[shellebelle]

I ran a search to see if my question had already been answered, but with no luck. If this has already been covered smack me and tell me to search harder

I have Belle, a 10 year old Standard Poodle. Just yesterday I moved out of my parent's home and into my own condo and now we have a bit of a potty situation. All during her growing up she has pottied outside in the garden with no problems. My condo is an upstairs unit so I only have a patio to work with, and I would prefer to not have her potty in the common landscaped areas out of respect for my neighbors.

I am trying to paper train her so that I can have a potty setup in the house for her when I'm at work because I'm gone for so long, but I'm having problems and hopefully someone will have some suggestions.

Belle will happily pee and poop on the patio with no problems, but I'm trying to train her to use the piddle pads so that they can be brought inside the house and my patio stays clean. Right now I have them on top of a scrap of carpet padding inside of a garage drip pan. She understands the command "go potty" but gently maneuvering her onto the pan freaks her out and she won't go. I was able to get her to get on the pan right away when there was a treat involved. But still, no luck. I even mopped up some of last night's pee with one of the pads in the hope that she'd figure it out by the smell.

I've never done this before, and the area I live in makes putting a doggie door in the sliding door a possible security risk. I'm not quite sure what to do here and I need some suggestions. Should I try pulling the pads off and shoving them under her when she pees? I'm afraid that she's so used to having free roam to potty wherever she wants outside is going to make this difficult.

Thanks for any suggestions.

[briteday]

Is there room in your kitchen or bath to put one of the small kiddie wading pools? Maybe that would contain the liquid a bit better without making the linoleum smell from the urine.

But my first thought is to have someone come in during the day to walk her and let her do business so she's not pottying in the house anyway.

[Renoman]

Do you know they make doggie litter pans with special paper pellet type litter? Same idea as the kiddie pool but smaller - might work better. Take the used pads and put them in the litter box with a thin layer of litter over it. Maybe start with it on the patio then move it inside.

Your dog is older and used to going outside. You're going to meet with a lot of resistance on retraining her to go inside since it goes against all she knows. Patience is the key here.

[shellebelle]

I bought some sod today and plopped that in the potty pan and so far so good. I just need to find a solution that won't die every few days I'm going to try to wean her onto fake grass.

[MyDogShelby]

Might I also suggest that you take some of her stool from one of her previous eliminations and place it on the puppy pad or whatever it is you want her to eliminate on...most dogs like to do their business next to where they had gone before. I'm not trying to be funny, no, not by any means...this is a very serious suggestion.

[shellebelle]

No, I totally understand you're serious. It makes total sense. She's done fantastic with the sod (poop and pee) and I have contacted a fake grass manufacturer to see if they've had luck with dogs being able to reliably potty on it. If so, I'll be building a nice potty area for her. If not, I'll try to gradually switch her over to the pads only.

She did seem to manage being alone for most of the day. I dragged the pan of sod into the house and when I got home she did pee, but not a huge pee. I don't know if she used it or not, but it's a workable solution while I get my house in order and she adjusts.

[Jen D]

How about the fake green carpet type stuff, its for indoor outdoor patios and it is cheap enough you can just cut new sections when needed? You could put it out on the deck that she will go on till she is use to it then she most likley won't have a problem indoors with it.