Are Puppy Pads Connected to Puppy Accidents on Area Rugs? – Prescott Valley AZ
After spending a lot of time and effort in making your home the perfect home for you and your family, you have made the decision to bring in a new family member. The four legged kind with that never-ending adorable puppy tail wag. A lot of us are susceptible to these adorable bundles of energy. I know I am!
New puppies also come with a new chore in the form of potty training. Pet stores carry “easy fixes” like puppy pads. We at Arizona Oriental & Specialty Rug Care really dislike puppy pads. The package boldly declares that they will help to house train the puppy. The puppy will pee only on the pad and all you have to do is pick it up and toss it in the trash. Don’t fall for their false advertising!
Here is a more realistic representation of what really happens. Puppy and puppy pads come into your home. Puppy pads are strategically placed and the puppy is shown where they are. Scented pads supply added encouragement for your puppy to pee on them. So far so good. Unfortunately puppies are far from reliable.
Sometimes he can’t make it to the puppy pad after a rambunctious play period, so without thinking, the puppy just squats and what's done is done. Or maybe he has terrible aim and peed off of the puppy pad and onto the floor itself. It only takes one urine accident and this makes your floor smell like urine and before you know it, he’s thinking that the urine smell means it’s okay for him to pee there instead of on the puppy pad. (remember, he's not putting as much thought into this as us humans do) GAME OVER! Peeing on the puppy pad is now a thing of the past because now as soon as he finds the past urine spots, your puppy figures he’s on the right track and continues going back to the same old spots; which can eventually lead to him picking the soft and absorbent area rugs scattered throughout your home. It’s instinctual for dogs to pee on soft rugs instead of hard surfaces and they seem to prefer it too (just like how he prefers grass to the driveway).
The biggest issue I have with puppy pads is that they send the wrong message about “house training”. It gives the puppy the idea that it is okay to pee in the house. Puppies learn fast and unfortunately for us they couldn’t care less if they’re learning the right or wrong way. So it’s important to make wise decisions during the early training stages. Years ago, one of my clients told me that their small breed adult dog NEVER peed outside in the yard he only in the house. Using puppy pads meant that they actually trained their dog to the point where it only peed in the house. Can imagine the mess they had on their rugs?!
My tip to you is to be proactive with puppy training and avoid puppy pads. Trust me, it’ll save you a lot of grief and smelly rugs in the long run. If there are some accidents on your area rugs, you should have them professionally cleaned as soon as possible, before any further damage is done to the rug fibers. Dry rot of rug fibers is but one of the unpleasant and unfortunate reality for rugs that have urine deposits that are not properly taken care of.
At Arizona Oriental, we try to educate our clients on topics that pertain to caring for area rugs, thus saving them a lot of grief and expense of restoring later on. Don’t waste your time and money on puppy pads. Putting in the effort now to properly train your dog means he’ll soon understand that it is only outside where relieving himself is acceptable.
Till next time, enjoy your beautiful art for your floor and remember a clean rug is a rug that can last you a lifetime! 
Arizona Oriental & Specialty Rug Care serves Prescott Valley, Prescott, Sedona and much of the Northern Arizona areas. We meet the highest standards in professional cleaning of area rugs with rug wash specialists having earned the highest training, including certification as WOOLSAFE FIBRE CARE SPECIALISTS through the WOOLSAFE ORGANISATION. Such extraordinary certification ensures the area rugs of our client’s receive the utmost in care.
Call us for additional information about why the danger of puppy pads and quotes at 928-445-1718, visit our website at www.ArizonaOriental.com, or stop by Monday through Friday 10:00 am to 5:00 pm at our rug washing facility at 565 EZ Street, Prescott, AZ 86301 (pick-up and delivery also available).
