amafisher

We have been trying to potty train our mini poo for three months and it's not working. We decided to use pee pads for a variety of reasons. We live in an apartment and getting outside is somewhat of a process, we live in a city so going out during the day means 100 people stop to pet our adorable puppy and so it takes an hour for him to not be distracted and taking him out at night is frankly a little sketchy.

Anyways, he has a little plastic tray and we put training pads on the tray. We take him to the "potty" immediately after he is let out of the crate, after naps, and pretty regularly in the hours between. He usually pees on the pad by myself, but sometimes will pee next to it. But, he does not want to poop on the pad. This morning he "peed" in one corner of the living room. When I saw him squatting, I ran over with the nature's miracle. No pee was actually on the floor but I sprayed the area and wiped it anyways. This took maybe 45 seconds but when I turned around he was pooping in the other corner of the living room. I undertanding that this sounds crazy but I'm pretty sure he fake peed to distract me so that he could poop on the floor!

I guess my question is, any suggestions for making this training more successful? Should we switch from pads to some kind of litter? Or one of those fake grass patches? Or, should I give up and start re-training him to go outside? Any advice would be MUCH appreciated -- I want to be able to put the bottle of nature miracle away finally.

Arcticfox

I also live in an apartment with a 5 month old puppy, I know what you mean about getting outside! She didn't want to pee on the pads I set out, not matter when I took her to them, even though she was paper trained and pad trained at the breeder's house. So we just took her outside A LOT. Every hour on the hour for a week or so, then every 2 hours, we are now up to every 3-4 hours. She hasn't had an accident our apartment for a month now, but she has peed once in the hall, and a few times in pet stores. I try to distract her in the hallway by practicing sits, paw, watch me, etc so she doesn't get a chance to pee. So, it's a work in progress, but we are managing. When I don't want to be bothered, I just keep her away from people, don't make eye contact, put yourself between the other person and your dog, actually say no if needed. It can be done!
If you really want to train them on pee pads though, I'd suggest some sort of boxed in contraption that they have to step into, rather than a flat pad. Too often I've heard of dogs just putting their front paws on the pad then letting loose. I'm not sure how to get them to poop on one though.

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BorderKelpie

Good point about the box, Articfox. My Bug will use the pad for pee, but tends to poop right beside it. Maybe if I make a little border, he'll catch on better.

I trained a Shih tzu to a litter pan with potty pads, and back in the day when I was young and stupid I accidently trained a Dobe to a litter box, much to my cat's dismay.

amafisher, does your apt have a balcony or terrace or anything simliar? Reason I'm asking is you may want to put the potty pad out on the terrace to get your poodle used to going outside without having to deal with hoardes of poodle admirerers. Oh, and not to disappoint you too much, but even with a perfectly housetrained dog, you will always need the Nature's Miracle around - if nothing else, vomit happens.

(that stuff works well for accidents done by toddler's, too)

sandooch

I had problems with pads for Gigi as well. Usually dogs do not like to poop where they've peed and visa versa. Gigi had several accidents. Someone on a toy poodle forum told me about The Rascal. That's the dog litter box with the fake grass. The moment I got that and put it down, it was like Gigi knew what to do. She climbed in and peed away. She also poops in it. It took a while longer for her to realize that she could poop in it, too. I think not having to step directly in her on pee on a pad made it alright for her to poo there, too.

I place a pee pad underneath the grass and change that out daily (more often if my cats decide it's more convenient to use the grass than their litter box). The grass gets hosed down once a week and washed (inside a zippered pillow case cover) once a week with detergent, borax and clorox to remove odor. I have a least two 2'X 2' grass mats on hand always (they need to be replaced about every 4-5 months or so because they start to fall apart in the wash). If I just leave the pad in her box while I wash the grass and she's peed on it, she may poop somewhere else.

Hope that helps.

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