We’ve had a couple of owners say, “My Dog Only Goes Pee On Potty Pads”. They started out using potty pads to train their dogs to go potty. But, now it’s backfired. Of course, potty pad training is a great way to start. This is especially true if you have to be gone from your house for long periods of time. Because you wouldn’t be able to take your dog out, at least they have a place to go that isn’t the carpet.
However, these owners told us that their dog’s wouldn’t stop going on the pads. In fact, they would ONLY go on the pads and wouldn’t go outside in the grass or gravel.
If you have other questions about dog potty training, check out our post titled, “Your Dog Potty Training Questions – 5 FAQs”. If you want to learn more about how to get your dog to go pee outside instead of just on the potty pads, keep reading!
Recommendations if Your Dog Only Goes Pee On Potty Pads
Below, I put together the steps that you should take if you’re going to get your dog to go pee outside instead of just on the potty pads:
- Make sure to set a spot that you want your dog to go potty outside.
- Take the potty pad and bring it outside where you want your dog to go potty.
- Set it down and wait until your dog goes potty (this could take a little while the first few times).
- Once your dog has gone potty many times on the pad outside, cut 1/3 of it off.
- Now you have 2/3 of a potty pad that you’re bringing with you outside to go potty.
- If your dog keeps going outside, slowly keep cutting the pad smaller and smaller until there is almost nothing left (maybe a 1 inch square)
- Now, take the potty pad away completely
Now, we’ve seen this work before many times. However, there are times where this doesn’t work. For tough cases, there might be a little more work that you have to do. Especially if it has to do with how your dog was treated by a previous owner.
My Dog Still Only Goes Pee on the Potty Pads
In any event, that doesn’t make it impossible! There is always a way to train your dog to overcome their fears or do something a different way. Almost always, it comes down to three basic things:
- Get them to do whatever it is the right way
- Stay calm and positive during training sessions
- Encourage the heck out of them with treats and praise when they do it right
Follow those three steps, and almost all of your dog behavior issues will go away. Obviously, you still need a plan for how to get them to do the right thing. However, a lot of that is just being creative and thinking about how you could get your dog to do it!
Everything you wanted to Know about Potty Training a Puppy with a Bell
Final Thoughts
One of the reasons that your dog might be going potty only on the pads is because they aren’t being taken out enough. You can check out the post “Dog Potty Training Schedule Keeps Training on Track”.
Another way you can try to combat that is by picking up a set of potty bells in our online shop or Amazon. You can click below to get them!
Potty Bells
Only $9.99
- Easy House Training Bells
- Includes Training eBook
- Fits All Doors
- High Quality Materials and Bells
Until my next post, I’d love to hear about what your biggest question about puppy potty training is! Please either send me an email or leave a comment below! I’ll be happy to get back to your question directly, in a future post or even in a brand new video! Thanks for reading and make sure to come back to this page periodically to see all of the new updates that we will add here for you all.
