How to stop using pee pads
Pee pads are a super popular solution that help many dog owners.
But it’s also a real problem for many, because it gets puppies used to peeing inside the house.
If you have used pee pads, don’t feel bad. Let’s just start fixing this problem together starting from today.
Just for information, we highly recommend checking out our puppy school app, which is 100% free to learn from. It has a longer in-depth topic about potty training.
Form a schedule
The first thing you should solidify, is your time schedule for going out.
For puppies, we recommend going out at least 4 times each day:
In the morning, after waking up ~7AM
During lunch ~12PM
After work, ~5PM
Before bed time, ~10PM
If your puppy is younger than 4 months, you might need to go out even more. But otherwise, going out every ~4 hours is good for your puppy’s natural clock.
It will reduce their need to go the toilet between these times.
Go out for longer
One thing that we hear from new owners, is this problem: “We go out for 5 minutes and our dog doesn’t go to the toilet.”
Not to be rude, but seeing as most dogs need 15 minutes outside just to calm down from their first excitement - “No wonder your dog won’t pee outside.”
Dogs need time outside. We recommend doing 20 - 30 minute calm walks and one walk should be around 40 - 60 minutes.
Don’t worry, you don’t need to complete a marathon, just take it easy and give your dog time to relax, sniff and go to the toilet.
Use the pee pads to your advantage
Now, let’s talk about getting rid of the pee pads that your dog is so used to.
There are two options you really have.
Option number 1 is just to dive head first into “the normal world”, if you see that your dog is okay with going potty outside.
Then, just take the pee pads away, and get to work on your schedules and your walks.
It’s risky, but sometimes making a clear big change is actually the best option if you want change your dog’s habits.
Option number 2 takes advantage of your dog’s habit of peeing on the pee pad.
Instead of throwing the pee pads away, take them outside.
Because your dog is used to peeing on the pads, changes are, they will pee on them outside as well.
And here comes the trick:
Every time your dog pees on the pee pad, cut a piece off.
The “magic” here is that by cutting a piece of, the pee pad is still a pee pad, it just gets smaller and smaller.
Until finally, that last small piece just blends into the grass.
This gives your puppy enough time to get used to peeing on the grass. Plus, if you follow the previous steps and what we teach in our Pocket Puppy School app, you should be able to avoid any future accidents from occurring.
Many people who can cross this hurdle often even forget what it was like to have this problem - so remember that it’s only going to get better from here if you just put in a little bit of effort.
Haven’t heard about Pocket Puppy School before?
Pocket Puppy School is a completely free dog training app. Our mission is to make information about raising dogs accessible to everyone in the world.
But in addition to our app, we have a blog (that you are currently reading 🤓) where we talk all things about dogs.
We post some informational and fun content to our Instagram page and believe it or not, we even have a merch store. 🥹 In the store you can get a t-shirt or a hoodie with your own dogs’ picture that we will make into an awesome design.
Feel free to check out all of our channels, and if you have any questions, leave a comment down below.
Thank you!
