Puppy potty patches
February 7, 2022 1:37 PM   Subscribe

Has anybody had experience with using a permanent dog potty that is made of real or artificial turf (or cardboard, as I saw once)? Did it go well? How did the transition from real ground and/or puppy pads go?

My pup is young, the snow is bigger than she is, and I know people have strong opinions about using indoor toileting at all, but for now we gotta do it sometimes. The problem is that she loves to tear up pads as much as to use them. Something that could stand up to occasional puppy abuse would be ideal, but not if they would be a waste of money. (We encountered them when we were traveling and she wouldn't use it at all, but that was under pressure.)
posted by Countess Elena to Pets & Animals (6 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
My dog was trained to use pads indoors for the first 7 years of her life, and a year and a half after we rescued her and started transitioning her to outdoor surfaces, she’s still not entirely trustworthy on carpet if it’s been more than an hour or two since she went outside.

Given that, I would suggest a surface that is as unlike carpet as possible. Clearly puppy pads aren’t a good choice. Maybe one of the ones that uses live grass?
posted by A Blue Moon at 4:39 PM on February 7, 2022


For my 3-mo old puppy, I dig paths for her through the deep snow--although she's a hardy breed, so really I get more use out of them (taking her out in the wee hours in my slippers) than she does most of the time. You could try a box filled with shaved wood bedding: it's meant for the purpose and is fairly cheap. The footing will feel more like the outdoors, too, so you should have less problem transferring to only outdoors potty when the weather improves. If you have a supply of cardboard boxes, you could swap them out easily, or try a cat litter box, if the puppy is big enough to step over the sides.
posted by radiogreentea at 5:57 PM on February 7, 2022


We feel your pain, and have tried quite a few approaches.

A pee pad holder that holds the potty pad down works reasonably well, offers a different texture than the rest of the house, and isn't too terrible to clean.

A fake grass solution offers even more texture differentiation, but it is much harder to clean.

A real grass patch perfectly duplicates the feeling of turf, since it's turf. This worked well for us when living in homes with a sheltered outdoor area (covered balcony or covered patio), but we didn't try it indoors. It's a bit heavy and awkward to switch out.
posted by whisk(e)y neat at 10:05 PM on February 7, 2022


This might be too close to rugs/carpet for a pup not yet reliably housetrained, but my (adult) dog is on meds that make her drink and pee a lot and we use these reusable washable dog pee pads. I LOVE them. They withstand dog claws and hold a ton of pee without leaking. If she can't hold it overnight or when we're not home, she just pees on a pad and we toss it in the washing machine in the morning. Although she has had accidents on rugs in the past, she somehow has figured out that's where she is supposed to go and now we have no problems; and it hasn't changed her understanding that she's still mostly supposed to pee outside.
posted by misskaz at 6:38 AM on February 8, 2022


Response by poster: Hmm. It seems like the best solution with this space might be a pee pad holder, although it will have to be able to hold up to a dachshund! Next winter, she will be a grown dog and hopefully we will have a routine, plus (again hopefully) she will not be so excited for tearing up and chewing.

misskaz, I was going to buy those and even bookmarked a page, but then I realized that there was no way for her to understand the difference between cloth pads and blankets, like the ones we both sleep under in the bed.

radiogreentea, that's a great idea for a dog in general, but mine would chew up the shavings so fast, I just know it!
posted by Countess Elena at 9:20 AM on February 8, 2022


I had a pee pad destroying dog and went the reusable washable pee pad route. I just get them off Amazon and have them from several companies. They've lasted years of washing, don't leak and have proven untearable by a very stubborn terrier.
posted by wwax at 11:34 AM on February 8, 2022


« Older How to monitor home health care from a distance?   |   bathroom painting issues Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.