@dutchmaster83 "Our girl has started to enjoy watching the trains go by." - absolutely love this.
Ok great points here - I especially like the reaching out part (a letter will have to do until the COVID fears subside). I also would like to ask them to keep their cats out of our side of the balcony for a couple of weeks just till our little one is ready to socialize so that'd be a great opportunity. Great idea. I have a playpen coming in this week - I might get a couple more of those to block parts (agreed - I don't intend to let him roam free until a few weeks or so anyway). Rugs and carpets will be wrapped and stored before he arrives - a couple nice rugs are gifts for our wedding so we can't really risk anything untoward occurring upon those. I have no clue how expensive baby gates are - will check them out.
This is fantastically helpful, my friend. Thanks for bringing the neighbor aspect to my attention - it's hard to remember there are other humans affected by a drastic change in our lives sometimes. I'll be a good citizen and reach out. Peaks and valleys - what else is new, right?
@jesusismybestfriend314 You’re very welcome! Feel free to let me know if you have any other questions!
Reg baby gates: no need to go out and buy new ones! This is more of a nice to have than a necessity. A big box, or chairs or any other kind of blocker would work. We’re currently using two play pens (one she outgrew in a week) to block off access.
@jesusismybestfriend314 Carry the pup until outside or if trained enough to do so, an attentive sit.
You don’t want him to poop or pee in the elevator. Poop, not bad because you can pick it up with a bag, pee...I mean we don’t carry around paper towels so. Not that I’m speaking from experience.
@estherwillow Can confirm this can happen. When going on our regular scheduled walks a month ago, we realized our puppy would hold his bladder in our apartment but as soon as left our own door he thought it was "outside". We've had 2 incidents of him peeing by the elevator or in the hallway. Thankfully it was on tile so we just cleaned it up after but it was a lesson learned.
We started carrying him until outside after that, or immediately putting him in a sit position to make sure he doesn't sniff around then pee. The problem is fixed now because he prefers to do his business outside!
@jesusismybestfriend314 Truly consider your stance on not taking him out, as you will have missed a lot of socialisation (to buses, crowds, trees, traffic etc) by the time he is 14wo. Check parvo risks in your area and don't let him eat poop, but def take him to a designated patch if you can.
I live in an apartment with an 11wo dalmatian, and I'd say to carry them out through the elevator. She has never peed while I hold her, but will the moment I put her down. It took a couple hallway/elevator accidents to learn that. I'd also recommend potty bells by the door so that he can learn a way to let you know. Best of luck!
@simon10 Great points - yes, as you can tell I am not very knowledgeable about any of this stuff at the moment - I will go by what our (20%) neighbours and (80%) vet says about the particular location and parvo risks. I would like a happy and social puppy of course! Especially herding breeds like the MAS need a lot of socialization, from what I hear, so your point is very well taken. We appreciate your time!
@jesusismybestfriend314 Happy to hear! If he is small, you could just pick him up and hang out at a bus bench or ride a stop or similar
If you aren't already all over youtube looking at puppy videos i can really recommend Simpawtico's videos. Have a great day and best of luck with the little one!
@jesusismybestfriend314 I live in a high-rise apartment (16th floor) that has lots of dogs and struggled with potty training at first. I have to walk my puppy down the carpeted hall, wait for the elevator, ride the elevator down, then walk through the lobby to get to dirt/grass. Here are a few things that I tried:
Fresh Patch - my dog loves grass. He did not use this to pee/poop but instead only wanted to eat/tear up/lay down on the grass. I got one and then cancelled the subscription.
Pee pads for middle of the night potty - I didn't want to take him all the way outside for the middle of the night breaks so I used a pee pad for that. Thankfully he started sleeping through the night pretty early so I tried to get rid of pee pads asap.
Pee pad holders are great. I got one that had a mesh/layer on top so that the puppy wouldn't be stepping into the pee (mine loved to do that).
Ran him down the hallway and then scooped him up - vet said that it was best to carry him directly to the spot outside to pee/poop and then pick him up again to reduce parvo risk. I carried him for a long time and got some arm muscles. If you pick up the puppy they usually either stop peeing or just don't pee (although I did have 3 incidents when he just kept peeing...yikes).
Took him out every 2 hours - I had a schedule of 1 hour crate time followed by potty break outside + playtime on repeat throughout the day and made sure to reward heavily for going outside.
He's 6 months old now and I can't remember the last time he peed in my apartment, but sometimes he's had too much water or gets too excited when going down the hallway and lets some out on the way outside. I still pick him up for the first pee of the day and if the elevator is taking too long just in case. He's about 40 pounds now so...still getting a workout everyday haha.
@jesusismybestfriend314 I live in an apartment and I tried doing puppy pads with the intention of transitioning to outside once she was vaccinated. But that didn’t work once we realized that our pup would not stop shredding the puppy pads even with the holder. We built our own balcony fake grass (lots of DIY on google), put wire mesh on the rails and bell trained her. It works amazing and she lets us know whenever she has to go, we’ve had very few accidents. We do rinse the fake grass every week and leave it soaking in hot water + vinegar which helps a lot with the smell. We just started transitioning her to outside and she hasn’t had any issue differentiating between the two!
@stevo27 Interesting ... would you mind if I asked if the pads were just not a good option right from the start for your little one, or whether it was after a few weeks that she decided it was worth chewing on? I'm glad the fake grass thing worked for you - for us too this seems like the best option except I have to figure out the smell part since my balcony is kind of connected with a neighbor except for a high wooden separator.
@jesusismybestfriend314 She was okay with the pads at first, but after a few days, she started shredding them. We tried our best with redirecting with toys but she was much more interested in playing with the pad. We bought the pad holder but she was still able to claw it out. It was very stressful. After a week and a half from when we initially got her, we made the fake grass pad. It’s been almost two months and I’ve had no issues so far. With regular cleaning, it only starts smelling towards the end of the week. She’s also a small (6lb) dachshund so she doesn’t produce as much waste so that may also be a factor
@stevo27 You know I think it has a lot to do with what they were brought up with at the breeders' as well - some breeders use pads, some don't I suppose. Makes sense each puppy has a preference. I'm glad things have worked out for you now - congratulations The hot-water + vinegar is a good tip! Thank you.
@jesusismybestfriend314 Nothing helped us potty train more then keeping our puppy attached to us on a leash in the house!!! We tried the timing method and she would squat and pee so fast we would miss our chance to get her out. Once we put a leash on her and kept her close we got up every time she moved away and took her out. Once this became successful 100% of the time we would give her small times off leash to wonder the living room only! She got access to only one room at a time until her potty training was great! If she peed inside we went back to on leash only. I think it helped us because learning a dogs cues can be difficult. Our pup did not give super distinctive cues. And far as peeing on the balcony I didn’t use pee pads inside because I didn’t want to have to teach another step after she got the pee pads so we went straight to only peeing outside. We have a small enclosed patio that I can rinse off and sanitize so it’s a little different for us but I’m still trying to get her to pee and poo in one spot.
@luuksteitner Leash - most def. One room at a time - definitely. Sounds like y'all have it figured out now - let's hope we get there quickly too Thanks much, my friend.
@jesusismybestfriend314 I was in a similar situation (nyc) and realized that pee pads and fake grass for the balcony are disgusting so I just took one for the team and did potty training exclusively outside. Riding the elevator every hour or other hour. Anxiously cleaning up messes in the hallway and elevator at 3am. Little dude was potty trained after 2 months. Only goes outside.
I made sure to ask the vet about any parvo outbreaks in the area.
@rpowell01 If we can manage to do that, that will be excellent. But I think it’ll be very tough for us to have that kind of strength of will to do it every night for two months when we are quite a while away from the ground floor front door. But thanks for your insights - your puppy must be super proud of his parent’s dedication!
Thanks much!