Update #20: Talk to me about having a small dog!
So we adopted a Chihuahua/Doxen/Shiba Inu (?) mix (the curly tail, pointy ears, and tall legs makes us think he is part Shiba Inu) on Saturday from our local shelter and my DH picks him up today. He is about 18 months old and so I am hoping he is housr trained, but we bought pee pads as well. I have never had a small dog and this guy weighs about 15lbs now. We do have a dog door (the prior owners of our house had a small dog), but other than that I am not sure what to do. From what we could tell the dog has an awesome temperament, doesn't jump and is good with my kids which is why we adopted him. DH is still convinced he can be an outside dog when we are at work but I am not so sure especially now with all of the rain we are having right now so I am thinking of buying a small to medium crate or giving him free range of our kitchen (we have a door on one side and will have to get a baby gate for the other side and he can get to the dog door from the kiarchenemy) at least on days when it rains.
Any help or suggestions would be great! Thanks so much! Also any suggestions for dog food. We have a bag of Hills Science Diet Active dog food for small dogs and it gets good reviews on chewy.com and it is what he was fed at the shelter.