As for potty training, small dogs are notoriously hard to train. They have smaller bladders and normally come to use when their kidneys aren't fully developed. Expect mistakes, they will happen, they're just babies and they're not human. As I learned, they don't understand so when they make a mistake, it's only a mistake to us, because they don't know better, it's our job to teach them. I've had Vinnie on pee pads, he's just shy of 7 months old, while we are in an apartment because there are lots of big nasty dogs around us. Now that we're about a month away from moving into a house we're starting with the outside training. If we would tell Vinnie to "pee on the pad" he would, which was our first step. Then we started getting him used to the leash and just being outside, he naturally would pee outside when we took him so we praised the heck out of him. We got him used to the word "outside" and now I won't take him out unless he gives me a little bark when I ask him if he wants to go "pee outside". That is so he gets used to telling us he wants to go outside, then we tell him to "pee outside" once he's out and he practically performs on command. I'm sure you could substitute the bell for the little bark! Good Luck! |