When do you give them free access to the back yard?

[jamiegirl]

Our GD is 6 months old and is doing well with her potty training. She would sit by the door to go outside if she needed to potty. During the day we have her in a fenced in patio where she would have to pee closer to the edge (near the actual yard). When would be a good time to take the next step with her potty training? I was thinking of leaving the gate from the patio to the back yard open so that she could potty where she normally does but I don't want to set her up for failure when she's doing so well? I guess if she does well with this, the doggie door option could be something that we could also look into in several months.

Any suggestions?

[Adina P]

I'm not clear on "next step in potty training?"

I don't feel comfortable giving my dogs free access to the backyard when I'm not home, but that's because I worry about theft or excessive barking, etc. At 6 months, if she goes potty before you leave, she should be able to hold her potty for 6-7 hours just fine on the patio.

[jamiegirl]

My thinking is that since she could go potty on the patio that she will not be able to learn to hold her bladder during the day. She does really well at night because we have her crated then. I know that crate training helps them hold it longer but she is out of her crate most of the time when we are home. I think our hope for the future is that she is still able to hold her bladder long enough so that she doesn't have to do it on the patio. We were hoping that our patio is a training equivalent for someone leaving them in their bathrooms or laundry rooms - you really don't want them using the place to go potty but, if they really have to, it's easier to clean up.

[Adina P]

Well mine are older so they are free in the house...but Rosco was crated for his first 2 years when we weren't home. Crated in the house.

[jamiegirl]

How long of a time period did you leave him in the crate when you were away? Right now we leave her in the crate if we are sure that we are back within 4 hours. Anything longer than that we leave her on the patio. Should we try to see if she could be in her crate longer than that?

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

We have three dogs so this advice may not work for you. We have a doggie door that we put in just before we got the 2nd dog and both of these dogs house were trained in days! As soon as they could go out of the doggie door they did - they do need some beginning help and praise as with any housebreaking. At first we needed to confine them in the den/kitchen area where the doggie door is located. We live in Southern California with basically good weather and the dogs go in and out independently whether we are home or gone. I LOVE our doggie door because we don't need to worry about how long we are gone, but yes, they can hold it for 6 - 7 hours if needed; they do need to physically mature into being able to do that, but realize that at night they go at least that long.

[Bev and WILLY]

Willy trained very easily, mainly due to the doggie door. He has always had full access to the back yard via the doggie door, since he was 9 weeks old, and I believe because of that, he was completely house-trained in less than two weeks. But each dog is different, so what works with one, may not work with another. But I would recommend the doggie door to anyone who has a safe yard.