"He misses the pad sometimes, but I don't care"

[Southpaw]

I don't see the big deal about pads. I mean, I have a cat, his litterbox is in the house. IMO that's no different than a chihuahua using a pad. I certainly wouldn't use them for anything bigger than that...

I've thought about training Lucy to use something like that. Not necessarily the pads, but just something indoors. As long as you're home, she'll go outside to go to the bathroom.... but if no one is around to let her out, then she'll just go on the rug. We probably wouldn't have an issue if we designated an acceptable spot in the house. But no, we just crate her. Which works fine too lol.

Although, if the dog is not going ON the pad, then they're not really that trained. (I can actually understand "missing" though... I know plenty of cats who get half in the litterbox, and half outside the box). And if you're okay with your dog missing all the time, and going on the rug... you might as well just not even put pads down! I mean that would be like if my dogs peed as soon as they got to the back door. It's close to being outside, right?

 

[ihartgonzo]

I dogsit for my roomie's boss when she goes out of town. She has a super cute 1 1/2 year old Cavalier x Chihuahua, who is very smart and who DOES NOT have accidents when I'm home. I take him out, make sure he potties, then take him in, and take him out when I know he'll need to potty again. Easy.

His Mommy on the other hand says he's impossible to potty train and she uses potty pads all of the time for him. When I leave, my roomie just puts out a potty pad, and half the time he pees several feet away from it! Drives me insane! Luckily my dogs are bombproof and wouldn't even think of peeing inside even though that brat pees everywhere...

 

[smkie]

Imho if you "don't care" your failing your dog. A dog that is not house trained and is habitually going in the house is not a dog anyone else is going to want in their home. So you best be willing to have that dog urinate and ruin your home and you best be willing to live the life time of your dog because they are doomed if you don't.

If I had a nickle for every person that has contacted me because they have expensive repairs to make to hard wood floors, and replaced carpet, or they have to move , wanting to know how to make the dog stop it now when they "allowed" it before I could buy us all a round. Better yet my ultimate pet peeve we got another dog and now it is urinating in the house too how can I get them both to stop? sighs

 

[~Jessie~]

We use those disgusting, nasty pee pads

Seriously, we do.

All five of my dogs are 100% house trained. The chihuahuas go outside to poop/pee just as much as Rory does, and they're expected to poop outside.

However, the chihuahuas pee far more often than Rory. I like giving them the option to have a place to pee if they really need to. We have all wood/tile floors, and the chis pee ON the pads. They don't leak or anything. They don't smell. They're not in the way or anything. Whenever people come over, they always comment on how clean our house is "especially for having 5 dogs."

When we're not home, the chis are confined to an area with access to water and pee pads at all time. It makes me feel better giving my tiny dogs a place to relieve themselves when they need to, rather than having to hold it in.

I think there are a lot of misconceptions when it comes to pee pads. Either your dog is house broken or it isn't. Whether it's peeing in a yard or on a pee pad... if your dog is having accidents IN the house, it is NOT potty trained and it's the owner's fault and NOT the pads.

Also, we never have any issues going to other peoples' houses. It's no different than being at home. Since my dogs are potty trained, they know not to pee in someone's house. My parents actually request that we bring a couple of dogs with us when we visit with them. lol.

 

[DogKisses]

As long as my dog is healthy and capable of going outside then she (and future dogs) is going to do her business outside lol.

A incontinent dog is not a deal breaker for me, no I am not likely to go adopt one but if something terrible happens and Lacey is not longer able to "hold it" then I am willing to work with her. As long as she has quality of life.

Yes I have cats, all indoor and we have litter boxes. That is the bad part about having cats, but I keep them very clean. My cats do not have accidents. Most of the time when cats are peeing/pooping out of the box it is because the owner is NOT cleaning it enough. They must be scooped 1 or more times a day and depending on the type of litter, the box needs to be totally dumped out at least once a week.

As long as someone is using the pee pads appropriately then I do not care what they do in their house... but when it turns into a mess (missing it, not using it) then that is just plain gross.

 

[~Jessie~]

As long as someone is using the pee pads appropriately then I do not care what they do in their house... but when it turns into a mess (missing it, not using it) then that is just plain gross.

I agree. We have really nice wood floors. I couldn't imagine my dogs peeing/pooping all over them.

 

[smkie]

I don't have any problem with pads, I have a problem wioth someone not minding if they miss.

 

[Dekka]

My parents had a paper trained Shih tzh, she never missed. She would go outside most of the time, but if no one was home she had an option. She never made mistakes when she went elsewhere either.

I do wish I had a spot in this house for a pee pad. When its this cold (-30c -22F) I find 'presents' in my house as the dogs don't want to ask to go outside. I don't really blame them lol. Dekka will get the shakes so hard she looks like she is seizuring and Kat will shake for an hour after she gets back in. The hairier dogs don't have this issue.

 

[Laurelin]

I don't like them at all and I think they're confusing in a lot of cases. Mia came started on pee pads and I tried to use them for a while. She just did not understand that there was a difference between a peed pad in the floor and a rug or something lying in the floor. I had to throw out several rugs during this time period because it was just too gross imo.

Anyways, I won't use them. My dogs are all small and they have no trouble at all holding it for 8-10 hours if need be. It took me over a year after not using pads to break Mia of the habit of going inside. She would just go whenever she felt like it indoors on anything that looked kind of like a pad. Life is 1000x easier with her now that she knows to go potty outside and that pottying inside is not allowed. SO much less stressful.

Yep, not a fan.

 

[skittledoo]

I don't like paper training and I don't like pads... I can understand why some people would use them in some situations, but personally... I much prefer to teach my dogs that outside on the grass (or in New Mexico's case sand) is the potty and not inside by any means. I know too many people with pad trained dogs that still go potty in the house and often they go on the carpet and miss the pad entirely... to be honest... it grosses me out.

Bamm is pretty much 100% reliable at going potty outside. The only times he has ever had an accident was when I first got him and he was not feeling well and had diarrhea. Even then it was my fault because he tried to tell me he had to go outside and I didn't listen. What's weird to me is when some people are amazed at how potty trained he is.... I didn't potty train him since he already was when I adopted him, but really... it's not THAT hard to teach most dogs that outside is potty, inside is not.

 

[Michiyo-Fir]

I don't know...both Popcorn and Truffles are pad trained and they don't miss. Plus we put the pad in the shower booth for easy cleaning. Sometimes Popcorn being a Chihuahua can't hold as long as 8 hrs when no one is at home so a pad really helps him instead of forcing him to hold it.

I have absolutely no problems with pad training as all our dogs were pad trained at one time. Truffles and Nia no longer use them, Popcorn still does. I see no issues as long as they know to go on it and not to miss.

However, if the person just leaves a pad down and then lets the dog go wherever they want because they "missed" that's really unsanitary and potentially dangerous if they had children over or anything like that.

 

[colliewog]

I work long hours and the small dogs don't seem to be able to hold it as long as the big dogs, so they have litter boxes. They use them if they have to, but prefer to go outside and are very good about asking to go out. I've never been too fond of stepping in random poo/pee (has happened when visiting others' houses) ....

 

[RD]

The raised litterbox/grass thing is a much better idea. The dog KNOWS when they're on it. If I ever used pads I would use a small raised box to put the pad on so the dog knows when they're on the pad, and no risk of "missing".

I don't like teaching my dog to go to the bathroom inside. When we have a hurricane or something going on here, I ask Eve to go potty in my shower. Easy to clean up and she knows the difference between the shower and my floor. She still hates doing this.

 

[Whisper]

I'm not a fan of pads, but I used them when we got Lucy. I don't like talking about it, but since Lucy was from a pet store, it was likely she was from a puppy mill, obviously. So far we've avoided temperament issues and health problems related to it *crosses fingers/knocks on wood* but when she first came home she'd go anywhere, even in her bed and lie in it. It was disgusting and I used pads to try to teach Lucy "target practice" before moving on to going outside. I don't know if what I did was right, but I've never had a dog besides Lucy who would mess in their own sleeping space and didn't seem to care. Nowadays she doesn't go where she sleeps, and she is expected to potty outside.

A family friend of mine has 3 dogs- a poodle, a dachshund, and a greyhound. She leaves them inside when she works 12 hour shifts as a nurse. She lies down newspaper in her kitchen and the dogs go there. But when they walk around of course the newspaper slides all over the place and the dogs go all over the kitchen, not just the paper. I've taken care of her dogs and followed her directions, and picking up all of that is unbelievable. They go a lot in those 12 hours. *shudders*

 

[Southpaw]

I hate when pad-trained dogs board at the clinic, because they ALWAYS PEE IN THEIR CAGES! It's so annoying.

Yeah, that too. We had a pomeranian boarding once and the owner brought like 3 pee pads with, even though the dog was boarding for like a week or something. Once we used up the pee pads, the dog still continued using the cage as a bathroom. Never peed when we took it outside. Always in the cage. But, a cage of pee is always better than a cage smeared with poop lol.

 

[Michiyo-Fir]

Both Pop and Truffles were crated while they were pad trained and neither ever peed in their crates or cages. Popcorn would cry and cry until you let him out to pee/poop. Same with Nia when she was pad trained but she really didn't like peeing in the house on a pad very much so as soon as I got her I switched her to outside only.

Outside is actually a big pain sometimes too because I always have to rush back halfway during work or get someone else to rush back so Nia could pee. If she pottied on a pad in the house I wouldn't be as worried.

 

[Saeleofu]

But, a cage of pee is always better than a cage smeared with poop lol.

True. Very, very true lol. BUT pee pad dogs generally also poo in their cages. Heck, some dogs you get outside and they like "WAT IS DIS ROPE ON ME AHHHHHHHHH" *freaks out and alligator rolls*

 

[pitbullfriends]

I don't know anything about pad training but from this post I'm not missing much. I had an impulse to learn pad training for my new puppy but I abandoned the idea cause I had to take my other dog outside anyway. I do live in an apartment and not hustling my dogs outside five or six times a day would be nice, but it sounds like I made the best choice anyway so I'm not worried about it.

 

[Paige]

Miley was litter boxed trained. I don't find it any different than acat using on e if you want your dog to. My cats poop in their litter box. Meh. I clean the thing out every day (full on dumping out the litter too). My house doesn't stink.

 

[sjp]

My mini dachshund came to us pad trained and I was looking for an alternative because she is missing the pad sometimes and we have wood floors. She will wait until we get back inside from letting out our other dog who goes outside. Thank you for the ideas about litter training and grass patches so they know they are on the correct spot. To the rest why do you bother posting comments? It is a waste of effort and very annoying.