[amyann]

Maybe you can try to limit the area he can get access to at your parents' or friend's house at first. He can have more freedom when he is more reliable. Someone else here had said something about having too many pads down can create confusion too.

When we first started, we put the paper down and our puppy doesn't have full run of house whenever we are not at home. She needs to learn how to get from where we were at the moment to her paper. We walk her thru that and it work out OK if we are not too too far from it. It's someone else's house and she can't remember the potty route very well at the beginning (if it's too big a place). Keep in mind how tiny they are. Any house could seem huge to them. You would need to watch him too and WALK him (not carrying) to his pad when he does the potty dance. “Walking” being the key 'cause he needs to learn how to get there on his own when you are not watching him.

We kind of give up on the idea of making ours go outside. You are right. It could be messy and they do get dirty and smelly sometimes. Besides, it is more than job well done if you can train him to always go on the pads no matter where he is. We are not keeping our hopes up for our little girl to go outside any more. If it happens, great. If not, OK. As long as she is house trained -- Yahoo!

Maybe your baby boy is still a bit too young to take in the whole world. Take it slow when you are out visiting friends and family like you did as you were potty training him for the first time and he would do fine. Good luck on your house training.