I'm lucky enough to be able to come home at lunch everyday and spend about an hour at home. I go to work fairly early so we get up around 5:30am. They are out till around 6:30am then my daughter lets them out at 8am. i or my husband come home at lunch around 11am then I'm home at 2:30pm. They stay in thier kennels when we are not home and don't potty in them. they sleep in thier kennel together from around 10pm till 5:30am...then we start all over. It is what has worked for us. I think my hubby would freak if i did pee pads.

Because the storms here can be rather fierce (hail and sideways rain), we have worked very hard to teach Katy not to be afraid of them. She doen't like getting wet, so she will follow the eves on the house to get to the side of the house were she goes, then go fast and run back to the covered porch.

Hi, read in your post about using a belly band? What exactly is this for?

Tucker stays in the bathroom while i'm gone during the day. i'm usually gone too long for him to hold it in his crate, so he has pee pads in the bathroom where he will go. he never poops inside, though. he usually waits until i get home to let him out. he prefers to go outside.
the pee pads have helped us when we visit other homes, though. :thumbup: when we go inside, i lay down the pad close to the door so if he needs to go, he knows where it is. it works very well for us at the neighbor's house because they have big dogs. tucker loves them, but he often will not go potty outside. he uses the pee pads at their house very well. but like i said, our preferrence is that he goes outside.

I feel your pain with this one, Harley has had every thing from pads to litter to outside to finally I broke him in a ex-pen, I put it up outside with a tarp over it, and when It rained I ran out and put him in it and locked the door,,till he did his business, as soon as I saw him finish I would let him out, only after he would go. He started to get it that if he hurried up he would get out and a treat for him to. I took the ex-pen down last week only after about a month and he is going outside to the door, and I tell him hurry up go potty, and He does , this dog is 10 months old now, just in the last month has he potty broken. I think the pee pads where a big mistake, it trained him to go in the house, what a nightmare to get him off of them. First and last time I will let a puppy go in the house like that, It really messed him up on going outside,. good luck to ya, the tarp thing worked great to keep rain off of him, the wind kind of scares him though, but, I just ignore him when it is blowing hard and act like I just exspect you to go anyway, I dont show anxiety about anything anymore, these dogs pick up on it fast, assurtive and assumptive, that is my motto.

You know I could see it every now and then but everytime the wind blows the slightest bit Reagan is just standing there smelling. Now I know there's not something good to smell every time it blows. Although I have to say Reagan has a longer coat and it sure does look pretty when she stands in the wind with it blowing. Anyway she's pretty good about going potty when I tell her but if she's smelling you can forget it, you can forget her even looking at you. I guess its one of those things we will never know....

I always stand out with an umbrella over my lil guy. I wouldnt want him catching a cold. Even if it is snowing I will use an umbrella to cover him up.

unfortunately, Tinka seems to like the rain. i'm the one who gets frustrated standing out in the rain waiting for her to go! she licks the rain from the step and this one other place it comes down off the roof and she would roll in the puddles if i let her. :(

on the other hand, my mini-schnauzer hates the rain and since she's older and goes out on her leash alone, i have to leave her out there for a loooooooooong time till she goes. once in a while she'll go quickly if it's cold along with the rain. but she very, very rarely goes potty inside. only if i forget to put her out or if i'm gone and my son forgets about her.

snow seems to be a little easier to deal with....

Yes run fast head down lol. Mine would go under the patio table.

they get wet

I too still take Stevie out when it's raining. In our new house we have a awning over the concrete so most times he will go there and that's not a big deal to me it's easy to clean concrete.

This is off the topic of going potty outside but funny since it's storming here today (go figure earlier in the week we had hot weather for my area now it's raining). Anyway. I had Stevie out in the garage with me because I was straigntening up (we just moved so things are still a mess out there). I opened one side of the garage and see Stevie about to jet out to the driveway. I said "don't do that it's raining pretty hard". So he goes ofcourse, in an instant he was back in the garage sitting next to the door that leads into the house. I let him in and he ran to his crate and laid down. I just laughed, my dh thought I was loosing it. It was pretty funny though, I had never seen him move that fast.

Anekka

Sometimes he will run and find a water puddle and splash in it.

Bought myself a huge golf umbrella yesterday. I'm ready! :D

Put on a raincoat and go really quick!
Have a towel ready by the door to dry your yorkie off right away!