The honest answer depends more on your schedule than on a contest between crates and pads. A crate can help your puppy learn faster. Pads can protect your floors while you are at work. The AKC housetraining guide accepts both approaches and puts the focus on giving your puppy frequent chances to make the right choice.
What each one does
Some dogs prefer not to soil their sleeping area, which can support a toilet routine when a crate is comfortable and care is timely. A crate must never be used to make a puppy hold on beyond their needs. Reward toileting in the chosen spot, not prolonged holding.
That distinction matters. The crate creates a short period between the urge to go and the trip outdoors. It works when you can take your puppy out before that period becomes longer than their bladder can handle.
Pads solve a different problem. They give your puppy an approved toilet spot inside the house. That protects your floors and removes the pressure to hold on through a working day that exceeds their limits.
The tradeoff is more training later. Your puppy learns that going outside is right, but going in one indoor spot is right too. If you want all toilet trips to move outdoors in time, you will need to take away that second answer in stages.
Neither choice fixes a schedule that asks too much of a young bladder. Start with the hours your puppy will spend alone, then choose the setup that gives them a fair chance to succeed.
Which one fits your day
Plan from your puppy’s observed toilet needs, waking, meals, drinking, play, comfort and veterinary advice. An age-plus-one formula cannot establish a safe confinement or absence limit.
Arrange someone to provide care during absences that exceed your puppy’s needs. A pad or pen can provide a toilet option, but cannot replace meals, drinking water, company, supervision and timely help.
Which suits your schedule
Neither works best alone. Your hours shape the choice.
| Care question | Comfortable crate | Managed area with indoor toilet |
|---|---|---|
| What is it for? | A voluntary resting space and brief, comfortable confinement. | Space to rest and a separate approved toilet option. |
| Does it cover a long workday? | No. Arrange care and toilet opportunities. | A toilet surface alone does not meet care and contact needs. |
| What if outdoors is hard to reach? | Take the puppy to the chosen toilet area in time. | An indoor area can be a planned temporary or lasting option. |
| What must be available? | Enough room to stretch, suitable bedding and clean water. | A safe layout with water, rest and toilet areas separated. |
| How do you choose? | Use only while the puppy is comfortable; respond to distress. | Supervise introduction and remove materials the puppy might swallow. |
A pen may contain an open resting crate and a separate toilet area; care visits are still needed.
Choose a crate only for periods your puppy can manage comfortably, with planned care and toilet opportunities. A safe larger area may provide an indoor toilet option when appropriate.
how long a puppy can be left explains planning care around the puppy rather than a guaranteed age-based holding calculation.
Getting each one right
The crate, and the mistake that can undo the plan
Your puppy must be able to stand, sit, turn and lie fully stretched out in the crate. Provide suitable bedding and clean drinking water. Size and any divider must preserve comfortable movement.
If a puppy soils a crate, check health, distress, comfort and whether toilet opportunities were frequent enough. Do not respond by making the crate too small.
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A divider helps you match the crate to the puppy in front of you. A wire model such as the MidWest Wire Dog Crate with Divider can start with a smaller sleeping area. You can move the divider as your puppy grows, so the crate stays large enough for comfort without adding a toilet corner.
Pay attention to whining near the crate door during the first weeks. It can mean a full bladder more often than a complaint about the crate. Take your puppy outside when you hear it. Keep the toilet trip quiet and dull, then return them to the crate.
crate training step by step explains a gradual introduction led by comfort; it does not promise completion in a fortnight.
The pads, and where to place them
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Choose one place for the pad and keep it there. Amazon Basics Potty Training Pads work when your puppy can count on finding them in the same spot and receives a reward for using them. Give that reward as you would after a toilet trip outside.
Location and surface can both become part of a toilet habit. Keep the plan clear, reward the chosen area and make any transition gradually according to the puppy’s response.
Put the toilet area away from the bed, food and water where the safe space permits. That provides separate areas without asking the puppy to wait when they need to go.
A fixed location also makes the later transition easier. You have one indoor toilet spot to move toward the door instead of several places around the house that your puppy may see as acceptable.
Small dogs, and choosing an indoor toilet on purpose
Some households do not use an indoor toilet as a temporary step. They plan to keep it.
A four pound dog living in a tenth floor flat may do better with a permanent indoor toilet. The same may apply to a dog who refuses to step outside in snow. Dog litter trays and grass pads can serve that purpose. Choosing one does not mean the training failed.
If an indoor spot is your long-term plan, skip the process of weaning your dog from it. Treat it as you would treat the garden. Use the same place, give the same reward and follow the same cleanup routine after each visit.
The trouble starts when the indoor habit develops without a plan. If you change your mind at eight months, you are asking your dog to give up the sole answer they know. Decide what you want the finished routine to look like, then teach that routine from the start.
Running both together
Many households with a working day need both methods. They can work together if you give each one a separate place and purpose.
Set up a pen with the crate open inside it. Put the pad at the far end, away from the sleeping area. Your puppy can rest in the crate without being shut inside for longer than their bladder can manage. If they need to go, the pen offers an approved spot a few steps away instead of a rug.
When you are home, remove the pad from the routine and take your puppy outside on the usual schedule. This keeps outdoor toilet trips as the answer whenever you are there to provide them.
If your goal is outdoor housetraining, move away from pads in stages. Shift the pad closer to the door over a few weeks. Next, place it outside the door. After your puppy accepts that change, remove it.
A transition may need more or fewer steps than the example. Keep a usable toilet option available, reward success and review any new accidents rather than predicting a fixed long-term outcome.
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Accidents need the right cleanup with either method. Use an enzyme cleaner such as Rocco & Roxie Stain & Odor Eliminator instead of a standard household spray. If your dog can still smell the accident, that scent marks the place as a toilet that has been used before. what to do about accidents has more help for dealing with accidents.
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Keep Earth Rated Poop Bags beside the door as well. The outdoor part of the routine depends on your ability to leave at short notice, without searching the house for a bag first.
When to call your vet
Straining with little or no urine needs urgent veterinary attention. Contact your vet promptly about blood in urine, increased frequency, distress or repeated soiling despite timely care.
A change after progress matters too. If your puppy stayed dry for a fortnight and then began having accidents, call your vet instead of adding more training. The problem may need an examination, not a stricter routine.
Alicia writes this site as a dog owner who does the reading. She is not a veterinarian, and this article cannot replace advice from the person who can examine your dog.
Questions people ask
Do pads make housetraining take longer?
They tend to add time because your puppy learns an indoor answer that you must remove later. First you teach that the pad is an approved toilet. Then you move that toilet out of the house.
An indoor toilet can be useful when it meets the household’s plan, but it does not replace timely care. Do not use confinement to ask the puppy to wait beyond their needs.
Is a crate cruel?
A crate used as a bed is not cruel. It gives your puppy a defined sleeping place and supports housetraining for stretches their bladder can handle.
Using a crate for a long absence or as punishment does not meet those aims. Look for relaxed voluntary use and increase duration only while the dog remains comfortable; there is no universal completion time.
My puppy shreds the pad
A puppy may shred or swallow a pad. Stop access if that happens and choose a safer toilet arrangement with guidance from your vet or trainer.
A holder is not a guarantee against chewing or swallowing material. Supervise use, and contact your vet promptly if you suspect ingestion; do not wait for symptoms.
Can I use newspaper instead?
Yes. Newspaper works, and generations of dogs learned to use it.
It absorbs less than a training pad and can leave print on paws and floors. Most people choose pads because they reduce the mess, not because the training method changes. With either material, use one fixed spot and reward your puppy for choosing it.
Sources
- AKC housetraining guide, on crates, pads or another approved area all being valid, and on frequent chances to succeed.
- ASPCA house training guide, on rewarding the right spot and enlarging your dog’s territory as training takes hold.
- Cornell emergency guidance, on straining to urinate and other urgent signs.
- PDSA crate guidance, on comfort, drinking water, gradual training and responding to distress.
- RSPCA feeding and water guidance, on keeping clean drinking water available.
Updated October 18, 2026. We replaced bladder formulas and long-workday assurances with individual care requirements, clarified water and crate comfort, corrected urinary urgency and added pad-ingestion cautions.