Tatum is two years old and only goes potty outside. I thought we would try the pads when she first came home to us but I knew I wanted her outside trained 100% eventually and decided she would get confused. I won't lie to you, it has been quite frustrating for us. From the time we got her until she was almost 1.5 years, we were living with my MIL while building our new house. She decided that the rug right inside the back door was where she was supposed to pee. What she'd do is go sit by the back door waiting for someone to notice and if we didn't, she'd pee on the rug. Well, the area back there is set up so that you can't see the back door from anywhere else in the house so we didn't notice when she did that. We took her out to potty probably once an hour or so to train her (every 20-30 minutes when she was really little).
Well, it's finally happened. We moved into our new house last summer and made sure she went out ALL the time. She's only had a couple accidents in the house. NOW she finally has started talking to us when she needs to go out. She sits by one of the doors and does the talking/growl thing until we come let her out. Just recently she has actually come to our feet and given a little woof if we don't hear her by the door. Let me tell you, that's such a relief and I'm so proud of her.
I guess what I'm saying is that it does take a while and diligence will pay off.
And Alison..... that's a great idea with the doggy door going out to the enclosed area. We too are in the country so we can't have a doggy door. If we had a door that went out to an area where we could do something like that, it would definitely be worth considering.
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~ Angie |