Re-training my pom

Question
Hi, I have a 1 year old female pom.  For the past year, we have been allowing her to go potty in the house in a box lined with newspaper, and she was doing very well with that, but on walks she would never eliminate outside and she'd wait until we got home to do it in "her box."  For the past couple weeks, I have been trying to train her to start going outside, and I took her box away.  However, she refuses to go outside...she still waits until we come inside to go, and she doesn't even go where her box used to be--just wherever she pleases.  She has only peed outside twice.  How can I praise her for going outside if she refuses to go?  What am I doing wrong?  Please help!

Answer
Hi Amy,

I think it's great that you have her litter boxed trained.  Don't stop using the litter box.  You are confusing her and training her to go to potty on your floor!  You can teach her to go outside while still keeping her box inside.  If you don't want to keep the box, wait until she is trained to go outside, then try and take it away.  I think the box is a good thing, especially if you are not home or the weather outside is bad.  

To train her to go outside, when you think she has to go potty, take some of the newspaper she has went potty on and put it outside in the spot you want her to use.  Put her on it and tell her to, "Go potty".  Be patient, if she won't go after several attempts try again later.  After you get her to potty outside on the newspaper several times, rub the newpaper on the ground to leave her scent and try to get her to potty on the ground without it.  Of course, praise, praise, praise!  You can train her to go outside, but it may take awhile.  I trained my pom as a puppy to go in a litter box and outside.  It works great.

Let me know if you need more help.

Best Regards,
Carrie
PLEASE SPAY AND NEUTER YOUR PETS.