We have a 13 week old yorkie pup who we’ve had for almost a month now. We have a porch potty situation (turf/drainage bucket) that we initially had on the balcony of our high rise balcony (23rd floor), but then my area had the snow/ice storm about a week after we got him. We moved the porch potty situation inside for obvious reasons as well as the brutal hypothermia-level cold and he learned very quickly that’s where he goes potty. He goes up there during playtime and does his business all by himself. We very rarely have accidents and if we do, it’s a couple dribbles on a carpet after a stimulating day/socialization activity but we pick him up and he finishes on the porch potty. He’s also had a handful of accidents in the crate overnight which is a whole other story (he wakes up, pees, THEN signals to us)
Now that the weather is getting nicer and snow is melting, we want to move the porch potty back outside. We also want to get him to start signaling with potty bells we hung on the balcony door. My worry is that he’s gotten so used to doing it inside all by himself (we still lead/carry him there before/after naps, and after meals and playtime) that he will have issues transitioning to using the porch potty on the balcony again while we wait for him to be fully vaccinated. Other than the barking/whining in the crate signal, he really doesn’t signal to us during playtime or anything – he’ll just go and do it on his own if he needs to go.
Has anyone gone through this transition before specially with the turf/balcony set up, or is going through it now? Any pieces of advice or ideas on how to slowly transition him out there, then again transitioning him to learn to go outside when vaxxed? We plan to keep the porch potty on the balcony an option for him overnight. I’m fully aware we set him back by bringing the porch potty inside but negative degree windchill for a <3lb pup learning how to go potty was not sitting right with me. So here we are now. Appreciate any and all advice!
submitted by /u/ln309
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