stuck with puppy pads?

mrshanson · Feb 13, 2015

I brought my little one home (not potty trained) at 8 weeks and she is now 12 weeks and in that time have mostly successfully got her pad trained since we live in an apartment. Every time I I've taken her out to attempt to get her to go she does nothing but shakes in place and I've waited and waited with zero success. Different surfaces too, then will be brought back in and only goes on her pad...is this a forever habit potentially?

Tgirl · Feb 14, 2015

If you want to train her to go outside, you may need to take the pads away. It's like retraining when you want them to go outside rather than on the pad. She just doesn't know that she is supposed to go outside. Do you use a crate with her? You would take her out of her crate and straight outside to where you want her to go. Then you tell her to potty and when she does she gets lots of praise. If she doesn't, she goes straight back to the crate and you try again in 20 or 30 minutes. The more often she goes outside the more likely she is to start pottying out there. Any time you can't watch her in the house, she needs to be crated until she is trained. If you catch her going or getting ready to go inside, give her a firm "no" pick her up and take her out. She will eventually get it.

Good luck, and let us know how it's going.

eeturk · Feb 14, 2015

^^ great advice! That's how we got Hudson off of potty pads. Now he goes outside on command (go potty!).

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Alice Kable · Feb 14, 2015

Buster did the same shaking, and he still does when I collar and leash him to go on a walk. That shaking must be a Frenchie thing because my English Bulldogs have never done that.

We got Buster during the winter cold and trained him on potty pads. He started playing with them and shredding them so we took them away. We have a pet door and an older dog who pretty much trained Buster to go outside. [MENTION=179]Tgirl[/MENTION] gave you good advice on potty training.

planejane · Feb 14, 2015

I had the same situation with a Westie puppy. She would have sooner burst a bladder as go anywhere except on a pee pad.. Took me a couple of days but the light bulb finally went off, and I just brought the pads outside and none inside. I weaned her off the pads in about a week by cutting them smaller and smaller and always taking her to the same spot.

Tgirl · Feb 14, 2015

planejane said:
I had the same situation with a Westie puppy. She would have sooner burst a bladder as go anywhere except on a pee pad.. Took me a couple of days but the light bulb finally went off, and I just brought the pads outside and none inside. I weaned her off the pads in about a week by cutting them smaller and smaller and always taking her to the same spot.

That's a good idea to take the pads outside! I wouldn't have thought of that.