Too cold to potty outside

[Pope]

Alright, so we just brought our new frenchie home on Sunday. The weather was warm and he was doing fabulously with only going potty outside (we live 11 floors up with no balcony- so we were impressed). He still hasn't gone potty in his crate yet *fingers crossed*. Problem: last night was cold and when we took him outside after his dinner, he just stood shaking. After a lot of encouragement he finally went pee. The same issue happened this morning. I set him down to go potty and he just sat down and shivered. We are crate training him, and my husband came home for lunch. Pope shivered when let outside, and then pooped when he came back inside. It is in the mid 50's today, but it's going to get much, much colder when winter comes. Any advice on how to get him to persevere despite the cold?

 

[Alice Kable]

You might want to get a jacket or sweater for him. We got Buster in the winter and trained him on potty pads. That worked fine until he started playing with the pads and shredding them.

 

[Pope]

Did he seems to transition well from those to outside? Our vet warned us against potty pads saying he might confuse the carpet or rugs with one later on... That would certainly be the warmest and easiest option, but I don't want to regret it later on :/

 

[2bullymama]

You might want to get a jacket or sweater for him. We got Buster in the winter and trained him on potty pads. That worked fine until he started playing with the pads and shredding them.

:up: sweater did wonder for us too

 

[davidh]

He will get better at it the older he gets, and as others have said, get him a coat or sweater for next winter.

 

[Cbrugs]

I live in the Seattle area so we get get cold winters and sometimes snow. Jax didn't have a problem with going outside when it was cold. I agree with the others, try a sweater/jacket.

 

[eeturk]

I got Hudson a little down jacket when it was colder. He went from refusing to step outside to being more than happy to frolic. Makes a HUGE difference. Unfortunately he has now outgrown it

 

[Pope]

Thanks for the help everyone! We are looking into jackets now!

 

[Alice Kable]

Did he seems to transition well from those to outside? Our vet warned us against potty pads saying he might confuse the carpet or rugs with one later on... That would certainly be the warmest and easiest option, but I don't want to regret it later on :/

We have all tile floors so I don't know about confusing potty pads with carpet. I know when it came time to disappear the potty pads he had become very regular in his potty habits, which helped with the transition.

 

[eeturk]

My vet told me that the point of the potty pads is to teach them that there's a specific "area" that is acceptable for them to potty in. Once you transition them off and they're used to that idea, the acceptable area becomes the spot you choose outside. Mine doesn't confuse potty pads and carpet, and we have light carpeting.


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