Hello everyone. It is a good few years since I started a puppy. Pee pads were not invented so I am ignorant about the pros and cons. I would keep pup in a pen overnight with his bed in one end and newspaper in the other. No comments made for pees and poops but praise when they got less. Is it better to use pee pads? Also I have three other dogs that will be in the area but loose, would the pre-scent on the pee pad maybe invite them to mark through the bars?
We opted against pads and buddy learned very quickly. Only thing is that we did have the beauty of always being around at home, or I was taking him to work, and the weather has been nice so we just kept taking him out and sat in the garden with him. Barely any accidents. So there is an element of circumstance I suppose, as to what you decide to use. I just figured I would kind of be training him twice, but I do know many people that have used them with success, moving them gradually closer to the door etc. I’m sure there will be plenty of advice for you on here, good luck! Sorry, that didn’t really answer your question, I don’t know much about the pads themselves regarding scent, I’m sure someone else will though.
You only mention night time in the pen with a bed and paper or pads so I wonder if you will be home during the day or working outside the home? I ask this because if you are to be home during the day with him, I would advise against using a pen at all and suggest that you use a crate and take him out the first few nights. Most puppies who are successfully introduced to their crate within a few hours of coming home will be sleeping through most of the night within two or three days and before you know it, they are sleeping all the way through until you let them out in the morning. All of our puppies are crated with the goal being they are in "bed" at 8:30 - 9:00 p.m.; taken out at 11 p.m., and 4 a.m. and gotten up for the day between 6:30 and 7:00 p.m.; this is from the first night home. I sleep on the couch with them the first nights until they are on this schedule (some are there night two while some are there night four or five). If you are out of the home and won't be able to have someone come in during the day then of course you will need some type of arrangement like the one you described. I would recommend the newspaper only because every Labrador puppy I've ever had loves to play with the pads which never stay where they are placed and then are never used for their intended purposes : 0
I would not recommend this. If you want to benefit from use of a crate, then the puppy when in the crate, should be trying to hold on and not toilet. You should not be encouraging the pup to toilet in the crate by providing pee pads OR newspaper inside the crate. The entire crate should be a bed. This way you can use the crate to speed up your toilet training, since the pup is unlikely to toilet in the crate and you can immediately take the pup outside when they leave the crate. No - don't use pee pads or newspaper. Outside is always the right place to toilet. Inside is never the right place to toilet. Don't provide anything for a pup to toilet on indoors, or you will give mixed messages about where the right place is and have to re-train everything to be outside totally. You will also get puppies having great fun ripping up paper or pads and eating it. Or puppies that grow up learning to toilet when you put the paper down on the sofa or there's a cushion on the floor... they learn that absorbent substrate is the toilet substrate. The only time to put down pads or newspaper, is if you have to leave the pup for longer than you think they can hold on, in the crate, for. If this is the case, leave the crate door open so the pup can come out and put down pee pads outside the crate. You will need to ensure the crate has a pen around it, or the room the crate opens into is puppy-proofed. When you are home, take up the pee pads.
Thanks everyone, but I do not crate train my dogs. Crate use in the way you mean is a very American. In Britain we are not quite so regimented with pups. I use a pen at night so I can sleep. Pup learns to be quiet and as such I do not expect pup to be dry until older. This way has never slowed down his house training or made him upset. I will stick with the newspaper and the praise.
I put down newspaper outside the crate for my pup and left the crate door open so she could leave the crate at night to wee and poo. The crate was in the kitchen behind a baby gate. During the day I would take her out at regular intervals. She never chewed the paper and was house trained by about 12 weeks.
Thanks. That is a great idea but it will not work for me as one of my other dogs is a lovely yellow lab who is totally blind and virtually deaf so he has the run of the living room and kitchen area so pup needs to be inside the pen. Smoke would not understand a barrier. With all his problems he is the alpha dog.
I live in Britain, and so do many others on this forum. Many of which also use crates. I can't imagine raising a pup without a crate, and the majority of my pups are fully house-trained by 10 weeks old - simply due to use of the crate.
I remember my brother using a crate for his otter hound at least 17 years ago and it was quite novel then (to me). Fast forward to getting my pup in 2016 and everyone I knew with a dog advised getting a crate! Even those who'd tried but hadn't found it to work for their dogs said give it a try.
I live in the UK and have crate trained all my 5 dogs (different breeds and easily). I got my first dog in 1993 so have used crates successfully for years. Not everyone has the same ideas but crate training is common here in the UK.
Another uk resident here who has his pup crate trained. I think there is a big misconception with crates, maybe because they look like a cage? Buddy slept through from day one, gets plenty of rest in his own space, was house trained within a week. He loves his crate, and we are absolutely anything but strict with him. He is 12 weeks old now and sits at the door of the room where his crate is when he is tired and walks straight in. When we take him out for a wee before we go to bed he can’t get back in there quick enough when he’s done! Nothing regimental about it at all, it’s our first pup and we had heard so many good things about crates and we are so glad we have used one. We are a very loving family and the vet was overjoyed with how happy and confident buddy was. Obviously you don’t want to use a crate, and want to do what is best for your pup, I just wanted to give my experience of it, which has been extremely positive! I know lots of people who use crates, and a few that don’t. The ones that don’t say they really wish they had having seen the routine and behaviour of dogs that have been crate trained.
