On the 1st July 2012 my little puppy, Jess, arrived in the world, Jess was a small ball of tan fur. I patiently waited 8 weeks for the day I could bring her home. I scoured the internet for toilet training advice and asked the breeder how she would suggest training Jess. The breeder suggested I get some puppy training pads and place a few around the house and encourage Jess to go to the toilet on them.

Puppy training pads are absorbent floor protection pads that have a scent on them that is supposed to encourage your puppy to toilet on them.

I picked these Bob Martin Puppy House Training Pads up while doing my shopping in Morrisons, at the time they were on offer at £3 for a pack of 14.They can currently be purchased in Tesco for £7.19 for a pack of 21.

The pads come packaged in plastic with a picture of a cute looking Jack Russell on the front, the puppy pads claim to be highly absorbent, ultra thin, have a rip resistant top sheet, and a leak proof bottom sheet.

The packaging was simple to open; I just tore a hole in the bag. I slid a puppy pad out and unfolded it; the puppy pads are approximately 2ft square and true to the packaging claims are very very thin. The top is made of what looks like the soft lining of a nappy and the back is lined with rather thin feeling blue plastic. The puppy pads are not absorbent all the way to the edge as where the plastic bottom meets the rip proof top there is a 2 inch border without any absorbent material in it. I gave the pads a sniff to see if I could smell what would supposedly attract Jess to toilet on it, I could smell nothing.

I placed a puppy pad in the hall near my back door and immediately decided I was not keen, the puppy pad took up large area of floor space, nearly reaching from one wall of the hall to the other. I picked Jess up and placed her on the puppy pad in the hope that I could familiarise her with it, she gave it a sniff and wobbled off.

Every time Jess toileted in the house I picked her up and placed her on the puppy pad and repeated the word toilet. I ensured that I cleaned every accident up thoroughly so the only place she would associate toileting with would be the puppy pad. After a few days Jess finally toileted on the pad, I was ecstatic and made a very big fuss of Jess. Unfortunately Jess was just as likely to go every where else in the house as well as on the pad. Toileting on the pad seemed a bit accidental.

I also had a major problem with the puppy pads; every time a friend or family member visited me I felt the need to explain what the massive square of white paper in the hall was for, I found them very unsightly even though I cleaned up the puppy poo's and the puppy wee's were absorbed into the pad. Happily the pads locked away any smells, I did replace them daily though as the though of a puppy wee soaked pad sat in my hall was a bit disgusting.

Another problem with the pads was that they did not stay where they were placed, the slightest breeze had it flapping off up the hall way or Jess could drag it off around the house when ever the fancy took her, I tried to solve this by Duct taping it to the tiles in the hall, this made the mat look more unsightly, but Jess had great fun chewing the tape up and ripping at the mat with her teeth and paws till the rip resistant top sheet ripped.

I persevered with the puppy pads for a week, consistently placing Jess on the pad each time she toileted else where in the house, I fussed her every time she happened to go to the toilet on the pads independently, but in the end I resorted to the good old fashioned method of taking her outside once an hour every hour till she started toileting outside, then I made a fuss of her.

Not wanting to waste the pads I used them to line the bottom of her pen, but when they ran out I did not replace the pack. Happily, with perseverance, Jess now toilets mostly outside and has started asking to go out when she is ready.

The idea behind puppy pads is a good one, but for Jess and I we just could not get the hang of them, toileting on the pads seemed to be coincidental. I found the pads to be unsightly and a bit of a nuisance.

Thank you for reading.