Quote:
Originally Posted by DanielleK  I just want to offer a counterpoint:
A dog who is taught to potty outside may have issues such as not knowing what grass is acceptable and what grass isn't. (Same type of issue as having problems with moving an indoor pad or someone else's house.)
As for the grossness factor: whether indoors or out you should be picking up the poop and disposing of it properly (in toilet or bagged up and trashed). If you do this, there isn't an issue of a poop smell in the house or poop in your washer.
If (general) you aren't picking up the poop in your yard, then essentially you've given over your yard to become the dog's toilet. I find that kind of gross.
Our back yard is more than a dog's toilet. We and our DD 3yrs old play outside in the yard almost daily, often with bare feet. I am very proud of my garden and my DH is very proud of his lawn. We entertain out there often.
If my pup starts peeing all over the place the lawn will start to yellow, and that grass we love to walk, play and lay in will essentially be no different from walking over used pee pads. Ick!
Cost factors: Yes, pee pads can be costly. But unless you recycle other baggies for picking up the poop in your yard or on walks, you are buying bags for that as well. If you use reusable pads, they go through your washer and come out clean. They do not contaminate your washing machine.
Just some other things to think about! |
Maybe it's just me, but I don't see how that is the same at all. My dogs ask to be let out no matter who's house they are at. No one I know is going to prefer I put a pad down and let the dog potty in the house, rather than let them out in the yard??? When they had an accident as a puppy, you could SMELL it , it stunk up the whole house!
The grass thing totally depends on your setup at home - If I had a house (we have a townhouse, no fence) I would totally have a separate "dog run" area with a doggie door so they could let themselves out. They could run around in the yard but then the majority of the cleanup could be contained. They only go in a small portion of the yard now and I pick it up every day or two. They don't use the large part of the lawn where our patio is. Besides, I try to walk them every day and they poop on their walk so really we are talking about once a day when they go first thing in the morning, that is not difficult to keep clean. A friend of mine trained her dog to only go to the waaaaay back of her yard where they don't walk.
(Also, people always say they use pads because they are NOT home, which means they are NOT cleaning it up right away anyway...)
My dogs have gone outside for 4 years in the same 10x10ish area and we've
never had a yellow stained lawn.
I'm not saying you are wrong - it obviously works for you - I just don't want people who are new to house training to think that Yorkies must use pee pads. People who have never heard of it before come to this site and see that all of the dogs use pee pads and think they did something wrong. It's so strange. It's by far harder to teach because it's not as natural for dogs, they don't pick it up as quickly because there is little differentiation. (Dogs get stimulated by sniffing where they went last, or where another dog went, a fresh pad every time messes with this!) Besides, if they were any bigger we wouldn't even be discussing this. Plus, it totally depends on your setup at home - some people have big screened porches or laundry rooms where they can have pads and they are separate from the house. We would have to put one in the kitchen (eww) or the bathroom (eww) and I'd rather they just go outside. They don't *need* pads. They are a convenience for people (which is fine, as long as people know it's more difficult to train with them and why.) Plus, Loki for example pees a RIVER when he goes. He also walks and pees. He would soak through a pad 20 times a day. And he has bladder issues so he is the pee expert, and trust me he would rather go outside. He would really prefer to be able to let himself out!
My point is that even if some dogs take to pads and they work well for some people, MOST dogs are going to benefit from sniffing the grass, walking around and selecting a spot (and walking around while they do their thing, mine walk and pee, walk and poop... so do all the neighbor dogs so I know they aren't so strange) The routine of going outside gives them a clear indication of where they need to potty. You lose some of that with pads, especially when people just put them down and expect the dog to figure it out like a cat would with a litter box.
P.S. You don't have to train your dog to use grass - you can train them to use something like mulch - as long as it smells and feel different and you teach them to associate it with pottying. I know it works because I had to teach Loki that it was also OK to go on the mulch (not just the grass). You can reverse this and teach them mulch is OK and grass is not, for example, and still have the benefit of them going outside.