Have to agree with the other posters, the pads are a great idea to augment the normal walks. My guys get 2 or 3 walks a day, but it isn't enough.
Strange that no one mentioned the issues I have with the pads:
One of my yorkies is terrible at getting her pee on the pad, even when it’s fresh. She likes to live on the edge, and she pees the way she lives. This means that most times she uses the pad, it gets underneath and you end up wasting a lot of toilet paper drying and cleaning the tile beneath the pad. This is REALLY Annoying behavior, and difficult for us to correct since you want to praise her for using the pee pad, but NOT ON the edge. She just doesn't get it. Plus, she absolutely refuses to use the pad unless we take her in the bathroom and close the door; she will not go in by herself but we need to close her in for 5 minutes to get her to pee.
Our male is great and goes on the pad by himself with no trouble, and knows not to do it on the edge making a mess. His only minor issue is that he (for some reason known only to the yorkie gods) refuses to poop outside and will only do it on the pad. Peeing is no problem, inside or out, but poop is only to be done on the pad. When he does poop outside (and this is really rare, like once or twice a month), it’s always an "accident" like in the middle of the sidewalk. He does not plan it like his sister does.
Clean up is easy and it would be hard to live without the pads, but these guys all have their strange ways.
If the expense is too much, newspaper also works well, but evenutally the newsprint will leach off and make a mess. I also worry that the newsprint gets on their paws and then onto the carpet, so when we changed the carpet we did away with the newspaper and now only use pad for indoors.
