Ok.. I brought my 10 week old papillon home 3 days ago from the petstore. She is on a schedule with feeding and I take her out every time she wakes up, eats, or comes out of her crate. We stay out as long as I can stand it (or until she's shivering uncontrollably) but all she does is whine. If I catch her in the act, she will finish outside sometimes, but most of the time we go out and nothing happens. I take her to the same spot and I tell her "potty", but she just sits down and whines or walks around and whines until I take her back in, where she promptly starts to do her business in the floor! I say "no! outside!" then take her back outside where nothing happening yet again. It's very cold outside (about 7 degrees) and she has a respiratory infection. She's very tiny and I'm concerned about keeping her outside too long in the cold. So, how long is too long for her to be in the cold? And Any suggestions on how to get her to go in the cold instead of on my carpet? Thanks!

Maybe a sweater would help. Keeping her moving will keep both of you warmer and stimulate her body to eliminate. Recognizing when she needs to go and not going out before then will help. Keeping a coat where I can grab it on my way out has likely prevented a few cases of pneumonia for me.

I will not repeat the material on recognizing when a puppy needs to go out that is in the sticky, https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/dogs/i...tml#post251809 Schedules just aren't going to work for a while.