My personal opinion is that many people give their dogs free run way before they are ready. My other dogs were always trained to outside by the time they were 6 months old. We always watched them closely though and they were confined to the kitchen when we were not home. "Accidents" don't seem to happen as much in a non carpeted room.
Gracie was the first dog I ever used pee pads with. She was already very good about using them when I first got her as a puppy but you cannot just walk away from a puppy and think it is always going to make it to the pee pad. The smaller the dog the smaller the bladder. I had 2 pee pad areas for Gracie so she could get to either one fairly quickly. Still a puppy cannot go unobserved. Reinforcement and constant vigilance is necessary by the owner. Rewarding when they do it right is helpful, too. Gracie was trained by the time she was 6 months but had a couple of episodes where she started peeing beside the pad frame instead of on the pad. Rewards and watching her more closely got her back on track pretty quickly. I noticed that these episodes where at times when things in the household had changed. These dogs are sensitive to their surroundings. |