I'm just curious why so many of you use the pee pads?
 

I've never used a pee pad with Smokie. We always take him outside, and when he does his bs outside, he knows he is getting a treat when he comes in. When he needs to go out, he will bug me something fierce until I pay attention. He is about a year old, and was mostly housebroke when we got him. He did have a couple times of pooping and peeing on the kitchen floor - and I got onto him, told him he was a bad boy. (Glad though it was on the linoleum easy to clean) but since then no accidents. He always has food and water in his bowl, so I don't limit that, yet he will let you know without a doubt when he needs to go out. So I am just curious why use the pee pads instead of training them to go outside? Is it because of where you live? Maybe you don't have an outdoor area? Maybe you are disabled and unable to walk your dog? I can't even imagine letting him use a litter box. Mom has a cat and that litter box is bad enough. Please don't take this wrong. I am in no way judging anyone, I am just very curious why? Thanks for taking the time to help me understand why you would let a dog use the bathroom in the house. Education is always a good thing. Reva ~ Smokie's Mom :aimeeyork

We walk Kimo and Sophia twice a day and they usually go during both walks. On days that we have work, we can be gone up to 11 hours including commute time. I guess I don't really know for sure, but it seems like 11 hours would be too long for them to wait to go potty, so we keep them in the kitchen with a pee pad. We leave the pee pad up all the time but they mostly use it when we are at work.

I am using them now because Tristan is a puppy and it is nicer for him instead of going outside in 40 degree raining weather...plus have you ever tried walking a very strong German Shepherd on a retractable leash with a little 2 lbs. 12 week old yorkie, I have tried everything and nothing works, they even get tangles with regular leashes .

I can totally understand using them while a person is at work. That just makes sense. What I don't understand is the ones who only use pee pads. This just boggles my mind.

i think some use them bc of bad weather like snow or when it is pouring rain some yorkies wont go potty outside.

I use potty pads for my yorkie and pom only bc i feel that little dogs cant hold their pee in as long as bigger dogs. If i took them outside to potty, i would be going out 6 to 7 times a day! lol..... maybe im just lazy LOL!!!! I also have a 15 pound jack russell that only needs to go out 2x day so i do take him outside to potty

We found that after the pup came and had a pad in his pen that Jackson would get in there and use it. Dont you find that your Jack russell will use the pads instead of wanting to go out and if not how do you keep him from getting into that habit:confused:

I use pee pads mostly because I live in Alaska...I don't want my lil' :aimeeyork freezing to death! If it isn't too cold, then I try to let her do her business outside.

I use pee pads because I live in an apartment building on the 3rd floor, but mainly because we get very cold winters, with sometime -50 plus with windchill and that is way to cold for Bailey!

I use the pads because of where I live. I am renting right now because we are military and only going to be here a short while and we dont have a fenced in yard. We also live in a high traffic area so I didnt want to take any chances with him. This is the first dog I have ever pad trained so it is a little new to me too. It seems to work well for us though. I never have to worry about rushing home to let him out or having to get him to go out in the rain.

I dont use pee pads either , however I did when I first brought Laci home but we had about 18 inches of snow the day I picked her up... I only used them a short time until the weather got better , she is now fully trained outside... BUT I am home all day and I do have to take her out several times a day.

Mine use the doggie door and potty outside most of the time. But I have a couple who don't like to get their toesies wet if there's so much as a drop of dew on the grass. :p Also, I didn't adopt Jordy from rescue until he was already 1 1/2 years old. He'd been raised in a puppy mill so he'd never been potty trained - we're still working on that & the puppy pads help a lot.

Y'all make a lot of sense to me. I wondered if it had to do with things such as living in apartments or bad winters. I can certainly understand that, just as I can those who have to work long hours every day. Thanks for helping me understand! Happy day to everyone! Reva ~ Smokie's mama :aimeeyork

I don't use pee pads ever but I can see why they work for some people!

I have one that wont go out in the rain or snow so I have to use them

I used to use the pads for night time only in Hemis xpen but he is doing great going outside now. Hell even whine to let me know hes gotta go out. Im a little worried for this winter as it will be our first winter together and im hoping he will go out into the snow. guess we wont know til the snow hits the ground. oh how i hate ohio in the winter :(

I use pee pads, I have a house with a big yard but I live in NJ, we have inches and inches of snow and my Harry refuse to go out when is raining too.. so I have a grass pee thing on my enclosed porch and he loves it, so when the others came just followed his lead to the porch when it rains or snows... other than that, they love to go out in the yard and do their puppy business..

I have done this both ways and I think I am sorry I ever used a pee pad. I had well trained dogs, always going outside. Then when I started having puppies, I used the pee pads in their play yard. I would have the pads available when they were out and about as they got older. So, I thought it would be a good idea to use the pee pads for when I was gone for the older dogs too. All it took was one time to smell pee on the pad and they all wanted to go on them. Now, they want to go on the pads all the time. I will have them outside for an hour and they come in and pee on the pads. Then my old girl (17 yr old dachshund) starting having problems and that just seemed to lead to utter chaos with the peeing in the house situation. The carpet was ruined. I am having porcelain tile laid as I type! Things were sogood before I ever let them pee indoors! They all went outside, came in and got their treat. No problem. I think letting any pee in the house was the begin of our decline here. :(

We use pee pads also...I work 30 miles away from home so I can't come home for lunch to let Lola out and DH is in law enforcement so he can't count on coming home for lunch as sometimes he doesn't even get a lunch. I had never had a dog and didn't even know where to begin! Where we live can be extremely hot or there is dew outside on the grass most of the times and I don't want Lola's feet wet on my bed-she sleeps above my head:D. This has worked out great for us and she hardly has any accidents. She'll get up and go to the pad and then come back to bed if she needs to go in the middle of the night. I thought maybe I should trainer her to go outside but I cannot be consistant if we BOTH work all day and no one to count on to come and let her out. So this is feasable for us. It seems to work great ;)

Actually, i was sorta secretly hoping that my Jack Russell would use the pee pad lol.... bc at the time i was living in a high rise apt building and it took 10min just to get out of the building w/ all the elevators and stuff and once we got outside, there was no real grassy area for him to go potty..... but he never ended up using the pads still. My JR is soooo stubborn!!!! that once he gets settled into a routine, he will NEVER change lol..... Although few times i did catch him sniffing the pad, he never has peed on it.

Unfortunately, if he had to really go potty and no one took him outside, he would just pee on the floor instead of the pee pad lol......

I guess others might see me as lucky but i actually wanted all the dogs to use the pee pads. Not just two of them lol...:p:p:p

I love potty pads!
 

I am going to be honest, I use them because I am LAZY :p. And it gets really cold here in the winter with foot upon foot of snow and I hated having to bundle my furbutts up and myself every few hours to brave the wind and cold snow or rain. And I live in an apartment on the 2nd floor. I started out with training to go outside. But I was having to get up super early in the mornings to let her out and I was super grumpy about it. Plus sometimes she needed to go out at like 3 in the morning. I couldn't hack it lol Sooo I got some puppy pads so I could train her and then we got another little guy and he learned really quickly as well. I am glad they are trained to go on the pads so this way I can have someone watch them at their house and they don't have to worry about them messing on their floors or having to take them out every few hours. It just seems to make things easier when they are pad trained, given my situation now. They will go outside though. ALso , everytime we went outside it was a big ordeal because all the kids that live in my building would bombard us, i hated it. It made potty time take way longer than it should. This way, my 2 have free roam of the house!

LOL!!!!! i forgot to add that i use pee pads bc im lazy too....

No you didn't LoL you just added the "maybe".. now you are confirming you are lol

Bailey is 100% outdoor trained - then a few weeks ago, hubby's hours changed and he started getting home too late for Bailey to have to hold it. One day she had an accident on the landing at the bottom of the basement stairs. So, I put a pee pad there for future use (its a perfect out-of-the way place for a pee pad). She held it for several more weeks - and then finally, this week she started to use it! Yay!! I'm soooo proud of her!!!

What relief to know that she can go pee if we are running late.

She continues to ring the bell and go outside when we're home. :)

Yup I have some like that too so on rainy days I put out the pee pads. They are getting better about it though, so hopefully one day............

Bonnie will go outside when we are out, or on a walk. But we use the pads at first because she was too small to hold it while I was at work. Now it is for convenience. Mine:rolleyes: Maybe I am just a little lazy too. LOL

I like to know that If I am late coming home, that she is not in pain trying to hold it or peeing/pooing where she should not.

You gave some of the answers. There are many. Dirt in the coat or water in grass.

It's an easier way of life if they live in a high rise.

Some have too many yorkies to walk them outside and they don't have a dog run. Although, Dogs still need exercise & they need walks. It's not a demanding schedule. Dogs do need walks!

It is safer, especially for those living alone or if a man isn't present.

Some people use pads as a back up b/c yorkies are notorious for soiling indoors. Laying down a pad is a precaution for the inevitable.

All pads are easy. It takes less energy to change a pad than to clean up an accident. Not to mention it's more sanitary and less odor. You are very lucky that your boy is so good about using the potty. I bet you are thinking what is wrong with these people LOL. :D Consider yourself very lucky. It sounds dirty. But my pads do not sit with anything on them knowingly. I don't know anyone that lives like that.

I pick up turds off of mine, but I let them use the pad to pee on more than once. I usually let them pee on it 4-5 times before I throw it away. They are too expensive to just use one time and I don't want to buy the washables. I guess I am dirty :p But anyone thats been to my house says you can't even tell 2 dogs live there ( i.e. there is no smell whatsoever )

I always pick up the poop but the pads get used all day, and fresh ones in the morning. But I don't use pads all the time, just on nasty days. the rest of the time they go out, they have a doggie door.

I also use them for the puppies, in the puppy pens.

I use pads. I will pick the terds as soon as he drops them. I will take it up when he has peed on it about 4 times.. Walking in my house you cant smell the pad... To tell the truth everyone tells me it smells like Oatmeal cookies bc of my candles!! :D

My guy had a habit of peeing while he played. He would pee while running, and sometimes he was so quick I wouldn't even see it. He had pretty much no compunction about going indoors. I didn't think I'd be able to teach him to stop playing and go to the door in those situations, so I started with the pads. I also tried to teach him to use a bell, but he was terrified of it. If he poops, I pick it up immediately, and usually change the pad out.