i've been debating on for some time now. Where we live, it does tend to snow a lot and pretty heavy. I would rather have my oldest (who is the only one outdoor trained) go inside. I heard good and bad things about the potty patch. I almost bought one 2 weeks ago except that ouyt of the three boxes on the shelf at PetCo, two of them looked like they were resealed. I took that as a bad sign