We just adopted a heeler / collie mix last night (on national dog day at that), and she's nearly perfect. 10 weeks old, slept through the night even after being separated from her sister (we wish we could've taken her too), and at her foster home she was going outside. However, that was a big house with a backyard. Now we've brought her home to our 3rd floor walkup with no actual grassy spots near by. She's got 2 of her 3 parvo boosters, but I'm still a little weary of taking her out on the sidewalk in a relatively dog heavy neighborhood. We've got a few dogs in the building but it's only 6 units on our side.

The problem is that when we know she has to go we take her outside, but she refuses to go. She'll sniff everything in sight, but won't go. We guess it's probably due to at the foster home she didnt need a leash to go outside, and could go at her leisure in the yard. We've tried pee pads in both the apartment and outside, but she won't go on them. She's gone 1 and 2 twice in various parts of the apartment now today after not having to go last night before bedtime (around 930/10). We're going to try to go to the big field down a block from the apartment, but carry her so she's not sniffing anything that might be on the sidewalk that another dog has done.

We figured she would whimper if she had to go out, but she'll whimper literally the instant she goes so there's no snatching her up and taking her downstairs quickly. I did notice she had to go about 20 minutes after eating her breakfast this morning and then playing a little. My wife and I tried walking her a little behind the building on a sidestreet, but she was just enjoying sniffing it all and figuring out what the hell birds are.

Not sure what we can do right now to curb her eliminating inside the apartment. We can't even praise her because she's yet to go outside in front of us, so right now its just her going inside, us just carrying her away form her mess and being quiet so it doesnt feel like we're scolding her and then cleaning up.