# Puppy training pads and where to put them



## BeckyG (Sep 27, 2015)

Hi everyone.

We will be getting our first puppy, Maisie on Friday and have got all of the basic essentials for her. She is a Chorkie breed so will remain a small dog (we haven't got her a collar or lead yet because of her being so small. We're going straight to the vets from picking her up, and our vets is inside a Pets at Home so will get a collar whilst she is with us so we can get the right size).

I would like some advice on training pads please if anyone can help? We have set up Maisie's area in the one corner of the living room (plenty of light and space, and she can see virtually all of the room from there). We have set up a dog crate with her bed inside, some toys, her food and water bowls will go in there, and a blanket given to us from her current owners. We also have a play pen that is set up around her crate to give her more room whilst we are out. (We even have one of those pet cameras that you can see through an app on your phone so we can keep an eye on her when we're out, which also allows us to talk to her! I'm digressing now!) we plan on putting the training pads in the play pen area as oppose to inside the crate (although we are debating buying a dog litter tray). The people we are buying her from are lovely and on the advertisement it says the puppies are litter trained, so guessing by this they mean she can use the training pads (there's pictures of some of them on the pads in the advertisement), but our worry is that the area she is in is carpeted and worry about accidents and staining (we are expecting some, and we do plan on swapping it to laminate flooring in the future so it's not too major a deal if there is an accident). Would you recommend putting the pads all over the carpeted area or just one area of the play pen? We live in a flat so it won't be as easy as opening the back door to let her out, but we do live next door but one to a park so once she has had her vaccinations we'll take her there and some grassy areas on the flats grounds too, it's more for when we're out and before her vaccinations (she'll get her first vaccination on Friday if her health check is fine).

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance. Becky.


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## Blaise in Surrey (Jun 10, 2014)

Put them in the bin . No, not being rude, but they just cause confusion, because it teaches puppy that it's okay to wee inside.


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## Guest (Sep 27, 2015)

Blaise beat me to it

In the trash dear 

If a puppy thinks it's ok to pee in one area of the house they may continue to pee in that area of the house, especially if some dribble gets onto the floor and they can smell it with their super sensors. You may find it hard to break a dog of peeing inside if they think it's okay for any point of time. I'm afraid you'll have to make routine trips out the door for that one. A puppy her age can hold for 2-3 hours so setting an alarm may be a good idea.

Strange that she's already litter trained for pads though, never heard of a puppy going home with that from a breeder. Good luck breaking her of it! I'd personally be a bit annoyed if that habit was started in my puppy.


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## Guest (Sep 27, 2015)

I suppose you could use the pads as an indicator if she is trained for them. Better you catch her peeing on the pad than on the carpet. Just scoop her up and run her downstairs when she goes near or on the pad perhaps. I wouldn't encourage it permanently though myself


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## Rafa (Jun 18, 2012)

I'm not a fan of puppy pads, as I believe they give mixed messages to a pup. If you want to teach her to go outside, then a puppy pad tells her you want her to go inside.

A pup of this age cannot hold themselves for 2/3 hours. At first, you need to take her outside every half hour and praise when she gets it right.


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## Guest (Sep 27, 2015)

Put them in the bin, best place for them. They confuse puppies. Imagine for a second your a puppy owner puts pads down inside you go to the toilet on them, then owner starts training you to go outside but you are confused and go indoors and get told off ok I was taught inside is the place to go but I got told off. Very confused puppy.


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## Burrowzig (Feb 18, 2009)

BlaiseinHampshire said:


> Put them in the bin . No, not being rude, but they just cause confusion, because it teaches puppy that it's okay to wee inside.


Exactly what I was going to say! Once you've taught the pup it's fine to pee indoors on a soft, absorbent surface, you'll soon find your carpet/duvet/sofa (all soft and absorbent) are fair game.

Get a sheet of builder's polythene, or tarpaulin, and put that under the puppy pen to save accidents getting through to your carpet. Then take her outside when she wakes, after eating, after playing and every half hour between - you can put her down on newspaper if you're worried about infection.

I have artificial grass in my garden, and the litter I raised had a large seed tray with offcuts of the 'grass' in their pen, changed and washed at least once a day, usually 2-3 times.


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## Nonnie (Apr 15, 2009)

Dont bin them!.

They are handy if you dog ever has surgery and is a bit leaky afterwards. 

They are great after a tooth extraction and bloody drool is in abundance.

So..put them in storage!


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## Guest (Sep 27, 2015)

chickenfoot said:


> Strange that she's already litter trained for pads though, never heard of a puppy going home with that from a breeder. Good luck breaking her of it! I'd personally be a bit annoyed if that habit was started in my puppy.


It's very common practice for breeders to start paper training puppies (with the help of the dam) as they start getting to the point of instinctually eliminating away from their living and eating space. It's good practice, and it leads to dogs with good instincts when it comes to keeping their living and eating areas clean. By contrast a puppy raised in a filthy environment is going to lose the natural aversion to keeping clean and they are much harder to potty train in general.

Me personally, I'm not a fan of potty pads for the most part, but, recently I was enlightened to the wisdom of having an indoor trained dog - at least with little dogs. There is a place for indoor potty training, or at least for training a dog to eliminate on alternate surfaces, and it can work for some dogs and their owner's personal set-ups. It just depends. In general though, just make your life easier and skip the potty pads totally.


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## Guest (Sep 27, 2015)

ouesi said:


> It's very common practice for breeders to start paper training puppies (with the help of the dam) as they start getting to the point of instinctually eliminating away from their living and eating space. It's good practice, and it leads to dogs with good instincts when it comes to keeping their living and eating areas clean. By contrast a puppy raised in a filthy environment is going to lose the natural aversion to keeping clean and they are much harder to potty train in general.
> 
> Me personally, I'm not a fan of potty pads for the most part, but, recently I was enlightened to the wisdom of having an indoor trained dog - at least with little dogs. There is a place for indoor potty training, or at least for training a dog to eliminate on alternate surfaces, and it can work for some dogs and their owner's personal set-ups. It just depends. In general though, just make your life easier and skip the potty pads totally.


I personally wouldn't want my dog to be trained to pee in the house and I'd hope the breeders would keep the areas clean and tidy. Dogs naturally don't like messing in their sleep areas so I'd be concerned if dogs were just pooping where they were laying unless they were just days old, especially if it was allowed by the breeder to get to filth.

To each their own but I personally would hate my dog to be pad trained


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## Guest (Sep 27, 2015)

chickenfoot said:


> I personally wouldn't want my dog to be trained to pee in the house and I'd hope the breeders would keep the areas clean and tidy. Dogs naturally don't like messing in their sleep areas so I'd be concerned if dogs were just pooping where they were laying unless they were just days old, especially if it was allowed by the breeder to get to filth.
> 
> To each their own but I personally would hate my dog to be pad trained


So you're not familiar with ethical breeding and puppy raising practices, got it.


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## Guest (Sep 27, 2015)

ouesi said:


> So you're not familiar with ethical breeding and puppy raising practices, got it.


? Sorry I just would like a puppy to come home not covered in their own filth  I've visited loooots of breeders homes when they had puppies and I had a look at a lot of Aussie puppies particularly. They were never kept in filthy conditions and I was never concerned about hygiene. None of the puppies I met had poop caked to their fur or poop littering their pens. The owners took them out often and cleaned them regularly.


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## Guest (Sep 27, 2015)

chickenfoot said:


> ? Sorry I just would like a puppy to come home not covered in their own filth  I've visited loooots of breeders homes when they had puppies and I had a look at a lot of Aussie puppies particularly. They were never kept in filthy conditions and I was never concerned about hygiene. None of the puppies I met had poop caked to their fur or poop littering their pens. The owners took them out often and cleaned them regularly.


Why on earth would a paper trained litter be covered in their own filth? Or kept in filthy conditions? 
Clearly you are not familiar with what it means to paper train a litter of puppies. It's good breeder practice and it makes the puppy buyers life much easier as the basics of potty training are already established and easily transferred to pottying outside. 
So please stop rolling your eyes at me.


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## Rafa (Jun 18, 2012)

chickenfoot said:


> ? Sorry I just would like a puppy to come home not covered in their own filth  I've visited loooots of breeders homes when they had puppies and I had a look at a lot of Aussie puppies particularly. They were never kept in filthy conditions and I was never concerned about hygiene. None of the puppies I met had poop caked to their fur or poop littering their pens. The owners took them out often and cleaned them regularly.


A puppy, for the first few weeks of it's life is kept clean by the Dam, not the breeder.

After that, there is no reason why a pup would have poop caked to their fur. Once they're mobile, that wouldn't happen.

Training pups to a pad or paper doesn't equate to filthy conditions.


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## Rafa (Jun 18, 2012)

chickenfoot said:


> ? Sorry I just would like a puppy to come home not covered in their own filth  I've visited loooots of breeders homes when they had puppies and I had a look at a lot of Aussie puppies particularly. They were never kept in filthy conditions and I was never concerned about hygiene. None of the puppies I met had poop caked to their fur or poop littering their pens. The owners took them out often and cleaned them regularly.


You may have visited loooots of breeders homes, but you have no clue about how to properly manage a litter of pups.


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## Guest (Sep 27, 2015)

Sweety said:


> You may have visited loooots of breeders homes, but you have no clue about how to properly manage a litter of pups.


She made it seem like puppies who aren't litter trained are kept in filthy conditions so that's where that came from. Obviously they aren't.


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## Rafa (Jun 18, 2012)

chickenfoot said:


> She made it seem like puppies who aren't litter trained are kept in filthy conditions so that's where that came from. Obviously they aren't.


Who did? If you're talking about Ouesi, that's not what she said, that was your interpretation.

Seriously, I'm trying to have patience but what on earth do you know about managing a litter of pups?


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## Guest (Sep 27, 2015)

chickenfoot said:


> She made it seem like puppies who aren't litter trained are kept in filthy conditions so that's where that came from. Obviously they aren't.


No, that's not what I said at all. I said puppies raised in dirty conditions lose their natural instinct to keep clean. I'm not sure how that turned in to puppies who aren't paper trained are kept in dirty conditions, but what I posted was clear and sitting there in black and white for anyone to see.
Breeders paper train puppies to make life easier for the dam, the breeder, and puppy buyers as the pup has an idea about designated potty areas before going to their new home.

I'm not going to continue to derail this thread with this particular discussion, I just wanted to clarify that a breeder bothering to paper train a litter is a good thing, not something to be annoyed about.


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## Guest (Sep 27, 2015)

ouesi said:


> No, that's not what I said at all. I said puppies raised in dirty conditions lose their natural instinct to keep clean. I'm not sure how that turned in to puppies who aren't paper trained are kept in dirty conditions, but what I posted was clear and sitting there in black and white for anyone to see.
> Breeders paper train puppies to make life easier for the dam, the breeder, and puppy buyers as the pup has an idea about designated potty areas before going to their new home.
> 
> I'm not going to continue to derail this thread with this particular discussion, I just wanted to clarify that a breeder bothering to paper train a litter is a good thing, not something to be annoyed about.


The word "by contrast" led me to believe that.

And that's your opinion  I would personally be annoyed if my dog was pad trained. If you aren't then good for you.


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## Guest (Sep 27, 2015)

Sweety said:


> Who did? If you're talking about Ouesi, that's not what she said, that was your interpretation.
> 
> Seriously, I'm trying to have patience but what on earth do you know about managing a litter of pups?


Yes it was. Nothing wrong with interpreting something differently. No need to get huffy about it. Glad ouesi cleared it up.

Nothing. I know I wouldn't want my dog pad trained and puppies who aren't pad trained don't live in filthy conditions. If you two like pad trained puppies then good for you. It's a shame I'm not in the pad training club I'm real torn up about it


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## Rafa (Jun 18, 2012)

chickenfoot said:


> Yes it was. Nothing wrong with interpreting something differently. No need to get huffy about it. Glad ouesi cleared it up.
> 
> Nothing. I know I wouldn't want my dog pad trained and puppies who aren't pad trained don't live in filthy conditions. If you two like pad trained puppies then good for you. It's a shame I'm not in the pad training club I'm real torn up about it


There is everything wrong about misinterpreting.

If you actually read posts instead of jumping in with your opinions, you would see that I am not a fan of puppy pads.

You were the one who starting talking about puppies caked in their own filth.

It seems to me that you manage to derail every thread you get involved in. This thread is not about you. Let it go.


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## Guest (Sep 27, 2015)

Sweety said:


> There is everything wrong about misinterpreting.
> 
> If you actually read posts instead of jumping in with your opinions, you would see that I am not a fan of puppy pads.
> 
> ...


I have let it go. The oeusi sweety tag team swooped in and behaved like I'm your child and need a lesson once again.

I personally think it would be annoying to have a puppy pad trained. All I was saying, it didn't need to be turned into an argument


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## Ceiling Kitty (Mar 7, 2010)

What's the alternative to pad training in young pups before they go to their new homes?


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## Guest (Sep 28, 2015)

Shoshannah said:


> What's the alternative to pad training in young pups before they go to their new homes?


Using paper  Like newspaper.

Basically, when you set up the puppy area, there would be a "living" areas with lots of toys and different surfaces and stimulation for the pups to experience, and then there would be a potty area where most breeders put down either newspaper or yes, potty pads. This just feeds in to the puppies' natural instinct to eliminate away from where they eat, sleep, and live. As the pups get more and more mobile, you simply encourage them to poop and pee in the paper area.
Once you establish the idea that we potty "here", it's not very hard for the pup to transfer that idea to their new home, it's simply a new "here" they learn to potty in.

I don't know any breeders who don't start giving pups designated potty areas as they get older and more mobile, so I wouldn't know the alternative. I do know that puppies raised in conditions where they don't have enough room to keep living and eliminating areas separate and a breeder who doesn't keep them and their living space clean have a much harder time potty training. It's actually a common issue with puppy farm dogs, the are notoriously hard to potty train as that natural inclination to stay clean has been eliminated (no pun intended). 
So if a breeder has put the effort in to paper training the litter, to me that's just good practice. Definitely not something to be annoyed by!


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## Magyarmum (Apr 27, 2015)

ouesi said:


> It's very common practice for breeders to start paper training puppies (with the help of the dam) as they start getting to the point of instinctually eliminating away from their living and eating space. It's good practice, and it leads to dogs with good instincts when it comes to keeping their living and eating areas clean. By contrast a puppy raised in a filthy environment is going to lose the natural aversion to keeping clean and they are much harder to potty train in general.
> 
> *Me personally, I'm not a fan of potty pads for the most part, but, recently I was enlightened to the wisdom of having an indoor trained dog - at least with little dogs. There is a place for indoor potty training, or at least for training a dog to eliminate on alternate surfaces, and it can work for some dogs and their owner's personal set-ups. It just depends. In general though, just make your life easier and skip the potty pads totally.*


I was very lucky with my last three puppies. Both my Pei were potty trained within days of bringing them home at 8 weeks old, and from day one neither of them woke me up in the night wanting to pee. My Tibetan Spaniel took longer, perhaps because she was only 6 weeks old when I brought her home, until my cat Sashi stepped in and gave me a hand by teaching Chloe how to use her litter box. I was really grateful to her because once she'd got the idea, although she used to toilet outside during the day, at night she always used the litter box. .


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## Guest (Sep 28, 2015)

Magyarmum said:


> I was very lucky with my last three puppies. Both my Pei were potty trained within days of bringing them home at 8 weeks old, and from day one neither of them woke me up in the night wanting to pee. My Tibetan Spaniel took longer, perhaps because she was only 6 weeks old when I brought her home, until my cat Sashi stepped in and gave me a hand by teaching Chloe how to use her litter box. I was really grateful to her because once she'd got the idea, although she used to toilet outside during the day, at night she always used the litter box. .


I rarely give advice on potty training because honestly, I don't think I really know how to do it very well. All of our dogs have basically potty trained themselves along with the help of the resident dogs. We had a mutt dog who potty trained countless puppies and fosters for us by ushering the puppy outside or even letting us know the pup needed to go outside. Our first puppy since he passed on learned from the resident dog and we had very little input other than watching her and taking her out when she got that look about her.

I've personally never used potty pads or litter trained a puppy, but in talking to owners who have, I can see the wisdom in some cases. People who live in high rise buildings who don't have a safe place to take the puppy in the middle of the night, people who have disabilities, people who have had parvo outbreaks in their area... There are plenty of legitimate reasons to teach a pup an appropriate place to eliminate indoors. We teach cats to do this, no reason why dogs can't learn it also. Once the pup learns that the ONLY appropriate place to eliminate is in the litter box or on the potty pads, it's not different than teaching the pup that it's only appropriate to go outside. I do think it's an unnecessary extra step in most cases, but it's not an all together stupid idea depending on the dog, the owner, and the circumstances.


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## Sarah1983 (Nov 2, 2011)

Surely even a crappy breeder is going to put paper or pads or something down to make the mess easier to clean up.

Personally I'd prefer a litter box over puppy pads, I know far too many people who've used the pads and the dogs have gone on things like rugs, clothing left on the floor etc. Perhaps it's down to how they were trained but it's not something I'd risk myself. I'd go with paper over pads if a litter box wasn't an option to be honest.


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## Guest (Sep 28, 2015)

Sarah1983 said:


> Surely even a crappy breeder is going to put paper or pads or something down to make the mess easier to clean up.
> 
> Personally I'd prefer a litter box over puppy pads, I know far too many people who've used the pads and the dogs have gone on things like rugs, clothing left on the floor etc. Perhaps it's down to how they were trained but it's not something I'd risk myself. I'd go with paper over pads if a litter box wasn't an option to be honest.


I think litter boxes work better because the pup has to step in to the box, so it's a much clearer signal that *this* is a potty area. I don't think puppies notice the difference between a puppy pad and other soft surfaces. Much harder to figure out the criteria.

And yes, even crappy breeders put paper down, but some breeders are more thorough about having a clear delineation between the potty area and rest of the puppy living area, and they put more effort in to actually potty training the puppies (with mom's help). This in turn makes the new owner's job of potty training much easier. Which is why I was taken aback that someone would be annoyed at a breeder bothering to potty train a litter of puppies.


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