Got a small dog, has been living outside for the last 2 years (he’s got one of those thermal igloo doghouses, plenty of food and water - don’t hit me!)
Wife and kids want to get this cute puppy to live inside. I say we got a dog! If you want an inside dog, we can train this one to live inside. Can we? He’s kinda hyper, fairly intelligent if I am any judge. Anyone done this before?
The real answer, as usual, is that it depends. But I have sucessfully trained outdoor dogs to live indoors and vice versa. The fact that the dog is small is probably good in this case. But you’ll have to stay on top of him (or her) for at least the first few weeks since my guess is that the rules are different inside as opposed to outside. If the dog is used to running around and tearing things up outside you’ll need to make sure it knows that isn’t going to fly whilst inside the house.
Since it’s usually warmer, drier and there are generally more people to hang around with inside the dog should see this move as a step up in lifestyle. But as soon as he steps out of line you need to set him straight or ban him from house.
I suggest you bring the dog in occasionally to start… when there are lots of people around to keep an eye on him, give him lots of attention, and let him know when he behaves in an inappropriate manner. Once the bad habits are set it’s much harder to change their behavior.
I’ve always trained my animals to be inside/outside since there are usually times when you don’t want them running around inside (like when you are on vacation) or when you don’t want them stuck outside (like during a blizzard).
We took in our second dog (Ivan) after his former owners moved away and left him in the yard.
We don’t know much about his early history, but we suspect he had been an outside dog. When we first brought him home, he was leery about coming in the house. (He’d stand just outside the door as though he were saying “Are you sure you want me to come in there?” It took a good bit of gently encouragement for him to get comfortable coming inside. And, like dolphinboy says, we needed to keep a close eye on him at first to be sure he learned the “inside rules” (especially the “No Marking My Territory In the House” rule.)
Of course, now he’s thoroughly “housified”. He sleeps on the bed with us and stays comfortably in his crate when we need him to.
He’s still more comfortable being outside than our other 3 dogs though. Especially when it’s raining. He’s the only one who isn’t afraid to get his toes wet. 
So yes, it can be done successfully.
The hard part (and really not even too hard) is going to be housebreaking this dog. Other than that there really shouldn’t be too many problems that can’t be relatively easily overcome with training.
If you can, get a dog door. They rock! My current house came with a dog door that just slides into the sliding glass door track. I love it. We can be gone for very long periods, and don’t have to worry about the dogs messing up the house.
The point is, a two year old dog should be very receptive to training, and should be able to make the transition from out to in.
My only comment is that I am reminded of a famous Groucho Marx quip:
“Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.”
Thanks for all the help…so now Mrs_clubber just phoned me to say we’re getting new carpeting next week…this thread may go to the pit…:mad:
Does your dog like to chew and gnaw on things? If so, I’d keep a close eye on your shoes, books, pillows, and other “chew-friendly” items. Ideally, you’d want to get him to stop his chewing habit before bringing him in, rather than making it a trial and error kinda thing.
I would think that crate training wil come in handy here, just as if you were bringing a new puppy home – and it will also help with housebreaking, if needed. When he’s not in the crate, he’s supervised so that you can correct any mistakes, behavioral or otherwise. You gradually lengthen his time outside the crate until he’s learned the rules.
There are goodies all over the SDMB and Google about crate training if you need to know more.
A new dog and new carpeting?? I’d hold off on the carpeting until either the new dog or your current dog is housebroken.
i just got a puppy, its about a month old. I taught it to go on the paper by placing him on the paper after each time it went, it now goes on the paper no problem and I will start putting the paper outside soon. That was easy. I’m having trouble training it to stop biting everything. I’ve tried pinching its cheek each time it started biting something, but it isnt working. Can anyone help?
If I may offer a trick:
Reinforcing positive behavior is infinitely more effective then punishing negative behavior.
We had a pair of wonderful Dalmations (a pretty energetic breed.) They started life as indoor dogs, but were just too darn hyper, or so we thought. After being consigned to the outdoors, we had a trainer visit. He pointed out all the times we unconciously reinforced negative behavior (Petting them or feeding them when they spazzed out, in an effort to get them to settle down). After the visit, we began to give treats only when they settled down, and a littany of other little tricks the trainer gave us.
Voila! Within a few weeks, they came back indoors on a almost fulltime basis, much better behaved. Most dogs want to make their masters happy; The trick is showing that happiness in such a way as to reinforce behavior that you want the dog to exhibit.