For reference, I bought this for Reese, my five month old six lb. Chorkie and placed it on my back patio. Previously, we have been taking her out the front door to the grass on a leash. This is so we can just let her out on the gated patio and not have suit up to go out in the cold at all hours of the night. By the way, my puppy seems to be ultra smart. She learns very quickly and is eager to please. She already has us well trained, lol. Day one: I put some turds on it and when she went out she put her front paws on the mat and peed on the concrete. I soaked up the pee with a paper towel and squeezed it on the mat (wearing rubber gloves) and gave her praise. I later discovered you can just pick up the faux grass and pat the puddle with it, much easier! She later pooped on the patio and I moved the poop to the mat again praising her for going potty on the patio (and not inside the house). Day two: She peed on the mat for Daddy, but every time Mommy lets her out she holds her pee and will only poop on the patio, but not on the faux grass. I removed the old piles of poop that I placed on the grass, just in case she needs the space. Remember that prior to this, she only went potty out the front door on a leash in the grass. So this is a totally new and probably confusing concept to her, as this is the back door, no leash, Mommy and Daddy are inside and the grass is fake. Day three: She peed and pooped on the patio, but not on the faux grass. We are at this point pretty happy that she is confident going on the patio. We can hose it off. One thing to note is that she saw me cleaning up the poop and spraying the pee and washing it. I think this confused her, because she has seen me in the past clean her accidents inside the house, after having scolded her. So I think when she saw me cleaning her patio messes she might have thought she did bad. I would suggest cleaning it when they are not looking. Day four: No pee pees on the faux grass yet. Maybe when Daddy gets home he can get her to go. Maybe I give up too quickly. I take her out the front door if she doesn't perform out back. I'm just afraid that if I don't, she will go in my new house and I love that new house smell. Day five: She is pottying on the back porch, one time next to the mat, but most of the time nowhere close to it. We have a new problem, for some reason, she now squats and pees on the indoor house carpet right in front of me when I ask her to roll over! I have no idea where this came from, as she absolutely loved rolling over for treats. I think all of this has just really confused her. I'm going to go on YouTube and see if there are any videos showing tips on how to get them to pee on a pad. (No tips found). Day six: Today we got a poop that landed on the pad. She backed up to it and did her business. Technically only half the turd landed on the grass, but it was time for a poopy party! We celebrated her accomplishment. The rest of the day, she did her business on the back patio, but not on the grass. Thankfully she is back to rolling over and not thinking it means to squat and pee. We just make sure to let her out to potty before doing inside tricks (which she loves doing). Day seven: We got a pee on the faux grass! Just one, but we are seeing progress, so we are happy. We let her out onto the porch and watch from inside, no coaxing or trying to direct her to the pad (it's too cold outside for that). So we are hoping that she will gravitate to that pad on her own. Day eight: The last five peepee's have been on the pad!!!! The poopoo's are landing closer too. Day nine: I'm so please to report that Reesie now runs straight for the faux grass to do ALL of her peepee!!! Her poos are still landing elsewhere on the porch, but I'm okay with that because they are easier to clean, especially now that it's 15 degrees outside (think poop sickles)! Let me reiterate that I have done no coaxing toward the grass, I just patted her initial puddles with the pad to get her smell on it. I then gave treats and praise for going outside, with extra praise for going on the pad. I am removing the poo now from the patio and placing the freshest batch on the pad. We may still buy a second one, for extra space and to take on vacation with us (we stay at beach condos/houses and would probably transport it in the bed of our truck as I'm sure it smells like pee). I saw a video on YouTube where they placed two just outside the door and gated the area to include only the pads, so the puppy had no choice but to go on the pad! Excellent idea! I'm upgrading my review to five stars!!!!! This thing is SO WORTH IT!!!! Especially now that it's 15 degrees outside!!!! I will update when the poo starts landing on the grass. SMELL: As far as smell goes, there is none, it's too cold for that, all pee pee is turning to ice in the bottom tray and I just discard the p'ice.
