Puppy pee pads

[Eleni]

my husband and I have decided that since we live on teh 4th floor and that sammy doesnt always make it all the way outside before he cant resist the urge to pee, that we would train him to go on the puppy pee pads, on the balcony.

wich is great because he is already papertrained to the point where he will ONLY go on the pee pads if they are available in the house.

but here is where we have a problem, i have the pads available at the balcony door, hes been using them very consistently,

I also have one outside the door, using that one for him is hit and miss, mostly miss

how do i encourage him to use the one outdoors only, take away the indoor one??


and advice is greatfully appreciated


Eleni

[mafiaprincess]

I currently am working through the same thing. We are on the 6th floor of an apt, and we have potty pads in a litter box.

We put a bell on the door to alert us if she wanted to go out, and she understood really quickly that dinging the bell got her outside. We moved the potty box onto the balcony, fed her, and were going to have her touch the bell and take her outside and tell her to go potty, but she associated the location of the pottybox being okay to go to the bathroom and went on the floor as I was walking to the door to take her out, big oops on my part..

We are now leashing her, and taking her out to the balcony every few hours to try to get her into knowing that the bathroom is on the balcony.

[sammiec]

I don't have an answer for you.. but I am just curious... why do you want to train your pet to go out on the balcony?

I too know all about the hassles of apartment living - we're on the 18th floor, and we have gone in and out at all hours of the night every 1 - 2 hours to make sure that the dog understands that the grass is OUTSIDE! Just interested in why people chose to train on the balcony!

[Eleni]

well he will be going on the puppy pads ive placed on the balcony


not on the balcony itself per se just thats where the pads will be placed

mostly its for convenience too, I have the time to walk the dog 3 times a day, what i dont have time for is every 2 hours I want an alternative spot for him to potty when i cant take him all the way to outside of the building


Eleni

[sammiec]

Okay, I see.

We both work at full time jobs and don't necessarily have the time to be going out all the time either. But what we did was every 2 hours or so just take her out for a pee and a poop and then back inside. It's not that every two hours they have to be out for an hour.

I just wonder because even when the pads are gone I would think that an older dog would still associate the balcony with outside and start going out there instead of going down to the ground floor.

Is there a doggie door access to the balcony, or he'll just go out there when you open the door for him?

[Eleni]

only when I open the door, eventually when we want him to go to the ground floor, we will bring a puppy pad with us for awhile and go from there


Eleni

[mafiaprincess]

I'm a 4th year university student, we keep odd hours, the puppy is crated for 5 hours max when we have stuff to do, but doesn't even have a sign she needs to go. There is no sniffing and circling. She just squats out of nowhere. It was far easier to put her in the box than walk down 6 flights of stairs to make my point that the bathroom is outside. My roomate bought our dog from a petstore. It was the dead of winter and even after a 3 hour walk she would hold going to the bathroom till she got inside. Within 5 minutes she would go on the floor. In the dead of winter I couldn't force her to stay outside till she went, so we started to litterbox train.

I move with the dog into a house next month, and I will reteach, but I wanted to start now. It was really a lack of a choice. I'm glad that being on the 18th floor you can manage that, but it wasn't workign for us.

[Bearsmom]

Kaos just eats his puppy pads. Methinks we're doing something wrong.

[Princesss04]

Aren't puppy pads expensive? And do you change them everytime they use them? I never have used them so I always wondered.

[Eleni]

I paid 45$ for a box of 100,

ive been replacing them every time he goes

so yeah it can be costly depending on your budget


Eleni

[mafiaprincess]

Ours went through a few days where she decided to shred them. We bitter appled them, and it wasn't a problem ever again.

We bought a box of 100 at petsmart for 40 bucks, and found a more absorbant brand at canadian tire for 50 for 20 bucks. (typo issues sorry)

We have 2 pads in a under the bed rubbermaid container. They overlap a good 7 inches of so. When she poops, we pick it up and flush it, and she will usually pee a few times in her box before it has to be changed. First thing in the morning can fill a pad though. We sometimes overlap them in the opposite direction for a bigger clean area for her.

A box of 100 lasted forever, and the more absorbant pads are a lot better. Since they absorb better, she doesn't see the box as immediatly dirty since there isn't a pool of urine.

[Eleni]

wow when i need mroe im heading to canadian tire!!

I change Sams every time he goes, i have little kids and i dont want them investigating his messes LOL!


but 500 for 20$ is definatly more economical then what i paid for the box of 100



Eleni

[mafiaprincess]

Whoops, sorry dog jumped on me, typo issues. It was 50 for 20. Sorry hun. We have gone through about 4 brands of puppy pads now though, and the "on your own" brand from canadian tire was far more absorbant than 3 brands we tried from petsmart, including the economy pack of 100 from petsmart.

[Prin]

I'm a little bit on the other side of this... My neighbor lets his dog out on the balconey and I find it really gross. My brother does it too. Maybe that is why landlords hate dogs. I don't know but I was raised with the idea that if you have a dog, you bring it out. My dogs are big but even if they were small, part of the committment I made to them was to bring them out because no dog wants to be indoors all day... Just my opinion...

[mafiaprincess]

Does your neighbours dog just go on the balcony or on anything..?
I want the pottybox, which I will continue to change just as frequently on our balcony.

[Eleni]

if your clean about your dogs messes i dont see that where they goes really matters?

I mean yeah the pup pads are on the balcony, but the mess never actually touches the balcony, the pads hold all the mess, and since i pick the pads up after each mess its clean, and there isnt any odor.

so im not making it uncomfortable for my neighbors, in fact if i never told them they likely would never notice

if he does happento ahve an accident off the papers i clean it with soap and water the same as i would my floors in the house

Eleni

[sammiec]

I'm sorry, but I'm with Prin on this one. I think it's disgusting!

Not only should dogs be going outside to the washroom but they should have owners that are taking the time to train them correctly, not just for convience sake. I am really sorry, but I just find this pure laziness on the part of the owner. No wonder the poor dogs are so confused!

Those people who developed puppy pads are making a killing off of people... kinda like the people that "made" bottled water... and the ability to buy a bag of shredded clothes when you need a rag... I guess people will buy anything.... that's just my hu,ble opinion, take it as you may....

[Dahlia]

I don't think Eleni is being lazy, I think she's just doing what she has to do. She has 3 small children and I know how hard it is to have to drag kids around to do everything, and living on the 4th floor apartment it isn't safe to leave the kids in the apartment to walk the dog, even if it is just for a few minutes. My mom paper trained all of our poodles, and they weren't confused. Once the paper was moved outside they didn't have accidents on the floor. I thought maybe I just didn't remember them going on the floor, so I called and asked her and she said they never did. So IMHO, it's up to the owner how they want to housetrain their dogs. I am taking Sophie out because I live in a one storey house and can run out back and watch my 8 month old through the sliding glass doors. But if I lived in a 4th floor apartment I would probably use puppy pads, too.

[sammiec]

My mistake, I didn't realize that there were 3 small children involved.

[Eleni]

I could if i absolutly had too take everyoen with me but that involves a double stroller and some speed on my part to get pup out before he wets the floor

let me tell you I havent really got that speed LOL!!

however when I can take the pup outside I plan on it, he will still get 2-3 full walks a day he does need exercise in that respect


Eleni