paper training

[imported_Amy]

I had my maltese for about 2-3 weeks now. She is 4 month old. When we first got her i was taking her outside for potty. She was (for the last few days) going most of the time. But typhons season is getting close here in Japan and i wont even be able to take her out for as long as 4 days straight every time there is a typhon. Beside that it's raining verry often here and she hate wet grass and dont even want to walk on it. So i got some puppy pads pre scented and even bought some other product (totally stink) thats suppose to be helpfull for training puppy to go in 1 spot.

Now what happening is: she sniff around the pad then go back in the middle of the living room carpet sniff around and start peeing. I dont say a word and transfer her to the pad while she is doing it then when she is done i praise her and say stuff about how good she been to pee on the pad. Also give her a treat while she still ont he pad..

I never paper trained a puppy before and i am not sure if i am doing the right thing.

She is verry stable on her pee schedule. Should i just keep her on the pad untill she go?

[imported_Kat]

hmm tricky situation. Make sure the puppy pad is right beside the door. If you can before the typhoons start, take the pad out to the grass and set her on the pad with the command to pee. When she does it on command on the pad give her lots of praise. This is a bit of a weird situation and you need to be prepared that you may have to retrain her to go outside on the grass again. Keep her range of movement limited in the house so she doesnt have access to pee in another room. Take her to the pad immediately after she eats/sleeps/plays as these are times when she will most likely need to relieve herself.

If its just raining with no danger then make her go outside. She is a dog after all and you can dry her feet when she comes in. We get torrential rain here in N.Ireland as well but I don't use that excuse with my 11 week old pup not to go out. I know its a pain to get wet and have to dry them after but make her go out. :wink:

[imported_Amy]

oki, thank you. I wasnt taking her out anymore for potty because i read in books to not mixe outside and paper training. Ill try it tho

Ty

[Horsefeathers!]

[quote name='Kat'] She is a dog after all and you can dry her feet when she comes in. [/quote]
Oh, dear, sweet, beloved Kat... :lol:
(if BK sees that, she's going to vomit, and then she's going to rip me a new arsehole :lol: )

Have you ever had to dry a coated dog that's soaking wet (what a stupid question... you probably have)? I'm not talking about those wonderfully dense, water repellent coats that *ahem*cough* Collies and such possess, but [u]Maltese[/u] (like the original poster has), Lhasas, Poodles, and the like. It's a whoooooooole 'nother ballgame than just drying the feet. Unless that dog is kept in a relatively short trim, repeatedly getting wet and dry can be a nightmare. I promise I'm not picking on you. That just made me laugh out loud because I remember my own experiences with coated, wet dogs. :lol:

To be totally honest, when I had dreams of keeping one of my Lhasas and Poodle in show coat (a looooong time ago), I potty trained them for INSIDE. I never had luck paper training because they always wanted to shred the pee pads, but I litter box trained them just like a c@t. It was easy and they didn't confuse inside and outside.

If you're interested, just get a large litter tray. I learned from experience to use plain cheap clay (or paper) litter, none of that scoopable stuff. If they ever get the scoopable stuff in their mouths (and mine did), it turns into pretty much concrete and becomes a very real choking hazard. Mine nearly had to make an emergency run to the vet. Never a problem with the regular clay or paper litter. In a pinch, I've even used clean sand.

Anyhoo, I'd place some waste, a turd or a paper towel that was used to soak up pee, in the litter box with the litter. Then I'd frequently put the dogs in the box with it and give a command (ours is "go wee" and it works well to this day... if outside and in a hurry, I can give that command and they go on the spot). It only took a few times for my girls to realize that was an acceptable potty spot. My dogs took to litter training MUCH better than paper training. Perhaps it just feels more natural... more like "outside."

It's been years since we've done this and my dogs are all kept nekkid now, so they have no more need to use a litter box (out in the rain they go), but I've had no problem with them just going outside. They never seemed confused at all.

[imported_Amy]

hehe, yeah wet maltese = bath and blowdrying! I think i will get her shaved for awhile.

[imported_Kat]

HF you crack me up :lol: Yeah ok so some dogs are harder to clean than others I will admit that. My grandparents had a Lhasa Apso called Nicky and they thought his coat was just wonderful and silky until the skanking weather made walks a pain in the butt and he had to be cleaned each time hecame in. After that he was clipped into a puppy clip which made life easier :wink: