frugal living,  Furry Friends

Pad Train Your Puppy in Just 7 Days Using Positive Reinforcement Techniques

Puppies can be a pain to potty train but with the right techniques and tools you can have success in just 7 days! I successfully pad trained my Bichon Frise/Miniture Poodle puppy as soon as he arrived to our home using this positive reinforcement technique and it was very successful. Now that we have a brand new 7 week old Australian Shepherd/GSD puppy I will be using this technique on him as well. Read on to learn how to pad train your puppy in just 7 days. That’s it, just 7 days and you are home free!

pad train me

The reason this takes 7 days to fully train is because your puppy needs to form a habit for it to work properly. If you are not consistently following these steps for 7 WHOLE days it will not work and your puppy will go back to wetting on the carpet.

You will need

Training pads
** you are going to need a lot of them so I recommend All-Absorb 100 Count Training Pads, 22-Inch by 23-Inch, they are only $20 shipped and that is a really good price for puppy pads.

You will also need lots of training treats.
**These are different then just treats. They are specifically made for training purposes. I use Bil-Jac America’s VetDogs Skin & Coat Dog Treats, 10 oz., and I usually buy them at Petco.

And you will need lots of patience because this is no easy task. The end result is SO worth it though!

scotchy 1

Let’s begin by talking about intent. If you want your puppy to eventually move his business outside then you are going to need to place the pads near the door  where he would be going outdoors for his dirty business. Some people pad train so they do not need to worry about taking their dogs outside many times a day, but I pad train in case of accidents. Simply put I want my dogs to know that if they can’t make it outside in time they are not allowed to relieve themselves on my carpets. If they do have an accident they will not get rewarded for it but they also will not get yelled at for their mistake. This is called positive reinforcement, and it works brilliantly if done right.

1. Start by placing pads where you want your puppy to relieve himself. Let your puppy explore the pad but continue to take him outside to go potty as usual. The next time he has an accident inside the house immediately place him on the pad for a few minutes. Do not tell him no, call him a bad dog, spank or rub his nose in his urine or feces.

2. Clean up the mess in FRONT of him but do not make a big deal of it. You want your puppy to get the idea that wetting on the floor causes you work, but you don’t want to punish him for doing it. Say nothing to him. Not even a word. Simply clean it up and if it is poop then place it on the pad and leave it.

3. if you catch him in the act simply pick him up and place him on the pad. Stay near him and keep putting him on the pad until he goes. You know you needs to go since you just caught him.  Once your puppy relieves himself give him a treat. Make a HUGE deal of it. Be very vocal. clap your hands, say good boy and break up the treat into pieces so it looks like he is getting more than he is. In the beginning you want to give your puppy a lot of treats as an incentive to use the pad.

4. Repeat all above until your puppy go to the pad himself. Always reward with a training treat and do not give those treat to him at any other time. Those are potty treats.

puppy 2

It will take 7 days for your puppy to acquire this new behavior. You must have patience and be consistent for it to work. Once he is fully pad trained you wont ever have to worry about a mess in your home because he will know to always go on the pad. But if he does have an accident you reinforce good behavior by rewarding only the behavioral you want and ignore the rest. You can use the treat system to train other behaviors like preventing chewing on furniture when you leave him home alone.

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