Any "new" dog (visitor or adoptee) coming into our home, has to spend 3 days in quarantine until our vet can provide them with a clean bill of health. This is to protect our other dogs from any unseen illnesses or parasites. Although these dogs have come with a health certificate saying they are healthy, I still want my own vet to check them.

Indoors, quarantine merely means another room of the house.

Outdoors, it means an X-pen either on the porch or on the downstairs patio where our other dogs don't go. For new puppies, a piddle pad is put down to help with their house training. After 3 days(or whatever), the piddle pad is moved to the outdoor dog run that my other dogs also use. Everyone is then together. This all helps a new dog to understand the ONLY place where it is permitted to go potty. However use of the piddle pad is soon discontinued for the new comer, too. My little dogs are house broken to only go potty outdoors; just the same as any large dog would be.

Both Bailey and Chile were piddle pad trained when they first got here. Therefore, their full house breaking was extremely easy. Chile was both piddle pad and outdoors potty trained. She didn't really need additional training beyond knowing where her new outside potty area was. When we got Bella, she was younger & not formally even piddle pad trained. However, Bella immediately took to the piddle pad on the front porch & then immediately understood what she was supposed to do when it was moved to the dog run. Like the others, she was also fully house broken to her new home within a week.

Knock on wood, none ever had any accidents in the house during their transition phase nor later... Just like my homebreds (who learned by 12 weeks old to go potty outside only; regardless of the weather), all of our adoptees have been very good girls and perfect house dogs.