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While most pet parents associate pee pads with puppies, pee pad training can be a helpful tool for pet parents with dogs of any age. Learning how to train a dog to use a pee pad can be hugely beneficial, whether raising a young puppy, a senior dog, or living in an apartment without access to a backyard.
Here, we’ll walk through how to train your dog to use a pee pad. We’ll outline the steps, offer helpful tips, and share methods for house-training with kindness and consistency.
Why Use a Pee Pad?
Pee pads have many benefits, including making it easier to housetrain a pet and hopefully minimizing a mess in the interim.
Puppies may be most associated with pee pads, as plenty of pet parents use them as a transitional step before moving their dogs to outdoor potty breaks.
Beyond puppies, though, there are other situations where pee pads make sense, including:
- Senior or Special Needs Dogs: Dogs with certain conditions or limited mobility could benefit from having an alternate potty option within striking distance.
- Extreme Weather: Outdoor training can be challenging for parents who reside in areas with heavy snowstorms, heat waves, and heavy rain.
- Apartment-Living: Pet parents who reside in urban areas without easy outdoor access or yard access could benefit from a nearby indoor alternative.
Supplies You’ll Need
Training your dog to use a pee pad takes commitment, but also the right supplies. Some essentials that can set you and your dog up for success include:
- Leak-proof, Absorbent Pee Pads: These high-quality pads can handle the mess and attract your pet to encourage continued use.
- Enclosed space or playpen: A space that limits roaming and creates a consistent area for your pet to look at.
- Training treats: To aid positive reinforcement for successful eliminations.
- Strong Cleaner: A strong cleaning product (for example, enzyme-based) that can eliminate odors quickly when accidents happen (they will!). Also, avoid ammonia cleaners that mimic the smell of urine to dogs.
Step-by-Step Pee Pad Training
Set yourself and your puppy up for shared success by following these steps:
1. Choose the Right Spot
- Find a lightly trafficked location that your dog can quickly navigate to, and keep the pad there without moving around too much. Consistency and building a routine can help ease the process.
2. Create a Limited Space
- Contain the space around the pad, using items like gates or a playpen, to keep your dog confined to a smaller space so that accidents, if they happen, are easier to spot and clean.
3. Introduce the Pad
- Show your pet the pad – early and often. Build a routine by visiting the pad after play, naps, or meals, especially if you observe signs like sniffing, circling, or whining that might indicate they need to go.
4. Use a Cue Word or Easy to Understand Command
- Every time your pet uses or visits the pad, use a simple command word to reinforce the association between the pad and the elimination.
5. Praise and Reward
- Praise your pet immediately for successful eliminations by giving them a treat as a reward. Dogs thrive on positive reinforcement, and treats go a long way toward showing approval.
6. Maintain a Consistent Routine
- Make visits to the pee pad and the location you have it set repeatedly to build positive habits.
What to Do If Your Dog Misses The Pad
Accidents happen and are a normal part of training your dog to pee on a pad. When they occur, here’s what to do:
- Clean the mess thoroughly with the cleaner, removing odors and hopefully preventing future accidents.
- Calmly lead your dog to the pad, being mindful not to punish negatively.
- Reinforce success by using treats as rewards for good behavior.
- Keep monitoring your dog’s efforts. If accidents occur repeatedly, explore a new setup to make the process easier.
Gradually Move The Pad (Optional)
For pet parents who have access to a yard or other yard-like space, outdoor potty-ing may be a preferable scenario and more suitable to their lifestyle than a pad indoors for the long term.
To get there, first ensure that your pet is comfortable and can routinely use the pee pad in the first location you’ve established. Then, follow the process to transition to an outdoor situation slowly, gradually moving the pad closer and closer to the location you want them to go to in small steps eventually.
Throughout the process of gradually moving the pee pad, maintain consistency and keep your pet’s routine similar. Use the same cue word, positive reinforcement, and praise for successes.
Eventually, move the pee pad outdoors, and then remove the pee pad entirely once your dog can successfully navigate outdoors fully.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Cut down on potential setbacks by avoiding some common mistakes that can confuse your dog throughout the process of training on a pee pad, like:
- Moving the pad around too soon and too often can impact the routine and confuse your pet as to where it should be going.
- Using ammonia-based cleaners, which smell like urine to dogs and can trick them into thinking the location where they’ve had an accident is actually OK
- Lacking consistency in schedule or with praise/reward won’t allow them to understand the specific triggers that have earned them a treat.
- Lacking patience or expecting results immediately. Potty training takes time, and patience is a must for pet parents.
Training Your Dog on a Pee Pad: A Worthwhile Process
Learning how to train your dog on a pee pad isn’t easy. It takes time, consistent effort, and the utmost patience with your pet. But the process is worth it.
In training your dog to use a pad, you are establishing or building toward a potty solution that suits you and your pet’s lifestyle – whether that’s for eventual outdoors elimination or long-term indoor pad use. Potty training a dog indoors is a start. Continue to reward successes and small wins, and be patient. And know that for the long term you’re building a positive relationship between you, your dog, and the living space you both call home.
Feature Image by Aleš Háva from Pixabay
Other Photo by Tanya Gorelova/Pexels
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