He's just turned 9 months old (Born March 1st) and we've had him on puppy pads from the time we got him (he was about 9 weeks old and had been starting on paper training). We chose this option for a few reasons.
One, he was SUPPOSED to be 4 lbs (he's about 12 lbs, not a BIG dog but a lot more than we were expecting) so we knew he'd be small.
Two, we have a lot of cats (live with in laws, most of them are their cats. This dog was a Mother's Day present from hubby and mother in law). Most of the cats just run from him, he's barely bigger than them. But a few of them (about three) will regularly hiss, growl or actually chase after the dog.
For that reason, we generally keep him in our two rooms, where we spend most of our time. Now, don't get all "He needs more space!!" because he has a lot. We have our bedroom and a sun room attached to said bedroom, plus he gets to come out to the living room with us when we go out there and go for walks and play in the back yard AND go for drives. He's not lacking in exercise or attention, so please don't get distracted from the main topic.
But because he stays primarily in our room when we are home, we come to reason three. There are no doors he can have constant access to that lead outside so he can do his stuff outside. And reason three, section B, we have a pool taking up much of the backyard so I don't like having him outside by himself for any length of time. He can swim, I've seen him do it but he panics and doesn't know how to get out. There's a huge step on one side but he just can't figure it out. Also, this dog is small. 12 lbs is pretty small and he could easily just get out from under the fence.
I don't really want him to move from the puppy pad to the outside because it's so much easier for him and for us as far as safety anyway. And we plan on moving to an apartment sometime soon but the hubby has two issues with the pads. One, he makes the bedroom stink like hell. Two, we have a 20 month old and he hasn't quite learned to not stick things he picks up in his mouth. You can see the problem.
I tried to just move the pad from the spot it's currently at, thinking he'd adjust. I assumed it would be just like when my rabbit was litter trained. I was wrong. He just went and peed right on the carpet where the pad used to be, like always. We steam cleaned the carpet but he's so used to going in that one spot that it seems impossible to change it.
I guess I'm asking of ways to actually move the pad to a better location. It's become a pain to walk around and I plan on moving the bedroom around a little bit so that the pad would be in a corner of the room, out of the general walkway.
It's right next to the doorway from bedroom to sun room but also next to the dresser. Should I steam clean the floor where the pad currently is and move the dresser next to where I want the pad to go?
Like I said before, when I moved it the first time, he didn't even bother to use the new spot. I tried that "go here spray", didn't do much besides stink up our room.
