12 week Yorkie Poo

Question
Hi Karen,  I have been reading your site and I know more than I have learned in the 1 week I have had my 12 week old Yorkie/tea cup poodle mix boy.  Stormy is adorable, and my first ever dog.  My brothers had hunting dogs when I was small 30 years ago.  But he is ours.  We have three girls still home-13-3-2.  They adore him and they are very gentle.  My question is, Do I train him to potty outside?  He will max out at 4 lbs.  He is almost completely paper trained (only 2 accidents in 1 week)  Do I keep the paper pads in his kennel all the time, just at night and when I leave?  Please giva any advice you can.  Thank you so much, Megan, Jeff, our girls and our new boy.

Answer
This is a matter of personal preference, and only one that you can answer. Personally, I would rather clean up the yard than clean up inside messes all the time, so I start housebreaking my puppies by five weeks of age, weather permitting.

With two toddlers in the house, I think I might worry about them somehow getting into the messes, either intentionally or accidentally. The important thing to know is that once you train the dog to potty inside he will most likely be impossible to housebreak later.

If you want to train him to go inside, I would confine him in a bit larger area, say in an exercise pen, and put his crate in there with the door removed so that he can go in and out at will, with the pads at one end of the pen. (Actually, I would probably try one of those litterboxes that are available now; since I do neither one I'm not sure which is actually better.) Keeping the pads in his crate are going to teach him to be dirty in confined areas, and believe me, you don't want to do that.

If you decide to housebreak, here is a good link for that:
http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=2&cat=1548&articleid=157

I did just have one last-minute thought pop into my head as I reread your message. Since this is a male rather than a bitch, eventually he will most likely be lifting his leg rather than squatting. If he isn't too dominant and he is neutered young enough (which I don't really believe in), he may never lift his leg at all, but I don't know what the odds on that are. Leg-lifters aren't all that accurate as to where they aim. For that reason alone, I would now lean more toward housebreaking with your dog.