[DBlain]

if your home is set up for it, I would vote for outdoors. My last male yorkie was pad trained and even though he had access to a pad 24/7 on occasion he would still go on throw rugs. my sister's yorkie goes outside and inside on a pad but still has plenty of accidents and she can not have any throw rugs because of it. Bringing a pee pad dog to other peoples home is not easy, first you are always worried because you never know if they are going to have an accident or not, and more often or not they do.

Lola only goes outside and we live in MI. My house smells so much better because of it and I now feel comfortable taking her to other people's home. However with that being said I have several things going in my favor that makes this possible. 1. I work from home so I am available to let her out during the day. 2. she has an extremely good bladder and can last 7 or 8 hours if she needs to. 3. My front porch is covered and right off the steps is grass. I use a retractable leash, and if it is raining or cold I stand under my porch or stay inside with the leash extending out the crack in the door. She then runs out where I can see her and comes right back in so I don't have to get wet or cold. 4. We have a snow blower so when it snows, which is often, my husband clears a good size patch right outside our front door. 5. Lola does not mind the cold, the snow or the rain, but I do notice that she does her business a little quicker if weather is a factor. 6. Our house is several levels so I strung a bunch of jingle bells on the end of a ribbon which she learned to ring when wanting to go potty.

If you go the outside route here are a few tips, regardless if you have a fence use a leash. Don't let the dog lead you all around the yard, stand in one place with something like a retractable leash. If you keep letting them lead you to all the places they would like to sniff you will be out there forever. Plus it's nice to be able to control where they walk so they are not tramping through mud, puddles, gardens ect, (their feet stay cleaner this way) It's nice to have them go on a leash because you see what and when they have done something. My sister's dog goes out in a large fenced yard so she never knows if the dog went or not. I also like the fact that I get to control where the dog wets, in the hot summer months I take her to the shady part of the yard, which keeps the grass from getting urine burns. I also have Lola potty like normal before we go for a walk, I would prefer not to have to carry a bag of poop through the neighborhood. Make sure they know the potty words, Lola knows potty, poop, and peep. She does #2 most of the time on her second time out, but then will try to come back in, but since I also want her to go pee, I will say Lola go peep, Lola go peep and it's funny she puts her tail down turns around and pees. The most important thing is consistency I was lucky with Lola we got a routine down when she was a puppy and 3 years later we still follow it. Good Luck