Potty Training - Moving from Indoor to Outdoor

[Ireland80]

Our 8 month old Cairn has been trained to go both #1 & 2 indoors, using pads. She does have the occassional excited #1 accident when our cat teases her, although this is few and far between. 

 

Anyway, we are trying to move her to going to the bathroom completely outdoors. We have tried moving her waste outdoors, treats, "go potty" phrase, praise, etc. but nothing seems to work. She waits till we are back indoors and uses the pad. Even when we take her on day trips - I feel so bad for her because she "holds it" for as long as possible until she gets back to a pad or what she considers the closest substitute. This is unfortunate when we are visiting family/friends and she runs indoors to squat. :/ When we visit her dog friends outdoors, she does seem more interested in what they are doing and occasionally has looked like she would try but no success as of yet...

 

Any suggestions would be most appreciated. I think sometimes the dog is more stubborn than I.

[Hillscreek]

I wouldn't say she is stubborn, maybe confused and wondering why she isn't allowed to go where she always had been.

 

I'm not much help here because I never used pads because I didn't want Angus going inside no matter where.

Maybe what you could do would be to move the pads nearer and nearer to the door. That might be an indication of what you want. Then put a pad outside and gradual fade it- eg half the size, quarter that etc until none left.

When she does go in the right place praise praise.

Take her out on leash to the same place many times every day. Give her the word  eg 'go potty' or whatever you use.

She'll get the idea eventually.......patience and persistence as always.

[kjwarnold]

I imagine it will be like potty training her all over again. You trained to go on the pads, now you'll have to train her to go outside. I guess I would agree with Hillscreek, start moving the pads closer to the door and put them outside. We didn't use potty pads either, so not much experience with that. Good luck!

[CarPer]

Do you teach her a command when she does something so she knows what do you expect from her? I was also using the pads but at some point my dog started to prefer to do it outside. We still use pads but he pees there ocasionally. I really see that now he holds himself to go outside. That takes a lot of patience. Prize her every time she does outside and repeat the command. Start with taking pads outside and celebrate with a treat for a first pee