petitpie

Sorry you are having trouble with Chuck and your family and bears. Poodles are so smart that Chuck could figure out both pad and outside. Do what you can.....bears are scarier than accidents or mixed messages.

katbrat

We have bears where we live, four were trapped across the street from us over several months. We do not have a fenced yard. When we take Lexi out at night it is on a leash and we stay close to the house where the security lights come on. I would not want to run into anything that bends fence posts! Good luck with Chuck!

dryce

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! We are keeping a pad down at night, but I've found that he is a stubborn little guy lol. He continues to lay on the pads and just overall refuses to go on them. If we put them outside, he will move off of them onto the grass or just stand there if we put him back on the pad. I would love to say my patience won out but it is cold here right now and he seems to be able to win the staring contest at the moment. I took him back to the vet due to his ongoing itching problem. They've put him on a course of prednisone twice a day and thankfully it has stopped the itching for the moment. On the bad side of things, he is drinking a lot more and if we aren't careful he has an accident. He will go for the carpet or vinyl instead of the pad even if it is right in front of him.

The rescue mentioned that he was crate trained when we got him. I never thought much about it, since we never intended to use a crate. I did purchase one in case of emergency when we absolutely could not be with him. The other two adults in the house are retired so they babysit while I'm at work. Despite their stubbornness on the pad issue, I love them dearly and Chuck enjoys spending time with them as well. They've taken to him a great deal since he arrived a little over a month ago.

Anyhow, back to the question. I'm not too familiar with crate training. Is there typically an area within the crate for them to use the restroom? I've seen it set up both ways. Sometimes it is used as a den where they hang out and sometimes a small litter box or pad is used in a portion of the cage.

Would we be able to place a pad inside and leave the door open for him to come and go? I have a suspicion he'd probably end up laying on it. I definitely don't want to confine him. I'm just trying everything to keep him indoors at night. The vet said it can be very difficult to retrain once they are trained to go outdoors. Thanks for all the advice.