Puppy pads

[Maybenexttime08]

Our puppy is arriving on Monday, and I'm wondering what to do about puppy pads.

Our garden at the moment is pure mud as we are having our turf laid over the next few weeks. I'm therefore wondering whether we should start by putting a puppy pad by the backdoor for now, and once the garden is turfed we start moving it outside.

Will we be making a rod for our own back by not taking him outside for a wee straight away?

Some people use them with no issue then others are on here saying their puppy is still toileting lots inside the house when it seems that using them is sending confused mixed messages.

Personally I didn't use them because I didn't want to train twice or get mine to associate toileting inside as ever being the correct thing to do.

I do agree with biteyshark however we had to train indoors in a pad on advice from the vet. He picked it up quickly, we just had a pad at the back door, we didn't want him to associate weeing on a pad as such and wanted the location to be more important. We are now doing the transition outside. Its day 3 and pretty much all poos are outside. Wees not yet but he does learn quickly so I'm not hugely concerned but if the vet had said it was 100% safe outside for him we would have preferred to have trained outdoors from day 1.

The main positive (purely selfish reasons for us) is that by the time he was allowed out he didn't need a middle of the night wee so in this weather that's a bonus, it also meant when he was still up in the night it was warm and quiet indoors so he'd do his business then be desperate to get back into his crate.

I have never used puppy pads on dpup. We just take her outside, and our garden is very marshy. Weather has been terrible recently.

Done it both with and without. Once established with pads there were many hours of the back door being open with pad just outside and me in vicinity so I could praise once she went out. Then pad went onto grass and all sorted. However given the current weather if you do go down the pad route I would probably wait to move outside until March (better weather) plus you'll need to consider the new turf as urine will destroy it before the roots have taken. You may be best just using the pads outside (once established inside) until such time as the roots have taken and you've done your first cut (usually a few weeks after being laid). Either that or rethink garden design.

Thanks @AFP10 - great advice

Is there not a small space out side just for the dog to go on for now. I trained outside but used the pads inside for nights until they are old enough to hold it it in just incase you don't make it downstairs in time.

Every single dog I read about who has issues with toilet training is a dog that has been pad-trained.

Some people manage it just fine but it just adds an additional level of training and confusion to the dog - first, you teach them to toilet inside, and then have to try and teach them that toileting inside is wrong.

I would fence off an area of the garden and get the dog to toilet there. I know the mud is off-putting but you don't want to be back here in six months time with an adolescent dog who still hasn't grasped it.

Our seven month old Jack Russell was trained with puppy pads. At about four months she started to ask to go outside. It's a couple of months since she's had an accident indoors.

The only issue we have is night time training. Daughter is 50 and has to get up in the night to use the toilet herself. And puppy seems to think, oh if she's up i may as well have a wee. Daughter had to decide which of them should wait for the other. Neither alternative seemed possible. So now we have a puppy pad in the bathroom at night

No never used them yes it's muddy outside but you will have around 14 years of winter and mud so get used to it. You need to train pup to go outside from day one or you'll be training for longer, plus your house will stink.

Agree with Maves. Buy yourself a pair of wellies OP, and get used to mud and all sorts of weather conditions. It's just part and parcel of dog ownership.

Sadly it's not just a little bit of mud - the garden hasn't been landscaped yet so no garden to speak of! Puppy pads working a treat at the moment - thankfully

Can I just say, we are now a week into the transition to outside and he is already asking to go out for all poos. Wees not so much but he is getting there. He only uses 1 pee pad at the back door so the house doesn't stink. He is only 16 weeks and after reading on here is is pretty reliable compared to many his age.

The only thing I would say is that pugpup picked up pad training within a couple of days of us getting him at 8 weeks so we felt as he learnt quickly it wouldn't be an issue re teaching him. As we are on lockdown it's no real hardship as I am here all the time. Sounds like your pup is a quick learner too.

So basically it hasn't been massively difficult however if we were able to have allowed him out from day 1 I would have preferred to have took him out of course.

When is the garden being done? We trained 8-15 weeks indoors then transitioned.

Could you open the front door to let the puppy out for toilet?