I agree with others that you could do both. The night I brought my pup home it was very cold and snowing heavily and she was just a 2.5 lb. 8 week old pup so I did not want to bring her outside to do her business. The first week or so she did all her pottying on the pad (well except for her accidents, but she seemed to be already partially pad trained because she didn't have too many). Once she was more settled in I started bringing her outside regularly to pee and she caught on pretty quickly. If it was really cold or blustery outside I wouldn't bring her out, but otherwise I brought her out every approximately every 45 min. throughout the day, whenever she woke up from a nap, and about 15 min. after each time she ate. She now goes outside 95% of the time. Sometimes I can go days without changing the pee pad because she'll only use it once or twice, but I do like having it there in case she does have to go and I don't bring her out quickly/often enough. She will sometimes ring her bell if she has to go outside to poop, but for pee she doesn't seem to let me know so I just bring her out frequently still, though at 18 weeks she can now go 1-1.5 hrs. without going outside. |