humm, if you puruse the Housetraining thread you will find many ask the same questions you are!! It all depends on the pup and each situation. I've had great luck w/ a crate. I work FT and go home at lunch and let the dogs out. Two of my dogs (Yorkie,11lbs, and golden) are housetrained. The pup is almost 6mos. (I've had him a little over 1mo) he is being crate trained and doing good. I would never leave a pup in a crate all day, especially a small one because as someone said, you may come home to a stinky dog/crate. As for the bathtub idea, humm..really all you can do is try the peepad. Be prepared the pup may not want to use it, may have fun tearing it up, or..with luck, use it everytime. Just a thought..You might think about using some masking tape to hold the peepad in place. Depending on your tub, if it is rounded at the bottom or slippery and the pad slips the pup could get nervous about that. I'm sure it will all be fine, but just be prepared for some trial, error, reward..keep your cool, remember this is a young pup who hasn't a total clue yet. Another thing that has helped me is I always take a couple vacation days after I bring home a pup, just to get them accumulated and see how they will react (IE: when crate training, I would put pup in for like 10min and see how it went, each time increasing the time). Imagine being a pup..away from everything familiar and then being home alone all day, it can be quite stressful..Sounds like you are researching and asking the right questions. Look forward to hearing your experiences and pictures plezzzz
Kathy |