Can Someone Explain Puppy Pads To Me??

[RoyalRain42]

Okay so i will leave out the back story that makes me so angry as to even why my friends have this puppy… that is an entire new threat. :mad:

Anyway, friend of mine approached me asking if i would watch her puppy from Friday the 11th to the 17th. I said sure no big deal at all. I had a puppy about the same age i had retained from my labs last litter and she needed another playmate her age. Plus they wanted their pup socialized more. I had no issue, i know how to care for puppies since we raise our nice AKC working labs.

So Puppy is dropped off (she is a border collie X Golden) They leave me her kennel for in the house, and all her things… including Puppy Pads. They explained they placed them in her kennel so they would not have to worry about any messes inside of it seeping out. Okay no big deal, good idea since they have to kennel her inside since they live in town. They dropped her off that evening.

She is happy to play around with my lab pup in the house, then i fed dinner and took them out to go to the bathroom in the larger grass area we use as the potty place. My Lab pup runs out, pees poops and comes back to me to wait for the other pup (Skittles). Well, she is sniffing and sniffing, looks like she will go at any second but wont. Starts to wine and get upset. We spend about 20 minutes out there with her acting like she wants to go but never doing so. Oh well, ill come back out with her in about 10 minutes and she should be good.

So we go back inside, and no joke, she runs right for her kennel, to the puppy pad and poops and pees on it like nothing. It is instant and then she is happy again. Im confused, she could have done that outside… oh well clean it up take it out to the dumpster and set another one in.

Next day pad has pee on it, take it out and toss it but i dont put a new one in, then go and feed pups. Take them outside to use the bathroom as normal, lab pup does her business but Skittles does not, a repeat of whimpering and whining does nothing. Take her inside, but i had not put a pad in her kennel. Instead she finds a towel on the floor in the back porch and uses it for poop and pee, she assumed it was a pad for her to use. I am a little angry… i do not make anything of it she is not my dog and i dont want to anger owners.

So as of now, the ONLY way this puppy will go to the bathroom outside is if I take a puppy pad out and place it in the grass. Then she goes on it with no issue and its done and over with. But since her arrival she has used two towels and a piece of paper in my office to do her business. She i keep the pads in her kennel, but i have been trying to get her to go outside as much as i can even if it is with a pad. Her behavior is down right shocking to me.

Friend says they just let her in the back yard with their older dog. So i dont think they ever actually see her go to the bathroom to know she is even going outside. They just assume her using the puppy pads when kenneled is her having puppy accidents. It does not help that the pup spends around 6 hours a day in said kennel with the pads since both friend and boyfriend work similar shifts.

So now i am not like hating on these puppy pad things… but i really do not see the logic to them, at least in the way they have been used with Skittles. Is this how they are used? Or did they miss something? I didnt want to really train their pup but i think i inadvertently am when i am trying to get her to go outside, but i have a few more days!!

Thanks all!

[Rackonteur]

I don’t guess puppies know to go outside unless they are trained that way from the beginning. Don’t they have some instinct about not going in their den? But if her people trained her on pads then pads are appropriate in her mind. She probably has no idea she even can go outside, but that’s weird since she’s seen your dog do it.

What really gets me about this whole thing is that two adult humans would go off and leave a puppy alone in a crate for six hours. That is cruel IMO.

[RoyalRain42]

[QUOTE=Rackonteur;8573898]
I don’t guess puppies know to go outside unless they are trained that way from the beginning. Don’t they have some instinct about not going in their den? But if her people trained her on pads then pads are appropriate in her mind. She probably has no idea she even can go outside, but that’s weird since she’s seen your dog do it.

What really gets me about this whole thing is that two adult humans would go off and leave a puppy alone in a crate for six hours. That is cruel IMO.[/QUOTE]

Thats just it, we have large outdoor runs for our dogs, with nice climate controlled kennel dens. When we have litters, when they can get out they GET OUT to go to the bathroom away from their den area. Eh… that may have something to do with where they got the pup from to start with (again… whole nother thread… along with why i told them to not get a puppy)

They really should never have gotten the pup and i tried to explain that to them… this pup is living the farm dog life now and i really do feel bad she is gunna have to go back to that.

[hb]

My ex used puppy pads with his two dogs. It appeared that the primary use of the puppy pads was to teach the dog to go to potty in the house. Seriously, the dogs were not house trained when they were a year old because of those stupid pads.

A few years after he moved out the leftover pads were useful when my beloved dog was old and on prednisone so prone to accidents though.

[RoyalRain42]

[QUOTE=hb;8573910]
My ex used puppy pads with his two dogs. It appeared that the primary use of the puppy pads was to teach the dog to go to potty in the house. Seriously, the dogs were not house trained when they were a year old because of those stupid pads.

A few years after he moved out the leftover pads were useful when my beloved dog was old and on prednisone so prone to accidents though.[/QUOTE]

I do agree they seem to be teaching this pup to go in the house more than actually be house trained! They seem to cause more problems than not.

Awe i am glad they were able to help your old guy out! I would probably be using them the same way as you!

[jetsmom]

Take a puppy pad that has some pee on it and cut it down to half it’s size and place on grass and use a verbal cue like “go potty”. Praise like crazy when she does. Supervise so she can’t have an accident in the house, and take her out on a regular schedule, but more often than you think is needed. Cut down the pad size each day. Eventually you can house train her. That’s assuming you’ll have her for a week or so.
Puppy pads DO teach them to potty inside. They are what someone lazy and ignorant uses with puppies.

[JoZ]

They work nicely under my litter box in case my 17-year-old cat has faulty aim!

When a friend of mine was breeding, I think she used them in a group pen for the litters.

[RoyalRain42]

[QUOTE=jetsmom;8573946]
Take a puppy pad that has some pee on it and cut it down to half it’s size and place on grass and use a verbal cue like “go potty”. Praise like crazy when she does. Supervise so she can’t have an accident in the house, and take her out on a regular schedule, but more often than you think is needed. Cut down the pad size each day. Eventually you can house train her. That’s assuming you’ll have her for a week or so.
Puppy pads DO teach them to potty inside. They are what someone lazy and ignorant uses with puppies.[/QUOTE]

So far she has gotten a bit better, she did not have any accidents today. Been keeping her within arms reach at all times too ha.

I do lthink the idea of cutting them smaller will work really well with her. So far i have tried folding one in half to make it a harder target.

Sadly ill only have her another 4 days, and she does not seem to be the sharpest tool in the shed.

[QUOTE=JoZ;8573949]They work nicely under my litter box in case my 17-year-old cat has faulty aim!

When a friend of mine was breeding, I think she used them in a group pen for the litters.[/QUOTE]

I have to say i am going to suggest that idea of around the litter box to my aunt, she has an older cat getting up there in age and has some aim issues! Thank you for that idea!

[S1969]

[QUOTE=hb;8573910]
My ex used puppy pads with his two dogs. It appeared that the primary use of the puppy pads was to teach the dog to go to potty in the house. Seriously, the dogs were not house trained when they were a year old because of those stupid pads.[/QUOTE]

This is exactly what has happened. How old is the OP?

The only people I know that use puppy pads use them with litters <6 weeks old.

[SmartAlex]

My father’s little 6# house dog is trained to puppy pads. I know she goes outside too, but they use puppy pads like a litter box.

I don’t think I’d want to go down that road with a dog the size of a Border x Golden. Yuck!

[Horsegal984]

That’s really fustrating for you. And even more so that you’re now fixing their mistake just so the dog didn’t use your house like its personal litter box. I’ve put pee pads under the kennels of your dogs or ones I was worried about marking, but not in the kennel with puppies, just asking for trouble there.

[MsM]

I used something like them twice with my small dogs. First was when they were puppies and I had to leave them for longer than I thought they could hold it. They were in an ex pen and I put some pads in one end. I switched to pads made for humans - the puppy pads often are scented to encourage elimination! They transferred t being housebroken without too much trouble.
The second time was during a really bad winter. The snow as about three times their height. So during storms and until I shoveled puppy paths, they had paper and pads in an ex pen in the spare room. They were reluctant at first but eventually used it. I did have to close off the room for a while after that.

So in your friends’ situation I would suggest ex pen and paper or unscented pads until housebroken!

[AMWookey]

From what I have been told by people who use them, you move them closer to the door all the time, until it goes out the door, and then you start making them smaller. So if you crate train, and you have your crate set up with one spot a den, and the other half has a puppy pad, then the puppy pads lead to the door.

No idea if it actually ever works that way.

[Sswor]

I think they’re a racket and I blame the industry for pushing them on unsuspecting newbie dog owners. I mean imagine how great it is for a company to push their product on people who then “train” their dogs to use them. Usually apartment dwellers, who then get hooked on using them instead of taking their dog out to potty. Then they’re stuck buying them all the time, possibly for the lifespan of the dog–since the dog is trained to use them instead of pottying outside.

It’s usually new or armchair dog owners who train puppies to use puppy pads. I agree it’s a bad road to go down. The expense alone is bad enough. Grass is free.

[SmartAlex]

[QUOTE=Sswor;8574124]
Grass is free.[/QUOTE]

Spoken like a country gal. :lol: Actually its $1-$2 a pound plus labor, thatch, water… Weeds are free.

[Foxtrot_s]

One of our wholesalers sells them - he says since the pocket puppy craze came and so many people live in high rises in Vancouver his sales have skyrocketed.

I guess people do not want to don hat and coat, grab a leash, use the elevator, go down and have to pickup poop, so they use these pads constantly. In their all white apartments with small balconies - barf.

We bought a pack for our new puppy - what a waste of $ that was - she just chewed thump and dragged them around the house.

[Kyrabee]

I can’t explain them. My friend tells me she abhors a cat litter box–never going to have a cat but has puppy pads for her herd (3) or chi’s and chi crosses. Her rational is that she is gone too long. Ok, maybe not have the dogs? I decided after I lost my old beagles that my schedule was not fair to the canine persuasion so now I have a couple cats . Sometimes her dogs hit the pads:(. Whatever:confused:.

I can’t understand teaching a puppy to pee in their crate:eek:. I think most of the puppy pads have attractants in them. Putting them in their crate is mean but at least misguided.

I plan on getting a dog again when I retire. It will be a smaller dog and I plan to litter train it but the litter box will NOT be in the house:no:. I live in a patio home development (hence the small dog) and the lawns are small. The preferred potty area will be outside but my garage is huge and in the dead of winter or middle of the night, a litter box in the garage will be nice.

Susan

[furlong47]

[QUOTE=AMWookey;8574118]
From what I have been told by people who use them, you move them closer to the door all the time, until it goes out the door, and then you start making them smaller. So if you crate train, and you have your crate set up with one spot a den, and the other half has a puppy pad, then the puppy pads lead to the door.

No idea if it actually ever works that way.[/QUOTE]

Yes, I thought they were just a newfangled version of using newspaper to house train. This is how we did it with the only dog we got as a puppy, using newspaper, but that was over 25 years ago.

[RoyalRain42]

Alright, glad to see it is a combination of using them wrong and then a product that suckers people in.

Eh i am still angry at the BF for going out and even getting this puppy… ugh they should have never even gotten her…

Well good news is today she peed half on half off the pad… rewarded her for having two feet in the grass when she went and called it a small victory.

[french_fry]

They’re a necessary evil if you have a puppy in an apartment where you don’t have private outdoor space. Many breeders/rescue/vets advise not letting a puppy touch the ground outside until they’ve had all three rounds of vaccines, which can be weeks. My vet balances the house training and socialization aspects with the relative danger and says two rounds of shots.

But yeah, you have to make a concentrated effort to wean them off of them. You’re basically house training twice.

(I got around all this by adopting an adult dog :D)