Bella came home to me at 8 weeks old, I had no clue she wasn't old enough as I've always had large breed dogs and that is the standard age for them to leave the breeder. Anyway, the weather was nice out, it was summer so I trained her to go outside on a leash and used a crate for a bit and it worked out well. Then when we had a nasty thunderstorm and I decided to give pee pads a go at that point, prolly 2 weeks into it all. She took to them very quickly and is cross-trained now. I do not bring her out to go much at all right now because it is just nasty here in the winter time. Coco just came home recently, she was about 12 weeks old and the weather was already nasty so I just had her use the pee pads from the get go. (they use an expen aka.. their palace) She took to them right away and ocassionally she will miss them with her poop but usually it's just because she is standing on the pad but her little butt is over the edge so of no fault of her own. When the weather get's nicer I will be working with her to have her cross trained as well, although I'm sure it will be difficult. I do have a house with a fenced in backyard but will never let either of them outside alone. We live in an area where there are Coyote's, fox and plenty of hawks. and owls. Not to mention we have 2 large breed dogs that I will not allow to run free with the little ones around them. I just don't want to take the chance of anything happening to my little girls, so if they end up being only pee pad trained in the long run so be it |