# Transitioning from puppy pads to outdoors



## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

Freddy is doing extremely well with pad training, but at some point I am going to have to transition him to preferring outside. What process do people recommend? He seems to grasp things very quickly, so it will be important not to accidentally reward the wrong thing!


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Can you move the pad closer to the door to the yard where he will join the others for outdoor potty breaks and then take the pad to just outside the door? Or perhaps since he is a bright fellow he will learn by letting the grown ups model the behavior...


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

He does go outside, and today I was in time to give him a treat at exactly the right moment. I need to remember to keep a pot of good treats by the door - a dozen years and one tends to forget these things.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

It doesn't even require 12 years to forget the things that worked with the last puppy. I can't tell you how many things I assumed Javelin just knew that required teaching Lily and Peeves. Poor Javvy...


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## Finn's mum (Mar 11, 2019)

I found with the puppy pads that as the weeks went past the pad was dry, as the puppy was going outside,at that point I just removed the last pad. My two had been similar to Freddy using the pad for that middle of the night toilet break and having one available close to our back door. By 15 weeks we had stopped the pads. No accidents from the pups, the occasional accidents curtesy of us not reading their signal to go outside. I would say it seemed to be a natural progression with no real confusion for the pups between pee pad and going outside. Freddy seems to be a quick to catch on and I’d imagine he will manage this transition as effortlessly as he’s managed all the new things in his life.


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## PeggyTheParti (Sep 5, 2019)

Are you hoping to eliminate indoor potty altogether? Or will there still be an indoor pad for the girls that he’ll have access to? 

If he’s still going to have an inside toilet, but you’d just prefer he not use it, I would reward every time he goes outside. Stick something yummy right under his nose as he’s finishing up. Show him that outside potty gets a jackpot and inside potty is a bore.


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## Dechi (Aug 22, 2015)

Put the pad outside and show him. Then when you go back inside, walk by where it used to be, so he knows it’s gone. That’s what I would do if you don’t ever want to use the pads anymore.


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## For Want of Poodle (Feb 25, 2019)

Annie was trained to go both outside and in a litter box as a puppy. Once I was confident she understood the litter box idea I changed how I reinforced it. 

Pee in the box - good girl! Praise and happy human. 
Pee outside - jackpot! Praise, treat, a little walk, etc. She very quickly started to eschew the litter box and ask to go outside, please. When I put it away I don't think it had been used in over a month.


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## Streetcar (Apr 13, 2014)

As a gentle point maybe, or maybe not, I am treasuring Oliver's memories of pad use now due to an intractable hip problem I can't seem to be seen for or get diagnosed, and falls became involved last year. Even with a walking stick, there are mobility issues.

Just a thought to all. Piddle pads are not the devil. By no means did Fjm suggest this!! Just for those without a car and who might become older and less able - and who are city dwellers in multi-story buildings, pads can be a blessing.


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

I will keep the night time pad in the bathroom, but hope to encourage him to tell me when he needs to go out. I think a mild "Good puppy!" for using the pad and a treat party for outdoors is the way to go. I have not forgotten Poppy as a pup having awful diarrhoea all one winter night but refusing to use a pad - they really can be a godsend in cases of illness and incapacity. Or, Sophy will tell you, persistent rain!

He is a bright little button - he woke me up around 5am to tell me he needed to pee and poo, did both, then went back to sleep for an hour. I reckon at the moment he is peeing around a dozen times a day, with 3 or more poos - not much warning of the peeing as he just trots straight to the pad, squats slightly, and all done, but poos mean 30 seconds of dashing around, a bit of rapid circling on the pad, and then massive concentration. We will get there - I don't want him to get worried about it when he has been so very quick to learn, just to introduce the idea that pads are good, but doing it outside is wonderful.


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