Peeing on edge of training pad

Question
I have a 3 year old Poodle who has been house trained to pee inside on a training pad. She goes on the pad, but she goes right on the edge making the pee run out on the floor. I bought a tray to put the pad on to see if that would give her a boundary on where to go, but this hasn't worked either.  I do not know what else to do. I punish her for the pee on the floor but I am afraid she might be confused since she is doing it on the training pad. How do I make her understand not to do it on the edge of the pad?

Thanks

Answer

Target at Edge of Pad   Hi Jamie.  I agree she's probably confused when you punish her when her pee goes on the floor. Most dogs have no concept of where their rear end is and how to control it.  However, they do have pretty good control of their front ends, so that's where I'd start to train her.

First, make sure the pad is always clean.  Some dogs won't walk where they've peed before.

Teach her to move her front end to the far edge of the pad by teaching her to target something at that point.  I've attached a photo to illustrate.  Imagine the mat is a pee pad.  I've placed a frisbee at one end with a small treat on it.  Notice where the dog's rear end is - in the middle of the pad.  Scale this down to poodle size.  Instead of a frisbee, make it a small plastic lid or anything else you can put a tiny treat on.  You might even move the lid off the edge of the pad itself depending on how much room you have to work with.  Randomly put a small treat on the lid, letting the dog find it on her own, so she gets used to walking on the pad to the far end.

Then you can begin to watch for her to go to the pad when she has to potty - when she gets up in the morning, when she wakes from a nap, etc.  Go over with her and lure her into place with a treat on the lid.  After she wets, give her another treat on the lid for a reward.

I hope this helps.  Please let me know if you have any questions about the procedure or have any trouble with it at all.  Good luck!