my trainer's philosphy is that you don't want the puppy to get used to using parts of your home as a toilet. but to treat the entire home, any home, and any indoor area as his "extended crate" and take his business outside.
That makes sense. Now that you mention it, I have read that indoor potty-training can be confusing to the pup - he might not understand why he can potty in a part of the house and not others. Seems like alot of people here have successfully pee-pad trained their dogs, though.
ideally, i'd like for him to potty on command, whether it's inside or outside. i'm afraid that if he's trained to go only inside, for days when we're out for a longer period of time, rather than potty outside when we're out, he'll choose to make a mess in the car.
For pottying on command, choose your command (I use "go potty") and say it everytime you see him pottying appropriately - WHILE he is pottying. It does no good to say it beforehand if he hasn't learned the command. If you have been saying it before, I'd probably actually change the command I used. After many repetitions, he'll understand what the phrase means and you can use it for a command.
Good luck! |