Lexy is now about 90% house trained at about 5.5 months. My question to you guys are "Do you still leash your dog to go to the restroom in a fenced back yard?". My husband.. Does not leash her. But he does follow her around and I see no point of that. I think its much easier just to leash her. The reason why is because she will sit there and drink water from the puddles or see bugs and try to chase them around instead of doing her duty. My husband ends up just telling her no and to get her in the house, he uses treats which works majority of time. But calling her on command is hit or miss. The only reason I ask is my sister in-law has older dogs a bull terrier and english bulldogs that you just open the door and the go about there business then come back in.Is it the type of dog? Is it the age? We feed Lexy all the time and she will pick up anything off the ground and eat it.

I let my girls out individually to go do their business in our fenced in yard. They'll go do it and come right back in usually. Or if they get distracted i can call them back in unless they see a cat, squirrel, or the neighbors dog is out. Then it will take some effort to bring them back in. Other wise Kay and Sophie come back in on command 95% of the time and Maya comes back in about 70% of the time.

Mine both have always had free access to outside via dog door and go and do their business on their own. When I have the door out and open it for them to go, they go and come in unless they want to nap outside in which case they just stay out. I've never had to leash walk a dog in the backyard. I always treated them once they walked through the door when called back which probably helped a lot. I still do it as it helps with recall if they ever get out.

My yard is fully fenced in, but it's too much freedom for them (have almost an acre fully fenced in) so I use a tether. If my yard was smaller w/a taller fence, I would let them have free access.

Panzer used to be impossible to catch and bring inside, so I did used to walk her on her leash in the backyard to potty, but it was more or less because she had such a terrible start to life.

Now, we just let all the dogs out at once and let them roam their acre, and play, and chase birds and eventually go to the bathroom. Usually they all go pee pretty quickly after their initial spring race, and then they play for a little while before they go number two. Id say they are always left out for 15 minutes or so, unless they are begging to come in because of rain, which is plenty of time for them to go.

When we first got Lola at seven months, I would leash her to go potty in our fenced in yard. Now I let her out by herself. She comes back to the door when she is done. I just watch her from the window and always have shoes on in case she is doing something silly.