# Puppy stopped using her training pad- why?



## gabbers (Jan 29, 2007)

We keep our pup in the laundry room while we're at work. There are about 4 hours where we just can't take her out to the bathroom so we have training pads in that room. We've had her for 4 weeks now (she is 12 weeks) and she was doing great on her own going in her pad. Just this week though she has stopped going in her pad and will just go anywhere on the floor. We've tried putting two pads together thinking maybe she didn't have enough space, but that isn't helping. We've cleaned the vinyl floor thoroughly so I don't think there is a scent problem.

She does great in the evenings after she eats. She has learned that we always go outside after eating and she does her business in the grass. We don't let her run loose in the house unless we are there, so she hasn't had an accident in a couple of weeks. But we thought the laundry room with the training pad would be limited enough for her to not have to be in the crate. It's a small laundry room and she was doing good until recently.

Any ideas on why she would start this behavior now? Should she be in the create during this time instead? The problem is she has pooped in her crate before too.


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## sonnyt (Apr 4, 2007)

well i think that since the dog is in the laundry room for a few hours that he may be getting bored. i dont know why dogs do that but my dogs when they get bored they would do that! if your trying to train him to go outside than get into a routine like the second you wake up let him run outside and do his buisness and when you let him out of the laundry room take him out RIGHT AWay and then when you walk by the door let him out and just keep letting him out throughout the day, also the laundry room might be to big for him, maybe you should get a kennel becuase this he will not potty in ! they wont pee in were they sleep, also let him use the bathroom before he goes into the kennel and then imidietly after you get home. also to get him used to using the peepee pad then keep around the house when hes out just so he can see it and know its there for him to use!!!


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## bluesbarby (Apr 10, 2007)

I had the same problem with my puppy after we first got him. Couldn't leave him in a crate because we sometimes were gone over 4 hours. Luckily my kitchen/dining room has stone floors. We put up a doggy door separating the rooms from the rest of the house and removed the DR rug. He started using the piddle pad again. I think he was bored in the bathroom (where we started having problems) and really couldn't run around. Plus now the cats can come in and terrorize him. Once we put him in the larger area he started using the pad again. Now he's 5.5 months old and although we leave a piddle pad he only needs it if we're gone 8 hours or more.


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## Gates1026 (Mar 14, 2007)

I had a similar sort of situation with my 15 week old Papillon puppy. Until about a week ago we had a pad laid out in the kitchen that she could use at any time during the day while we were gone. We had a hit rate of about 90% during the day, at night when we were home it was a little worse.

We switched her to going outside completely and took away the pad. For the week she has been going outside, we havent had a single accident during the day time. We are doing very well at night when we are home with her and let her have more room to run around, both accidents have been our fault for not watching her close enough. The only thing we really have to work on is getting her to let us know when she has to go, right now we just have to watch for the tell tale sniffing signs. I am still a little confused as to why she can hold it for 8 hours at night, 4 hours during the day, but needs to go out every hour when we are home..... 

I would recommend potentially taking away the pad when you know that your puppy wont be left along for a long amount of time. I am no expert (I use the forum for questions a lot!), but this has worked really well for me. Without having a pad around, she seems to hold it in favor of going outside.


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