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You and your dog have been together for many years. She is getting older now, and slowing down a little. She has her good days and her bad days, but she still enjoys all the things she’s always enjoyed. She just does those things a little bit slower these days. You may have noticed that it is harder and harder for your older dog to get down the steps at the front door, or she may not be able to hold it while you are at work or overnight. Perhaps your older dog has mobility issues, and getting her in and out to go potty is becoming difficult for you. It may be that your older dog’s arthritis acts up in the cold, and you hate making her go out into the cold to go potty.
There are many reasons why you may want to teach your older dog to use an indoor potty. If your dog has always been very well house-trained, it may be challenging for her to learn to go inside. If your dog is the 'do or die' type who will wait three days to go potty if it’s raining or snowing, you may have a challenge on your hands. All dogs can re-adjust their understanding of “outside” to include a potty area that you designate inside, it may just take some creativity and a good deal of perseverance on your part.
Training your older dog to use an indoor potty has two distinct training components. First, you must teach your dog what designated area you intend for her to think of as outside. Second, you must help your dog overcome her anxiety of peeing under a roof, which has always been discouraged previously.
You can rely on the trust you’ve built with your older dog to teach her a new way of perceiving her environment. While dogs have an intuitive understanding of a den, a place where they sleep and should not poop or pee, the concept of extending this to an entire house and even onto porches is entirely human. Just as it is a human concept to go potty outside, you can teach your older dog the intuitive concept of going potty in a designated place inside.
You may have to try a variety of potty surfaces before you arrive at one that works for you and your dog. Be willing to be creative, and try to think about things as your dog would. Does your dog always pee on the same potted plant? Maybe bringing that pot in could help your dog understand the principle of bringing outside behavior inside. It is a good idea to designate an area that you can expect to have some accidents with. Line floors and lower walls with plastic until your dog gets a feel for exactly where she should be going potty.
Make sure your designated potty place is sufficiently far from where your dog sleeps to make sure she does not see this area as part of her den. Another room is best, but if this is not possible the other side of the room should be sufficient
The Bring the Outside In Method
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Most Recommended
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Bring in the outside
Bring in a plot of sod, some potted plants, and anything else your dog likes to pee on. Put them in an area well covered with plastic.
Go potty
When your dog asks to go out, lead her to the inside space and tell her to go potty. If she asks to go to the door again, reaffirm that she should go on the grass inside.
Reward and clean
When your dog goes potty on the inside grass, reward her enthusiastically and clean it up quickly.
Transition to pee pad
Lay a pee pad on top of the grass inside and encourage your dog to use it. Reward when she does.
Pee pad alone
Replace the outside area with a pee pad. If your dog is resistant to the pee pad, try artificial turf over a pee pad.
The Potty Pad Method
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Effective
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Bring the pad outside
Start by bringing the pee pad outside with your dog. When she goes to pee or poo, put the pad under her and reward her for going.
Pad first
Lay the pad down somewhere your dog likes to go and encourage her to use it. If she refuses, bring it to where she wants to go and reward her for going on it. Keep practicing until she is willing to go to the pad to go potty.
Pad right outside
Lay the pad just outside, not in a desirable pee area, and encourage your dog to use it. Reward her enthusiastically when she does.
Pad inside
Put the pad inside and encourage your dog to use it exactly as you would if it were outside. If you usually leash your dog to go potty, leash her now.
Establish routine
Transition to only using the pad inside. Make sure to change the pad as soon as it is dirtied.
The Just the Pad Method
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Lay a pee pad in front of the door
Make sure you don’t have any guests coming over, and lay the pad in front of the door where you dog asks to go out.
Go potty there
When your dog goes to the door to ask to go out, tell her to go potty right there. She may whine and paw at the door, but be encouraging for her to go there.
Reward enthusiastically
Reward your dog enthusiastically when she goes and promptly clean it up.
Practice
Practice laying down the pad when your dog asks to go out and rewarding her for going.
Move the pad
When your dog is comfortably going on the pad, move it to your desired location and encourage your dog to use it there. Reward enthusiastically.
Written by Coral Drake
Veterinary reviewed by:
Published: 01/11/2018, edited: 01/08/2021
Training Questions and Answers
I’m trying to train my dog to use pee pads to go indoors but my dog shows no interest. My dog is so used to going outdoors. That he holds in his pee and refuses to use the pad and ive tried bringing the pad out and using his pee to place it indoors, I’ve tried pee attractants and nothing helps
Feb. 5, 2024
Coco's Owner
Dog trained to pee outside. Old home had a doggy door with a fenced off area for her to pee (with tanbark). New home in city has a patio with 10ft high walls and concrete floor. Added a porch potty and put the tanbark in the porch potty (turf we decided wouldn't be effective). Added her urine and stool to the porch potty but she will sniff it and not even really walk over it. Maybe the porch potty is too high? Maybe it's too small for her because she can't really "walk in a circle"?
June 30, 2023
Nelo's Owner
Caitlin Crittenden - Dog Trainer
1128 Dog owners recommended
Hello, I would go purchase something plastic with low lying edges - like a large dog crate tray, and put it where the porch potty currently is with the tanbark on it and try getting her to use the potty there and rewarding her with a treat if she will. Once she has been going potty in that spot well for a couple of weeks, place the porch potty in front of the area so that she gets used to stepping onto it and then off to get to the tan bark on the tray - this is simply to get her used to the potty and its height. When she is alright with going over the porch potty and using the bark on the tray well, then place the porch potty in the middle of the tray with tanbark on the porch potty, reward with lots of treats if she will go potty on the porch potty, even if doesn't aim well. When she is going on the porch potty well too, then remove the tray under the porch potty, leaving just the porch potty there. I suspect you are currently struggling with the porch potty for a few reasons. The main reason is probably the smaller size of the porch potty - the tray will increase the area size she can go potty on. That's most likely the main reason. The second reason she might be struggling could be the height, so you want to get her used to going up and down onto the porch potty first without it being scary or pressure to go potty on it at first. The third reason is probably that the potty area at the new home is simply different and new and not associated with going potty yet. Using the tray should help her get into the habit of simply going potty in that new location before having to navigate the size and height differences also. Best of luck training, Caitlin Crittenden
July 10, 2023
I'm trying to retrain my dog to go potty on puppy pads inside, but when I bring him to the pad, he just lays on it. He won't use the pad at all what can I do?
Oct. 26, 2022
Noah's Owner
Caitlin Crittenden - Dog Trainer
1128 Dog owners recommended
Hello, Since it's an older dog that I would assume was previously trained to go potty outside, I would actually switch from pee pads to using a disposable indoor grass potty - the grass will be more familiar, and you won't be fighting against pup learning that they shouldn't pee on fabric like rugs and carpet and blanket their whole life. Either way, I would set up an exercise pen and put a non-absorbent ped in the pen then cover the rest of the pen area with the indoor potty (recommended grass potty, or pee pads if you decide not to switch). Stay where you can see them but don't give a lot of attention. If you catch them going potty on a pad, then praise sweetly and go over and give several treats and let them out of the exercise pen - to help them learn that you want them to go potty in their (which is new since they have learned their whole life not to. I would start this when you have two days off in a row, returning pup to the exercise pen every 2-3 hours and having them stay there until they finally go potty there, then rewarding and freeing them when they go potty. If pup is able to hold their bladder, they will probably hold it 8-12 hours the first two times until they realize that it's okay to go potty there. The first couple of days will probably be long days. Feel free to give pup a favorite chew toy or stuff some easy to digest treats into a kong or something fun for pup to do between napping and waiting to get out again. You can further encourage going potty there by spraying the pad with a potty encouraging spray, such as "Go Here" or "Hurry!" to help them associate the smell of the pad with going potty on it. If pup continues to struggle a lot with going on the pad, you can also move the pad outside to a concrete patio, bottom of the deck type area, right before the main grass/pee areas, and take pup to the pad outside for a week to get them used to going on that type of surface before gradually moving it back inside a couple of feet at a time. Disposable grass pad brand examples: www.freshpatch.com www.doggielawn.com www.porchpotty.com Many sold on Amazon as well - but make sure it's a real grass, not AstroTurf or it won't be much easier to learn than a pee pad would. Best of luck training, Caitlin Crittenden
Oct. 27, 2022