Pee Pad training? Help!
 

I need some training advice!!!

At first we decided to outdoor train Sydney. It was going OK...but she didn't know how to ask to go out...and had frequent accidents. She almost seemed willfull about it because even though she got rewarded for going outside and punished for going on the floor...she would still just squat and pee right in front of you...or worse on the furniture. Plus once spring started and it got warmer...there were too many people hanging out on the street by our home and she kept getting distracted.

So we decided to try pee pads. I was hoping that since they have a chemical in them that attracts the dog that she would just go on it and after being rewarded for it a few times she would learn. Not exactly! She hasn't gone on the pee pad even once.

Is there a method I should be using? Every time she goes on the floor, I pick her up and put her on the pee pad...but that doesn't seem to be working. Also are some brands better than others as far as the kind of dog-attracting chemicals in them? I'm attaching a picture of the kind I got below.

I will take any advice on how to make this work. Please! :confused:

Try putting her pee on the pee pee pad

Sorry...here is the brand I bought
 

We tried putting some of her pee on the pee pad...and she still shows no interest. :(

We used the pee pad with Pookie when he was just a puppy, and it worked beautifully for a couple of weeks. Unfortunately, Pookie soon began chewing the pee pad and shredding it to bits, so we had to stop using it.

My only suggestion is to "limit the amount of space" Sydney has to roam in the house, you might even have to kennel/crate her when she cannot be watched 24/7 like a hawk.

Once out of the crate take her to the designated spot for 15 min's. If she goes, praise praise praise then give her some play time, snack/drink time. Then it's back to the kennel/crate. Just keep repeating this process and hang onto patience and I have found this works wonders.

I hope this helps.

By the way, Schatzie uses pee-pee pads too - it's worked great for us.

My suggestion would be to try changing the brand you use...Sailor is pee pad trained but if we try to switch brands she will start having accidents again...so we had stuck with the Nature's Miracle brand...it has a grass smells that is suppose to also help with the outdoor training as well...so far it has worked for us...just keep patient!!!

spray?
 

someone mentioned earlier...or maybe in a different forum I was looking at...about a spray that goes on the pee pads to help with training. I've never heard of this. Can someone tell me about it?

archie is trained to go outside and on the pee pee pad ONLY if there is an emergency and I am not home or I'm sleeping. The only advice I'd give is to consistently keep taking your dog out and when she goes outside, praise her a lot. When she goes inside, don't do or say anything if you have not caught her in the act. If you catch her in the act, say "NO!" and then take her out and praise her if she goes outside. If you don't catch her in the act, then don't say anything. Just get some Nature's Miracle and clean it up. Nature's Miracle eliminates the odor completely for dogs so that she can never smell that same place and go there again. Dogs usually go where they smell they've gone before or other dogs have gone before. That's why they sniff around like crazy when they have to find a place to go to the bathroom.

What I did to train archie was that I took him out all the time and praised him but if I caught him in the act inside, I said NO! and I put him on a wee wee pad because I live in an apartment so it's hard to just go outside right away. If I didn't catch him in the act, I just cleaned it up and didn't say anything. This sounds like what you're doing but perhaps by not using Nature's Miracle or something like that, you have not eliminated the scent so Sydney keeps going on the floor.

I hate to break the news but the wee wee pad smell thing doesn't work. I use wee wee pads and pads that I get from the hospital that they use on old people and Archie uses both. I don't think that the pads from the hospital have anything that encourage people or dogs to pee on there!

P.S. I used to see Archie sniffing around like crazy when he had to go so I knew that he had to go outside...that's kinda the clue that I picked up on when he wasn't knocking on the door or anything to get outside.