I have 3 dogs. I have a Chihuahua (3.5 years old), Yorkshire Terrier (1.5 years old), and a Miniature Poodle (1.5 years old). I've had the chi nearly two years. The yorkie has been with us for nearly a month, and the mini poo has been here a little over a week. I have been having the dogs go outside to potty, but the weather is so terrible. The chi and my family used to live in So California so we didn't have to deal with snow and cold as much. We're in Reno NV and it snows here. The wind is the worst part because it can be around 80 miles an hour give or take. Our house is also new so we don't have any landscaping in the back and our front yard is very small and mostly decorative rocks and bushes.

I am using a big pan for the litter box and I'm using recycled newspaper litter. I sprayed some some from Natures Miracle on the littler to entice the dogs to go potty in the litter. I have the litter box in the garage. The dogs went potty next to the litter box. My chi wouldn't go at all. I let them outside after a while and they peed. My mini poo had her first accident in the house about 20 minutes after being outside. She pooped upstairs just a few feet behind us.

I'm ready to give up and just brave the horrible winds, cold,snow and muddy backyard. My two little dogs don't like walks so that's not a really good option. I know it's so soon to give up, but I'm afraid that my dogs will start to have accidents in the house because I'm trying to get them to go in the litter box or they'll just keep going around the litter box. I put a poop and some pee from my yorkie and some pee from my mini poodle in the litter box.

I should add that I do and will walk the dogs, but I hope to at least be able to have them use the litter box at times when it would really not be good for us to be outside such as when the winds are about 80 + miles an hour. Even I was blown back a foot or two when the wind gusted.

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Instead of a litter pan they have to jump into, try a puppy pad at first. Then, once they are used to that, move the puppy pad into the litter pan. It may take a while, so you need patience. You are confusing them, so they will not get it right away. I would kill to have completely house broke dogs, myself.

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Thank you Jan for the wonderful siggy!

I got Bandit in November (in Colorado) so I knew I would need an indoor option. I was hoping he would use the same litter box that the cats do. It was hit and miss, and if I had stuck with it, it would probably have worked. What I did though was look online and found an indoor dog potty solution. I don't remember the exact name, but it has a fake grass that Bandit took to. He uses this almost all of the time now - still occasional accidents, but he is only 4 months old.

I forgot to add that the stuff I put on the litter is a spray from Nature's Miracle and it's supposed to encourage dogs to go in a certain area. The spray is not the odor removing cleaner.

I wanted to try the fake grass option, but I was afraid it would get too stinky after a relatively short time. I gave up on it for now, but I'm going to get a dog playpen with a door and put the shallow litter pan (for washing machines installed upstairs) inside the playpen. I'll put their sleeping crates inside as well and somehow make it so that they can either go in their crates or in their bed. I saw a thing called Puppy Potty Training Apartment and got the idea from it. It's a crate with a separate area for sleeping and going potty. This gives the dog only two potty options, their bed or the potty area. Eventually the dog will have free access to go in and out of the crate to sleep or go potty once they are trained.

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