April 21, 2011
Our 10 month old dog has been trained to use pads to pee on and now I want to teach her to go outside. How do we teach her to use the yard as her bathroom?
Full Question:
Ed,Great website. I have a question that I did not see covered in the Q&A section. My fiance and I have a 10 month old King Charles Spaniel. Before recently moving in with me she lived on the 3rd floor of an apartment complex and worked long hours. Therefore she trained our dog to pee on the pads. Now they have moved in with me and while my backyard is somewhat small it does have grass and I would prefer the dog use the backyard rather than the pads. Also, the dog poops on my rug and not the pads. My fiance thinks it's because the rug is ugly, which it slightly is, but before we get a new rug we have to get the poop outside.
I have started keeping the dog in the crate when we are not home and taking it out first thing, however after two days the dog has yet to go to the bathroom outside. I have also tried putting a pad in the grass in the yard. We have also moved the only pad in the house near the backdoor and put a bell on the backdoor knob which we would like to get her to use to notify us when she needs to go out.
So now that you understand more about our situation do you have any advice on how to get our dog to start using the yard? Any thoughts are greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Eric
![Ed](https://leerburg.com/Photos/articles/authors/edfrawley.jpg)
![Ed](https://leerburg.com/Photos/articles/authors/edfrawley.jpg)
Many dogs trained to those pads don’t understand that the house is not a giant bathroom. We don’t like these pads for just this reason, it can be challenging to teach a dog that you now want them to go outside.
The dog needs to be retrained exactly like a new puppy, and allowed NO freedom in the house. NONE. The dog should be in a crate or on a leash at all times and taken outside with supervision so if she does potty outside it can be reinforced. I wouldn’t worry about a bell at this point, because the dog doesn’t even understand what going outside is for. You are getting way ahead of yourself.
I’d recommend our housetraining eBook.
We have a section on the website about house training.
You can try using the search function on the website to find the answer to any additional questions. It is located in the left hand corner of every page on our website. Simply type in your search terms or key words and you will be directed to articles, question & answers, free streaming videos and posts on our forum.
The dog needs to be retrained exactly like a new puppy, and allowed NO freedom in the house. NONE. The dog should be in a crate or on a leash at all times and taken outside with supervision so if she does potty outside it can be reinforced. I wouldn’t worry about a bell at this point, because the dog doesn’t even understand what going outside is for. You are getting way ahead of yourself.
I’d recommend our housetraining eBook.
We have a section on the website about house training.
You can try using the search function on the website to find the answer to any additional questions. It is located in the left hand corner of every page on our website. Simply type in your search terms or key words and you will be directed to articles, question & answers, free streaming videos and posts on our forum.
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