Hello! Need advice about transitioning from paper training to crate training

[Hoopin' Mama]

We adopted a 3 month old dog today! She's so sweet. I was able to speak at length with her foster mom. She has been paper trained in a playpen. I would like to crate train asap. Any ideas how to make this transition easiest for her? I don't know if I should go slow or pull the paper cold turkey. We bought a small package of puppy mats and used two so far. I haven't put a third one down. I haven't seen her pee outside at all. 

She's had quite a day. The last of her litter mates were adopted out today, she spent hours at PetSmart and now she's here. Snuggled in my son's bed :) I really want to make this transition easy for her. 

We have a small crate and she can stretch out in it but I don't think it's so big that she'll eliminate in it. We put her in during dinner, oh my did she cry. I'm kind of afraid for what tonight will bring!

I would appreciate any tips about making this transition so it's not too stressful for her. I really don't want to paper train. 

Thanks!

[starrlamia]

With such a young puppy I would probably go to basic housetraining and do it that way, outside every hour, outside after every meal, nap, playtime etc and reward heavily for eliminating outdoors. Remove all pads so you dont confuse her, and you can even bring a used pad outside and place it in her area so she can get the idea faster.

If you find she is still going in the house, then you can move the pads slowly (as in daily a foot or so) toward the door she will go out to eliminate and eventually ending up with the pad outside.

It takes time and patience! Make sure you watch her closely at all times so you can watch for her potty queues and take her out ASAP. If you cant confine her to one room you can use a leash inside and attach it to your waist so she cant go far.

[Hoopin' Mama]

Thanks for your response. 

I think I'm going to eliminate pads altogether. She's only peed once inside today and peed and pooped outside many times. Ds is being really good about tending to her, hope that lasts. She did soil her crate last night, but it was her first night after a very stressful day. I fed her in her crate today so hoping that starts to stick. 

Last night she slept with my son for a bit. I took her out to potty and then brought her to my bed. She peed my bed. Guess I should have seen that coming. I put her in the crate after that and slept on the couch next to her and talked to calm her down. I don't think I was supposed to do that but what a day she had. I felt bad for her.

[NikonMama]

I would avoid having her sleep in the bed with you until she is 100% potty trained, meaning no accidents whatsoever or at least a couple weeks.  Especially since you just adopted her, she has had so many changes in the past couple days.  That is a lot for a puppy to process.  Accidents are to be expected. 

Our puppy is 5 months old, and fairly well potty trained, but we aren't there yet.  He still has a rare accident, and we have had him for 3 months.  We got him from my SIL, who pad trained him.  It was a bit of a struggle to undo that, since once they are trained to go on pads/paper they can be VERY hard to train to go in the yard.  It seems like you are on the right track since she is peeing in the yard well enough.  With our dog we had to put the pad in the yard for a LONG time before we could get him to go in the grass.  It was a huge pain.  He is completely crate trained now, and only has an accident if we are busy and don't notice him at the door asking to go out.  He also pees if he gets really nervous.  He had bad seizures due to a reaction to topical flea drops, and it was hard on his bladder, and he seems to have a very weak bladder now, so I cut him some slack.  ;)

Dogs are usually not completely potty trained until they are at least 6 months old.  Good luck!  :)