Alright, Crate Training or Bed Training. (please read)

I think you better have a box upstairs and downstairs both, a puppy will quite often wait till the last second before even thinking of looking for where they should go (a lot like small children, LOL) and if the puppy is downstairs a lot I think you can expect accidents without someplace for it to go. We take Marcus everywhere and he travels in his crate so the stores and restaurants he can't go in he waits in his crate and he's never resented it. It's got his blanket and toys and he feels content to wait till we get back. I don't crate him at home but the crate sits on the floor close to where we are and sometimes he crates himself if we are too busy to let him sit on a lap. He sleeps with us and at first when he was very young we would get up a couple of times a night to let him use his pee pad. Now he licks my face to let me know he's got to go but I'm seriously thinking about getting a ramp like Kemo's Mom got so he can get up and down by himself.

Reba zooms up and down our stairs now, but she was so tiny when we first got her- there was no way. I think she is probably close to 3 lbs. now. Also, we got one of those exercise pens for her and it confines her to about a 3'x3' space- enough room for her bed box, food & water dish, a pee pad and some space for toys. She has a big teddy bear that she climbs on to get on top of her box. This has worked well for us, but some sort of crate or confinement training will really help your potty training as well as a safety issue for chis- they're so small and they can get hurt if there are people moving around, kids, other animals, etc. If Reba even needs a behavior break, it works well.

Crate traing does not make them mean. All dogs have a natural instinct to have a den. It is their safe place. I used a small Kennel for my three, it worked great. Bought it at WalMart. It was big enough for a peepad a warm bed and toys. At night I covered it with a blanket. I put the Kennel in another room (office) at night. They only whimpered for a couple of nights and that was it...I was very lucky. You might want to buy a "baby gate" to use at the top of your stairs. They are really handy.

My Chi's have never slept with us. Our bed is very high and my husband has allergies.

sandra

jezapach- tell me a little more about the exercise pen and where you got it, if you don't mind. I would like something like that for my new puppy and my Chi to play in and keep them out of trouble. Right now they are either running through out most of the kitchen and great room, or shut up with me in my office while I work. I would like something for when we are eating or watching tv to keep an eye on them and safe. Thanks!