Help re-training to use the Outdoors & Pads
 

Help! My Lillie is about 18 months old and has been with us only about 8 months. She is potty trained to go outdoors every 4-5 hours and seldom has an accident. But...I have started working and would like to make pads available to her so that should I not be able to get home in the 4-5 hour time period she can use those when necessary. Is it possible to dual train them to use the pad and the outdoors when she is already trained to go outdoors only? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

I don't have an answer for you, but I will be watching for the answer to this one. I have a 19 week old puppy and she is trained to just go outdoors also. I tried to get her to use the pee pads but the only thing she will do is tear them apart. I hope someone has the answer.

Thanks so much for replying, maybe we will get suggestions that will help. I too have put pads down for Lillie and she has shredded them! Your little one is so much younger so I would think you will have better results. I am impressed that your little one is already potty trained for the outdoors, it took a long time to get Lillie to go outside.

You could try behavior modification and get a washable pee pad, and have her go on that outside, each day bring it closer to the door until it finally in the house. Praise the heck out of her when she goes on it.

She came to me potty trained, because the person I got her from had about 6 Yorkies and they all used a doggy door. If and when I get another one I think I am going to the same person.

Nancy gave a good suggestion. Also, maybe you can start putting p pads down now in the house where you want her to go before you have to start working...Show her where they are and when she uses them, praise, praise, praise. Still take her outside as normal also so that she knows you still want her to go outside but if she MUST go inside, she needs to use the pad.

My girls are mostly trained outside but if they have to go inside(for instances when I'm running late getting home from work, etc.), they know to use the pads.

Good Luck!

Thanks so much, I had not thought about a washable pee pad. I believe she would be less likely to shredd it .

Thank you so much for your reply. Your girls are doing exactly what I hope that I can get Lillie to do.

You would be wise to use the same breeder since she had already started the training for your little one. Believe me we were not that lucky with Lillie but of course I would not trade her for anything!

I don't know the answer to this one... I had been trying to train Lexi to go outside. Severe lightning one morning kept us in, and the pads that she *used* to shred (I had been hoping to dual train her) instantly became very beneficial. It took less than a week, but she was pad trained at 4 months. And now I am so glad she is, especially with the freezing cold temps and the ice and snow outside now. I love not having to worry about bringing her out - she just goes when she needs to.

But...all this rambling has a point. The first time Lexi used the pad (I keep the pad in a doggie litter pan) was first thing in the morning. Like I said, we had severe lightning, and I felt it was too dangerous to go outside. I know she always has to go right after she gets up, so I just put her in the pan with the pad in it, and stayed there, not letting her out. Since she had been holding it all night, it didn't take long for her to go. Once she went there, I put a fresh pad on top of that one, so she had the pee scent, but still had a fresh pad to use. So maybe trying it first thing in the morning, assuming Lillie will have to go then too, might be a good beginning step. Even if you do it every morning at first, and bring her out the rest of the day, it may not take long before she realizes that she can go in both places, and you can try having her use it at other times during the day.

They also make a flat tray that the pad kind of clips into. It could still be shredded if the dog is determined, but not as easily as one that is laying loose on the floor.

Good luck!

I just love that picture in your avatar so precious!

My Yorkies are 3 years old. When they were puppies and started to shredding their Pee-pads. I purchased the plastic rack that you snap around the pad. This worked great.
They can't get ahold of the pad with these. I quit using them after they got older.

Puppy Training Pad Holder is what they are called.

Potty Training
 

I don't know if this will help but it works for us. Mika is 10 months old. We started him on peepads - we had to spray the pads in the beginning to get him to use them. When we were home, we watched him like a 2 year old child to ensure quick correction. We are both Realtors so we can be gone for a while. We keep him in a fenced area inside (doggy playpen) with a pee pad. AFter a short time he would only use the peepads. Once he was about 7 months old we started to train him to go outside (peepads when we were not home and outside when we were home). We picked a spot outside where we wanted him to go. Then when we were home we again watched him very close. The minute we saw the signs or him going for his peepad we would qickly ask him if he had to go outside and scoop him up and bring him outside. After he was done, we praised him and gave him a small piece of chicken (we boil chicken, cut up in small pieces and freeze) and say "good boy go potty out side and get chicken. Chicken is the only people food he gets and he gets it ONLY when he goes out side. After doing this for a bit, he started holding his potty until we got home. Then we would rush him outside. After about a month or so, we removed the peepads. He is currently 100% trained outdoors. He will hold it until we get home. We try not to have him wait too long (coming home at lunch in the beginning) and slowly increasing the time. He has held it as long as 7+ hours (not by choice). We found out that he does not drink any water when we are not home (or very little). So, it can be done. I'm not going to say it not work because it is but it's worth it. By the way - our Mike is just over 3 pounds. Before we got this little guy we read a lot of different advice from Yorkie Talk so thank you to all for your advice.

Good Luck