Gracie is 12 weeks old now and is REALLY doing well with her potty training.
We brought her home at 8 weeks. The breeder had her in a little gated area with her brother and sister in the kitchen. They had newspaper down for potty.
So, the first week she was home with us I had a pee pad in a box the exact same size of the pad. I taped up the flaps of the box to make it taller. This is where I took her to tinkle. Otherwise she was being held or in her kennel.
By week two (9 weeks old) we had a puppy playpen [medium size] from Amazon and that has become her day time hang out. She is only in her kennel at night to sleep. She loves the play pen. It is full of toys and a bed as well as her food and water. She sleeps, plays etc.
She always whines and barks at me when in her kennel, in her playpen, in her carry bag or in my lap when she needs to go potty. GREAT!
Our home is a very open layout. With bedroom and office door closed she is only on hardwoods and tile.
If she has gone #1 and #2 she will get to run around the house and play for a half hour or so and loves it. Otherwise. she will always go #2 in the house..
My understanding of this is that she is so small and the house is so big [especially being such an open floorplan) that she does not yet recognize it all as "her domain" and therefore goes into places away from the core where we are and does her business possibly thinking it is outside her domain.
Now I'm not a vet, shrink or psychologist but this seems logical to me. And it almost always seems that her behavior is very logical [to her] if you will just take time to observe and process what she is doing.
Part of all this is that she is just so young yet. At 12 weeks she is far down the learning path at being fully trained so I'm not unhappy at all! She is a psych service dog in training and goes every where with me. She is a delight and well behaved girl. She responds well to training and there is no reason to think that doesn't apply to potty training.
The playpen is amazing! It is open weave on the sides so she can see everything going on around her and does not feel isolated.
We bought a small playpen of the same to use for traveling in hotel rooms and what not. Love these things and they fold up!
Here is the link to the XS we got for traveling. The medium is perfect for her in the house.
Amazon.com: Pink Pet Tent Exercise Pen Playpen...