How to Potty Train with Potty Pads

Potty training your puppy to potty pads is becoming increasingly important to dog owners. With the majority of the population living in rentals, condos, and apartments - its becoming increasingly important for our pets to go potty in places other than outside.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. First - The "General Idea" of it all!
   
   Training your pet to use a potty pad is a fairly simple idea in itself. When dog training began over 50 years ago, owners were "paper training" their dogs to potty on newspaper, and then eventually were transferring it outside. To train a dog to use a potty pad is a very similar idea. Owners must simply reinforce enough times on the potty pad and condition the dog that this is the place where it is to potty. But its not always that simple and I often hear clients complain that the pooch isn't hitting the potty pad, or is using other areas of the house as well.

2. Make Sure the Potty Pad is a distinct area for the puppy to go on!
   
   Many companies make trays to hold the potty pad in place so its more distinct. When you look at the potty pad itself, there isn't much difference between peeing on the pad and peeing on the wee little corner of the pad and onto the carpet. Using a potty pad tray or holder will help the pet distinguish the difference. I would even go so far as to put the potty pad in a litter box or in an exercise pen so there is no chance of the pet learning to pee on a corner of the pad.

3. Now you need to find a location for the potty pad and its tray!
   
   The most important thing is to never use potty pads in a crate. Often times owners think that by putting a potty pad on one side of a crate and a blanket on the other side, they will be training their dog to use the potty pad. Unfortunately, this is also teaching the dog a very bad lesson: to potty in their sleeping area. Instead, it is better to set up
   a separate potty area for the dog so that the dog knows there is a separation between where it sleeps and where it goes pee. Again, using an exercise pen and putting several potty pads close together in the area helps the pet to distinguish this as a "potty area."
   
   Try and locate multiple potty pads in areas where the dog has access. Don't put it in a small corner of the house and expect your puppy is going to hit its mark.

4. Third, don't let the puppy make mistakes. Just as with any kind of potty training, you should put the dog onto a schedule so that you know exactly when it will have to pee or poop. Once you establish this, you can easily make it so that there are set times that you take your puppy to the potty pad. You have to establish an association between having to potty and where they should go (i.e. the potty pad). This may mean that every two hours you are putting your puppy on the pad. The more you put your puppy on the potty pad, the less chance of mistakes there will be.

Tips & Warnings

• Remember that just because there is a potty pad available doesn't mean that your dog will know to use it every single time. Don't give your puppy free access thinking it will "know better." If you find your puppy making mistakes, you should reduce its freedom in the house so mistakes are impossible to make.
• Use a note pad and keep record of when your puppy is eating, drinking, and pottying. This will simplify a schedule for the puppy and make housebreaking go much quicker!
• Never rub your puppy's nose in its feces. This is an old method and it doesn't work. Ever.

[mhtedder]

on 10/8/2008 I still have not found specific instructions on how to potty train your dog on potty pads in the house. what if he or she wee wees somewhere else other than the potty pads what do you do if you don't rub his/her nose in it? do you spank them or what? could someone please email me and let me know a solution that has worked for you. my dog will use the potty pads sometimes and sometimes he want. I have a toy poodle and he is a male, and stubborn:) pleas let me know if you have any suggestions. thanks [e-mail]

[mhtedder]

on 10/8/2008 This web page did not exactly give me specific instructions on how to do this potty training on potty pads. When your dog makes a mistake what do you do. Do you spank them or what? I mean they need to know they did something wrong and what the right thing is to do and where to potty. Could some who sees this message please email me and let me know a procedure that works for you...myemail address is [e-mail] Thanks so much!!!!

[dogservicenet]

on 5/30/2008 One solution to help potty train your dog is The Pet Loo. It's a lifelong cost effective solution, where unlike wee wee pads, it does not pollute our Earth. The Pet Loo has perforated synthetic grass to give your dog the feeling of going on real grass. The perforations create a urine drainage system to allow the urine to flow through a slightly slanted tray, which creates gravity, and therefore pushes the urine thrugh a small hole and into a catch bucket. The catch bucket is then removed at the end of the day by using the handly to pull it out and then the urine gets flushed down the toilet.

It's recommended to clean The Pet Loo daily by pouring warm water over the grass to flush any of the excess urine.

For more information, please visit: www.dogservicenetwork.com/thepetloo/general_info.html.