As some of you know, I'm getting my little chi baby in a little over 2 weeks and she will be 12 weeks old and I think probably (half) paper trained.
I want to take her with me wherever she is allowed to go, and bought a carrier for her when she isn't walking. I also bought a cute and safe car seat.

How can I potty train her to not go in her carrier, or will that happen by itself because the carrier is den-like? How can I train her not to go in car rides?

I plan on getting her off of paper training and letting her go outside with crate training.

Will that prevent going in the carrier and car? I'm kind of clueless about this so any suggestions will be welcome!!

I've never had a problem with Teddy peeing in either his carrier or the car. I think dogs have a natural inclination not to go in a moving vehicle because it doesn't feel "safe" enough, you know? Kind of like if WE tried to pee while in a moving car.. It just wouldn't feel right! (Unless you're one of those folks who can go in a glass bottle..)

I honestly think it's a good step to get her going outside rather than on paper. A lot of people are really eager to paper train their Chi, and I think it makes the whole potty training situation a lot more complicated. I made that mistake myself while training Teddy. For a while he was SO confused about whether it was okay to pee inside that he would just pee wherever he wanted. I started to train him that only bathrooms or tiled floors were okay to pee in by putting only one pee pad down in one specific bathroom. Since then, if he has an accident (where I miss the signals of him telling me he has to go out) he will run to a tiled floor and pee instead of going on carpet, which I'm thankful for.

If you want to add in paper training for when you're not home, I recommend waiting until she is reliably potty trained outside first, and then add in the pee pad in only one specific place in the house (don't move it around). That seemed to help a lot in my case.

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Thanks to Jan for my siggy!

Thanks Kaila!! That helps a lot!

No problem.

As far as training them to LIKE the carrier, I used real pieces of turkey (it was right after Thanksgiving two years ago when I got Teddy, haha). I tossed the turkey into the bag and let the bag rest against the leg of a chair or something so it wouldn't fall over, and waited for him to decide on his own to get in the bag. If he climbed in and decided to sit there, I just continually fed him treats by dropping them into the bottom of the bag so that he had to put his head down to get them.

Then I started to say, "Get in your bag" while pointing to the bag while it had a treat in it. That was his cue to go after the treat in the bag. Pretty soon he would get in on his own happily, and I can barely keep him out of his bag now.

When not training, I just kept the bag on the floor and open so that he could go in whenever he wanted. Sometimes I'd hide his toys or treats in it so that it was always a pleasant experience. I started training him to get in the bag when he was 12 weeks old-- it was one of the very first things I ever taught him, because I wanted him to like it.

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Thanks to Jan for my siggy!

hi goo d luck to you with your new baby please send pics when you can i love puppy pics i had no trouble with my buster because my yard is fenced and he took real good to that

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my buster

Congrats!! I know how excited you must be!

I totally think dog's should potty outside. I know that this can be really difficult though if you work all day and can't get to them to let them out. I really got a lot of exercise the 1st 3-6 months with my 4 chi's (all pup's and all within 3 months--yikes!) running in and out. Almost to the point of getting dizzy--lol! I take mine to work, which is on a 2nd story. In the beginning I would harness them up every hour and take them all downstairs to a small area to attend their business. Sometime's they would go and sometimes not. But, I always took the time and therefore did not feel bad for scolding one if they had an accident inside (just showing them their mess--mine are long coats and I can feel wet on the offender--and using a very unhappy tone seemed to be enough for mine to "get it", so it really didn't take that long. Seemed long at the time though).
Never had problem with crate or carrier wetting/soiling. Mine love their carrier's....I leave it open and they use it for a den too...got it off amazon.com (if you want a pic I can look it up and post a link or email you a pic...I'm not savvy enough to post one here yet)
Good luck!

Rio is 9 weeks old and goes to work with me each day in her carrier/ pet taxi / snuggly bed. When we are driving down the road if she needs to potty she will let me know just like she lets me know in the morning. So I haven't had any car accidents. Only twice has she had to alert me because we go big potty before we go to work and big potty before we head home. Other than an animal that is ill I have never had an animal go potty in the car. Can't say what pad trained pets do that could be different.

We potty train outside. There is just something inside of my body that won't allow me to train a dog to go to the bathroom in the house even in a designated spot. Young, old and inbetween if they are in our home they learn to potty outside in the yard. It works for us and even as little as Rio is and as chilly as it is in PA she scampers right out tcb's / I cheer and we head back in and warm up.

She really loves her crate and each time I put her in or I see her sneaking in for a nap I tell her to Crate Up she wags and jiggles her backside to get in and get comfy. If she has to have a time out I don't crate her for that I put her in her spot for an appropriate time/ ignore her for a few and then rescue her. That way she never feels her crate is a bad thing and only associates good times with it.