper training to outside training. I realize that I am in for a longer/harder road going this route, but think it is the best. 

I look forward to any advice!

Thanks,

Ryan


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## Scouts_Mom (Mar 21, 2007)

I agree with waiting until she's vaccinated, but once she is.. I suggest, just taking her outside as much as you can handle with the cold. Maybe every hour (other than middle of the night) particularely in the morning and 15-30 minutes after meals or excessive drinking. When she is out, if she pees, have a treat ready and PRAISE HER A TON! Say "good peepee" or something, and be consistent in the words you use. Get VERY excited and be generous with treats and she'll learn that peeing outside makes you happy and she gets treats. Good luck!

You COULD also try bringing the pee pad outside.


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## Curbside Prophet (Apr 28, 2006)

Yes, put the whizzing and pooing on cue. And praise is very important when she eliminates outside. I would also acclimate her to crate if you're not already doing so. A crate can be very helpful if you have to wash dishesand can't watch her closely while you're at home. She'll less likely elimnate in the crate, as opposed to to an area with the potty pad. I'm not saying keep her in a crate all day, but when she can be taken outside, the crate will prevent accidents and speed up the learning. Also, between now and 12 weeks of age, its very imporant that you acclimate her to as many new things as you can before fear set in. That means using the vacuum cleaner, meetng as many new people as possible (incuding supervised children), basically anything you don't want her to fear in the future. Her brain will be developing rapidly between this time, so it's best to associate these things with positive experiences while you can help to condition it.


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## LoveLilly (Oct 25, 2006)

I currently have a 9 month old papillon that we brought home when she was 8 weeks old and 1 1/2 - 2 pounds. Here is what we did and my reasoning for the following was b/c she pee'd every hour for a long time, and needed many night time breaks. Plus we work full time, although I do have a noon-time pet sitter come in every day.
Okay, I bought a medium sized crate with a divider in it. My husband used a rotary tool/saw to cut a doorway for her & I covered the sawed edges with electrical tape & sprayed the tape with bitter apple so she did not chew on it. In the back was her pee pad, in the front all her bedding and 3 bedtime chewy things/toys. To teach her to potty on the pad she got a treat & praise for doing it. Once we knew she learned how we quit treating and praising it, we just treated it as something that had to be done. When we were home & when the sitter came she was to potty outside and we repeated 1 word for pee and 1 for poo. When she did it she got a treat/belly rubs/hugs & kisses etc....a regular circus. We looked like nuts in our backyard praising her. In short, she learned that her pad was available when she was crated which was only during the workday and at night...otherwise we altered our schedule to be with her. So she learned the pad was there & it was okay to use, but quickly learned that when I potty in the yard its super super fun. By about 3 1/2-4 months week by week we noticed her holding it on her own so she would be ready to go in the yard. First she started with holding it for the pet sitter, then overnight and then during her afternoon time. then by 4 months of I guess she was always holding it and never using her pads. At this time we graduated her to a regular crate that was smaller, but just one room with bedding. After 3 weeks of having no mess we graduated her during work hours to her crate with a metal play pen attached so she could walk around and play with toys. Then she graduated to total open pen with 5x5 space, total kitchen....etc etc... One very important thing to remember is that for quite a while with such a small dog, once she understands that outside is the place to be you will need to alter your schedule for while to make sure you are there to take her out, otherwise accidents will happen & I think that is why people say Papillons are hard to house train. They aren't hard to housetrain...they just progress in their timeline slower and you need to be committed to alter your life too. All in all I only had like 3 pee and 1 maybe 2 poop accidents in the house and I think that's pretty good and they were all totally my fault. Now currently, at 9 months of age she goes to the door when she has to go, she has run of the house when we are home, sometimes I leave for a few hours and she has run of both kitchen and the carpeted family and never is in her crate anymore unless she decides to walk into it. At night she sleeps in our bed and does not leave it. Her total potty hold time is generally 5 hours during workdays but we have done 6, 4-5 during active weekend days and 7 hours at nighttime. Now in the mix of all of this is teaching them to walk to the door on their own to "tell" you and also I think we were so successful b/c we monitored water intake during the work week to help her be successful.

As for the snow and cold.....we shovel a path for Lilly, which is easier for us b/c we have a yard, so when i snows we shovel a path around the perimeter & she goes out in her little coat all on her own. Sometimes she jumps in the drifts and disappears!!

Good luck and enjoy!!


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## Gates1026 (Mar 14, 2007)

Thank you very much for your feedback, I appreciate it. 

I am guessing that I may have caused myself some work, but at this point I have been rewarding her with treats and praise when she goes on the pad. Would you recommend stopping giving her praise when she goes inside when I make the switch to outdoor potty training? I dont want to confuse her 

LoveLilly - Thank you so much for your feedback, it is great to hear a success story with the same breed of dog! I fully plan to arrange time to be able to take her out as much as possible. I think I will try to take as much of what you did and duplicate it, it sounds like a great plan. 

We have tried to do as much socializing as possible. We have introduced her to as many people as we can and also plan to get her into a "puppy play" group when she gets vaccinated.


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## LoveLilly (Oct 25, 2006)

Once we knew that Lilly understood how to use her paper, we just let her go about her business. If she looked to us for recognition we gave verbal; but the real circus was yard potty time!
If you go to www.meetup.com you can do a search for toy breed play groups which is what I have Lilly in b/c she is extremely dog shy. Its important to get her with dogs close to her general size (15 pounds & smaller) as some larger breeds may mistake her for a bunny which they instinctually hunt.


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## Gates1026 (Mar 14, 2007)

Great, thanks again for your input!

We had a bit of a rough experience last night when we tried to take her to a puppy play time at our local vet. They told me initially that the dogs would be split up by size, that definitely wasnt the case. I realize that our 2 lbs Papillon is going to be the smallest dog, but she was expected to run around with dogs that were 50 lbs. It was way too rough and tumble so we are going to have to go back to square one there.


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