Hey All!

I'm welcoming a new black pug into my family this weekend and I have a very important question...

So here's the deal...I've had 2 pugs in the past -- so I know how hard it can be to housetrain a pug. My first pug took about 4 months to housetrain -- and my second pug only took 2 weeks. I can't say that the improvement was due to experience -- just luck of the draw from an intelligence/stubbornness perspective...

However, there is a key difference now. I live in NYC and my last two apartments were 4-story walkups -- so I decided to train my last puggies to use wee-wee pads rather than training them to only go outside. BUT, my fiancee and I just moved into an apartment in Queens with a nice, fenced in backyard with grass for our new boy (Ralph is his name). The problem is, Ralph is only going to be 9 weeks old when we pick him up from our breeder, and he still has a few immunizations remaining before he can go outside safely. The breeder has done a wonderful job of paper training her litter (incredible breeder in Staten Island -- if anyone in the NYC area is looking for someone who absolutely LOVES pugs and breeds them strictly for pleasure, contact me and I'll put you in touch with her. She's fantastic). Anyway. I want to transition Ralph from using the paper to strictly going outside, now that we have the backyard. I've never attempted to make that transition before...This brings me to my ultimate question: How do I go from rewarding Ralph for going on his paper (while he can't be outside) and then pivot to only rewarding him when he potties outside? I feel like it's going to be very confusing for him. Does anyone have any advice?

Thank you!!

Zak