Moving on from Puppy Pads

[ggo2lightly]

We have a 5 month old chipoo. She's a clever wee dog who learned the basic commands very quickly. Breeder used puppy pads and we haven't been successful in moving her from pads to outside toileting - she will go outside when she's on a walk but is perfectly happy to keep going inside (without the pad if we take it away). Any advice?

You need to start over and take her out regularly, after playing, eating, sleeping, etc. When she goes, gentle praise and a treat if that's how you are training her. Remove the puppy pads as an option. This is why we didn't use them, it's just teaching them to pee inside.

Agree with the above. Puppy pads are useless, they just train the dog that it’s accessible to wee indoors. Dog training is black and white. I would remove the pad and start from scratch.

Thanks. That's what I suspected. The puppy pads didn't seem like a good idea. Back to basics it is.

We never used pads (despite everyone telling us we should). We were taking him outside all the time and the garden door was always open for him to go out if he wanted to. We had many accidents at first, but he got it very quickly. At around 11 weeks we had no accidents at all.

However, someone I know who used pads was putting the used pads outside so the dog would smell them and learn to do it outside.

The whole pads debate confuses me a little.
Tiny puppies at the breeders can’t go outside for the toilet so the choices are surely down to newspaper and puppy pads?
Why are puppy pads training indoor toileting but newspaper presumably isn’t?

Unfortunately you've trained your puppy to wee indoors so you're going to have to work really hard at undoing all of that.

Back to basics - outside every 30 minutes, after naps, food, play and training. Get rid of all the pads and invest in some good enzyme cleaner for the inevitable accidents.

If she does wee indoors, just clean it up without a fuss. Don't tell her off or show you're annoyed by it. Ideally if you catch her mid-wee then take her outdoors to finish if that's at all possible!

Watch out for the signs of needing to go - sniffing, circling and squatting.

Also I assume a chipoo is a chihuahua poodle mix? Just be warned that chihuahuas are notoriously bad at being toilet trained and if it often takes a year or more to get them to reliably go outside!

@DiddlyWiddly

The whole pads debate confuses me a little. Tiny puppies at the breeders can’t go outside for the toilet so the choices are surely down to newspaper and puppy pads? Why are puppy pads training indoor toileting but newspaper presumably isn’t?

There's a difference between using pads and newspaper for newborn puppies and using them for puppies who are old enough to go outside, though.

Our breeder was toilet training ours to go outdoors from 6 weeks - he had a grassy pen that only the pups and mother had access to and that's where they did their business.

We had similar, although with a much younger pup. Take them out every 30mins-1hr. Lots of praise for going on puppy pad, and then lots of praise AND a treat for going outside. He soon cottoned on to wanting the treat!

@DiddlyWiddly

The whole pads debate confuses me a little. Tiny puppies at the breeders can’t go outside for the toilet so the choices are surely down to newspaper and puppy pads? Why are puppy pads training indoor toileting but newspaper presumably isn’t?

It's a bit like nappies and pants for toddlers. The breeder has a whole litter of tiny dogs. When you bring them home to their forever home it's because they are old enough to leave their mother and start training. Unless you want them using puppy pads forever then it has to be taught at some point and most people crack on with it straight away. You don't have to of course, but it does become harder the older they are.