Puppy Training Pads?

closifer

Hi guys,

Just wonder if anyone has any opinions on puppy training pads? I am getting a new pup in a few weeks (toy breed) and I have gotten some of these for night-time use. Is this a good idea or will it just make it more difficult for the dog to understand that he should be going outside where possible?? I just dont think its realistic to think that the pup will make it through the night...any thoughts or suggestions?

Toulouse

They'll only confuse the pup and extend the time it's going to take to toilet train it.

Start as you mean to go on and train to only go outside. It'll mean getting up during the night to bring the pup out but that's what has to be done until the pup is old enough to hold it at night.

andreac

Def dont use puppy pads or paper. Its only confusing and delaying the training. If you want it to go outside then just train for outside from the word go.

Using paper or pads makes the pup think its ok to go inside and wont understand why you get annoyed when it does.

closifer

Toulouse wrote: »

They'll only confuse the pup and extend the time it's going to take to toilet train it.

Start as you mean to go on and train to only go outside. It'll mean getting up during the night to bring the pup out but that's what has to be done until the pup is old enough to hold it at night.

Fair point and I dont mind getting up in the night at all. Another question...any dog ive ever had,i would always leave its water out permanently but one of my breed books suggests that beacuse this dog has such a small bladder that you should control its water intake and only give it water at certain intervals or they will drink out of boredom and constantly pee!! What do you make of this?

Toulouse

Well personally I believe in providing fresh water at all times.

What breed is it?

closifer

Toulouse wrote: »

Well personally I believe in providing fresh water at all times.

What breed is it?

Its a chihuahua

aisher

I would not leave out water late into the evening. I would remove water/food by 8 pm so that the dog should have an empty bladder at 'bedtime'. I have an almost 6 month pup - she is crate trained. She would get up 2 times per night for the first two weeks when we first got her to go pee/poo - she is locked into the crate at night and I would hear her cry at night. She was in the kitchen. Now she never has to get up. Dogs wont soil the bedding area which is why the crate was so good - I dont think the pads will make training any easier - newspaper is the same and cheaper. Good luck.

tk123

The pads are handy to put in the bottom of the crate in case there's an accident. But your pup is tiny and i would imagine will have tiny wee so you won't have floods to mop up lol!! My retriever only ever had 2 accidents in the crate when i was too slow getting up to him. He was the only pup in his little class who was house trained (or crated) - that would have been around the 10 week mark (we got him at 6 weeks) and it was from crating him and getting up in the night to take him out. He slept later and later as the weeks went by so he would have started eg getting up at 3 then 4,5,6 etc. He also shredded the pads so we didn't use them - until the washing machine leaked one day lol!