I am thinking about getting more to cover more carpet areas, but I plan on belly banding him, so that will help eliminate some accidents if I am off schedule a bit. I am glad the flooring worked for you. I feel more confident.

Don't use a belly band for potty training. Belly bands are for marking dogs, and marking is different than peeing, although it seems very similar. If you keep him in a bellyband, he will pee on himself and learn to not be bothered by his pee. It's really hard to retain a puppy mill dog who has learned to live with his own pee, a dog is born with an innate desire to not pee and sleep in the same place, you want to keep that desire going. It will help him learn to seek out a place to pee, and at first you might want to use a couple of pee pads in the x-pen so it’s hard to make a mistake. I used a large piece of vinyl on the floor of Joey's x-pen, Joanne's sells large pieces of thick vinyl. When he’s out of the x-pen, you want to keep both eyes on him and keep a pee pad close by, they won’t seek out the pee pad at first. Dogs start marking around 7 months of age, and bellybands can be usefully if you are going to someone’s house and you don’t want them to mark, but should be taken off if they need to pee. They can get a bad rash from wearing a wet pad. Breeders often need belly bands for their breeding males, who often mark inside and out. Neutered dogs usually will just mark outside, but if another dog has marked inside, all bets are off! In many ways if you keep them in an x-pen, with a pee pad, they train themselves. If you crate train them, you do need to keep a schedule.

I was going to put a belly band on him, but take him out every half an hour at first. Working my way up to an hour over a period of time. Plus, when waking up, after play, after eating, the usual times. Is this not a good idea?

Seems like a lot of work to me. They do this if the dog will be crate trained. You use a small crate that only big enough for the dog to stand up and turn around it. He will not pee in a small place where he only has room to lie down. So the idea is that when you take him out of the crate, he has to pee and learns quickly that you are happy when he pees on the right spot. With a belly band, he doesn't really learn to hold it, and he doesn't really learn to go on the pad in his crate. That’s why I suggested keeping him in a small crate overnight; this overnight training really helps them to learn about peeing in the right spot and learning to hold their urine. Do not withhold water, this is a common mistake and this too works against you. If he drinks water normally the bladder gradually grows and stretches, if you withhold water, you aren’t giving the bladder a chance to stretch normally.


By the way, if your pup has a good mother, she will have begun the training process, by nudging him over to the pee pad when she smell that he needs to urinate. He may know more than you think when you get him.

Ok thanks! I will hold off on the belly bands for now. I don't have them anyway. So, should I take him out every 30 min or is every hour good to start with in addition to waking up, after playing, after eating. I really want to start on the good foot. I know the breeder was using washable pads. Definitely not going to withhold water.

I use the belly bands when we are visiting someone, dogs that are trained will often want to mark someone's house. So they are a good thing to have.

The way you are doing it, is the same way you do it if you are crate training them, and there is no pee pad in the crate. People who work usually can't spend that much time, so they don't crate train. If you're goal is to teach you dog to seek out a pee pad and urinate on it, you can train him to do this in an x-pen without taking him out every 20 minutes. Dogs aren't that predictable, and I'm afraid you'll get frustraed, if you take him out and he never needs to go. If you keep him in a small crate, he much more likely to need to go when you take him out. Joey could hold it for 2-3 hours at night, urine production slows down at night, during the day it varied so much, sometimes it seemed like every 10 minutes. This is a really good site, it helps you pick a method indoor or outdoor, crate or x-pen and it gives lots of tips on how to do it. Free House Training for Puppies and Adult Dogs - No More Accidents Starting Today! At first the site can be a little hard to navagate, and sometimes you have to back up to read all the articles, but if can give you such a clear understanding of how to train so that you have the most success.

That's a cute pen. What are the measurements? My Roxie would just push it to where ever she wants to go..or jump over it. lol Ahi on the other hand would curl up and take a nap.

Whenever I clean, I let my pups follow me around. They (esp. Ahi) love the vacuum. When I first got Ahi I used to carry her and vacuum. Now if she is laying on the floor and I am vacuuming I have to go around her as she will look at me as if saying "i'm not moving". It doesn't bother them one bit.

I love the cheetah print. :)

I also really like that pen.

I've noticed pretty much everyone uses the plastic or metal ex pens. Are these preferable over the travel/fold up kind because they're sturdier?

I liked the metal because they seemed indestructable and sturdy. Mine have been used by me and passed along to my neighbors to use and they look brand new

i love your set up!

Ahh, potty training...I just wanted to encourage you to think about Nancy's suggestion. Both of mine are pad trained...it was really simple. They each stayed in their ex-pens during the day while everyone was at work. They had a sleeping area, food area, and potty area. At first, the entire ex-pen floor was covered in the potty pads I intended to continue to use after potty training. When I noticed puppy was peeing only on one side (away from sleep area) I removed the potty pads from the sleep area. Puppy continued to use potty pads on opposite side. As my dogs got older they each became very trustworthy and would always seek out the pad to pee or poop. Easy Peasy! This is not to say there weren't accidents, of course we had accidents...I would just watch more closely for a few days so I could remind puppy of pad and praise like crazy for "good potty!"

Glad you posted this story, so much like Joey and where I placed his pad in his playpen. He just seemed to train himself, and I'm a firm believer in "Keep it Simple!"

I prefer the fabric pens they have much more space

Thanks everyone for you help. I really appreciate it. I feel like after YEARS of researching I now know absolutely NOTHING! LOL

So I should use more than one pad for now?

Is the leopard thing a pad or a blanket? If it's a pad, it seems big enough, I wonder if turning the bed the other way would work better? I really don't know, but you will learn quickly if the way you have it set up is working. He'll pee on the pad!