Said It Here

How to get a puppy off pee pads without constant accidents

Keeping an indoor pee pad available gives a puppy a convenient option instead of building bladder control or learning to signal at the door. Removing the pad entirely while relying solely on scheduled outdoor trips stops the fallback habit, though it requires managing indoor accidents during the transition.

What people tried

Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.

  1. 1
    Taking the puppy outside every 2 hours during the day
  2. 2
    Setting up an enclosed or restricted sleeping area at night without a crate
  3. 3
    Waking up at scheduled times during the night for potty breaks
  4. 4
    bringing the pad outside and progressively making the pad smaller via folding or cutting
  5. 5
    removing any indoor pad at the beginning of the transition
  6. 6
    using a bell for signaling and maintaining consistency

In their words

Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.

“We’re working on transitioning our 4 month old bichapoo from the pee pad to outside… our back yard just isn’t the greatest and he comes inside a mess and bugs get inside the house every time”source ↗

“he’ll go potty outside when we take him but he’s still not signaling the bell to let us know he has to go and will just go on the pad by the back door.”source ↗

jayxxmar · r/puppy101 · 2 upvotes

“He goes potty outside when we take him, he’s just still resorting to the pad rather than signaling to us he needs to go in between taking him out.”source ↗

jayxxmar · r/puppy101 · 1 upvotes

“We want to transition her to strictly peeing outdoors and stop relying on pads entirely so we aren’t dealing with indoor accidents long-term.”source ↗

“She still pees in the house occasionally—is this because keeping the pee pad around gives her permission to go whenever she feels a mild urge, rather than building up her bladder control like an average 3-month-old?”source ↗

“If you don't use a crate at night, how did you handle the transition off night pads without constant accidents?”source ↗

NefariousnessSea8668 · r/puppy101

Where this came up

r/puppy101dog behaviorhouse trainingpet carepet trainingpotty trainingpuppiespuppy care

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