Teaching to Differentiate Between Pee Pee Pads and Rugs
 

Does anyone have any tips on how to teach dogs to differentiate between rugs and carpets in the house and their pee pee pad?

My goal is to train Mishka to use her pee pee pad inside, but also go to the bathroom outside when let out or when on walks. I know it can be done because my Mom's female Yorkie and her male toy Poodle are house-trained this way. She doesn't have rugs in her house (but she does have welcome mats) so she didn't really have this problem. But now her adult dogs do differentiate correctly somehow.

So far I have Mishka mostly trained to use her pee pee pad. When in a play pen, she will go to her pee pee pad to use the bathroom. Also, when I take her to visit my parents and put down a pee pee pad she will use it there. Mishka will go to the bathroom outside too. I think she's figured it out by now that when I say "go pee pee" I want her to use the bathroom.

We're trying to transition her to having more free roaming of the house. So far she has been in a play pen and under supervision when outside of her play pen. When we let her roam the house, it is a limited space (lots of doors closed) and we make sure she doesn't get into any trouble. We still have a few things we need to puppy-proof before we relax with the supervision a little.

When we do let her out like this, she tends to pee on the welcome mats and rugs. I make sure to remind her where her pee pee pad is, especially if it looks like she needs to pee. Today, I could tell she was looking for a place to squat. I called her over to me by the pad, said "go pee pee," and then she happily ran away and started looking for a place to pee again. Then I picked her up and put her on the pad and said "go pee pee." She reacted the same way, and squatted on my rug. :confused:

Do you think she's too excited to think clearly about where she's supposed to pee (since she doesn't run around the house regularly right now)? If I catch her peeing on the rug, what should I do? I don't want to do anything to give her wrong/conflicting messages.

I'm not sure I can help. It sounds like you're doing everything right.

I litter box trained when Jillie was still in an xpen. Then I put the pad in the litter box for a while. Eventually I removed the litter box and just left the pad.

Indoors, she goes exclusively on the pad -- except when I forget to put one out or it gets too soiled. Then she either asks to go outside or hits the bath mats, etc.

I wonder if putting a bath mat in her enclosed area close to her bed would work. Or even use it as her bed. Then put the pad on the other side of the enclosed area. Just a thought ...

Do you give her a treat when she pees on the pad? That would be one way to reinforce the desired behavior.

To differentiate where she should go potty, I believe I would go with idea of the pee pad in the long flat litterbox. There are very flat type plastic boxes made to hold pee pads. She will learn over time that she goes on whatever is in that litterbox and on nothing else, including rugs anywhere else in the home. She will key to the box and its location in the home but will also begin to associate the pee pads in it with going in the litterbox, which has now become her acceptable "bathroom".

Eventually, if wanted, you should be able to start to lay some pee pads all around the litterbox in addition to the one in it and one day, with the pee pads all around, remove the box from under the center pad. Hopefully by that time, she will have long associated peeing and pottying with the pee pad, too, and segue right into doing her business on the pads only placed in the same site where the potty box used to be. Over time, you should be able to cut down to 1-2 pee pads where the box used to set and not have to use several. By that time, she should have it deeply ingrained in her mind and muscle memory that she goes to where the pee pads are to toilet and on nothing and no where else in the home. In fact, it should be quite difficult for the well-trained pee pad dog to toilet anywhere else but on the pee pad or similar paper in that area of the home where the litterbox was.

Emy finally is peeing on her pee pads, but how do you get them to poop on the pee pads? She just poops on the kitchen floor and pees on her pee pads.
She drops poop as she is scooting along the floor! Should I put more pee pads on the floor so she has a separate place for peeing and a separate place for pooping? I use a magnetic pee pad holder, I was using a plastic puppy peepad holder, but she would just eat the center of the peepad. With these magnetic holders, they lay flat on the floor, she doesn't for some reason bother with eating the peepad, unless one has a little flaw in it and isn't completely smooth, then she will of course pull up on the pad and tear it up...but I catch her and tell her no!....the pooping has got me stumped though, cause I know shortly after peeing first thing in the morning the poop will follow.

Mishka is 12 weeks and 4 days old. I do have her pee pee pad in only one location, where I intend to have it permanently. So I am trying to teach her where to go but also what to go on.

I always praise her when she uses the bathroom on her pee pee pad and occasionally offer her a treat. Even with all the praise, after hearing it for so many weeks she kind of looks it me like "Yeah Mom, I peed on the pad, chill out." Right now if she doesn't use the bathroom in the correct place, I just clean it up without praise or punishment. Should I do something different when she pees in the wrong place?

I will try getting her a dog litter pan like you described. I was going to try using one anyway. I thought it would be best to wait until she was mostly trained to use the pee pee pads without one first. But, I'm sure she'll figure it out.

I guess I will try encouraging her to play and lay down on the rugs, etc. Maybe this will help her understand that their function is not as a bathroom. Although puppies sometimes do all that behavior on their pee pee pad too, so we'll see how that goes.

In my experience, puppies seem to gain better control of their bowels after they gain control of their bladder. Each puppy is different of course. But, when you watch young puppies learning where to potty you will notice two things.

When they are really young (7-8 weeks), they seem surprised by the fact they suddenly have to pee. It's like they didn't see it coming at all and their bladder is full and about to pop. They scurry around in a panic, sniffing the ground, looking for a place to squat. They can't think clearly about the correct place to bathroom, so they just squat and pee. They seem to be able to better predict when they have to pee at about age 9-11 weeks.

Puppies react the same when they have to poop. They run around and even cry. It's as if they are saying, "What's happening to me? What do I do? Oh my, I think I should squat here and poop! Wow that feels much better!" With the puppies I've raised in the past, it seemed like it took a lot longer for them to gain complete control over their bowels. My puppy has started to gain control, which began when she was about 10-11 weeks old. She still occasionally runs around like I described.

In both scenarios, you can pick up the puppy and direct them to where they should use the bathroom. Be warned, if they really are about to pop you might get peed on! You can also try calling them over to the pad or outdoors if they come reliably. Praise and reward them when they go in the correct place.

Keeping the puppy in a smaller area, like a play pen or just confined in one room, means less room for bathroom errors. In a smaller area, the pad is always visible to the puppy as the correct option. They are also less likely to wander far enough that they forget where the pad is.

It's funny that I'm giving advice on potty training in a post where I was asking advice. But, I've been successful with training puppies to go outside or on their pee pee pad. It's been a long time since I raised a puppy though. So, I've forgotten what methods worked when it came to complications like peeing in the wrong place or confusing pee pee pads with rugs.

As for pooping on the pad, I have been able to get my puppy, Darwin to do it by waiting until he assumes the pooping position and then moving him to the pad. Eventually he figured it out and did it on his own. He's only 4 months old at the moment and is not 100 percent house broken by any means. It's a long learning process.

Oh...I just removed all of the rugs when I brought my puppy home. I've had enough puppies in the past to know that I would always lose that battle. I might put them down again when he is a year old, depending on how well he is house broken at that point. The last dog I had was a basset hound, well known for being very difficult to housebreak. So I'm prepared for the worse case scenario despite my best efforts.

I have put away the bathroom rugs for now. But I really want to keep down my other rugs. There's one large floor rug in every room (4 total). There are also 3 mats by the doors for wiping feet.

I just know that she can learn this. My Mom's female Yorkie and her toy poodle both figured it out mostly on their own. The toy poodle came years after the Yorkie, so he mostly modeled her behavior. Since Mishka is the only dog in my house, she doesn't have a dog to model after. My parents' dogs do visit sometimes, and I take her to my parents' house to visit.

Maybe I will also try getting my parents to visit with their dogs more often and for longer periods. Then Mishka can watch them use her pee pee pad and NOT go on the rugs.

I would just take up the area rugs until the basics of potty training have been mastered.

Yup..I don't think they can tell the difference. I had a dog that would pee on the rug when he couldn't hold it. He was newspaper train back when.My other would goo by the door I let him out. I have tile floors in the area they stay in so no worries. They use to hold it till I or someone got home. So with my new pup I'm training to go outside. In one week he can almost always poop outside. Pee is different. Seems if I don't the the warning fast enough he goes. But he's getting alot better. When he's older and can hold it longer I sure he would get better.JME

Potty training a new dog is a lot like having a baby in the house who has just learned to walk. You have to babyproof the endtables and coffee tables and lower cabinets and put up all the things the little toddler can now get that used to be safe. When I'm potty training a dog, up come special rugs and anything I think will cause the dog to want to toilet on it. Once the dog is fully trained, all those rugs and large floor pillows and such can return.

I agree. I won't let my dog into the other area of the house till about a year. And may not have full run till over a year -two yrs. But he has limited full run of the family area where we are always at. And sleeps in my room next to me in a crate. When nobody's home he goes into the big crate and wreaks havoc till someone gets back home.