Namaste All-

I know that a great many people use pee-pads as a housebreaking aid, and many who must work during the day continue to use them throughout their dogs' life. However the disposable kind produce a great deal of waste...just as diapers and feminine hygiene products do.

When my partner and I were shopping for puppy supplies the other day, we had pee-pads on our list. As I was combing the PetSmart site the night before our outing, caculating what our "start-up" costs were going to be, I noticed that PetSmart was the exclusive carrier of Pooch Pads, which were washable, reusable pee-pads. I was quite excited to see this, although $32 for 2 small pads up to $50 for 1 XXLarge pad seemed very expensive (although I realized that in the long run this would be cheaper both monetarily and ecologically).


I am a user of alternative menstrual pads, which are made from 100% cotton flannel, and I really enjoy being able to make a green choice on this matter. I thought that using the basic idea of the pads, I could craft some washable reusable pee-pads for my Voodoo at a much lower cost than I could purchase the Pooch Pads (which were also mainly made from polyesters and other synthetic fabrics). This is what I did, and it turned out beautifully!!

I went to the fabric store and puchased a few yards of 100% cotton flannel. A couple yards were of some really cute prints that I picked out - this would be the outside of the pad. The bulk of the flannel that I purchased was simple white diaper flannel - this would be in the inner absorbent layers. Finally a bought 2 yards of vinyl table-cloth material - this was the waterproof backing that would keep any moisture from the pads from leaking onto the floor underneath. Depending on the size of your dog, you will want to make the pee-pad bigger or smaller than the one that I made, which was 22"x22" and suitable for a small dog...mine is a Boston Terrier (you can use the dimentions of Pooch Pads or other disposible pads as a guide for the size of the ones that you wish to make). I then cut all of my fabric into the 22"x22" squares - I had the outer printed layer, 3 layers of diaper flannel, and the final layer of thin waterproof vinyl. I pinned these all together and then sewed it all up!

I found that 1 meter of printed flannel makes 4 22"x22" squares, that each pad this size will need approx 2 meters of diaper flannel for the 3 inner layers, and that you will need about 1 meter of vinyl tablecloth material for every 2 pads. Obviously if you are making larger or smaller pads you will need to adjust all these numbers. So for about $20-30 you will have enough fabric to make 4 small washable pee-pads. This should be more than sufficient for you!

You will need to pre-wash the pads before letting your dog use them, as the printed flannel only becomes really absorbent after it has been washed at least once and softened up. The printed flannel starts off kind of stiff from the inks. I don't recommend using fabric softener, as this decreases the absorbency as well.


As Pooch Pads are still a wonderful green option, and not everyone is inclined or able to craft their own pee-pads, you can find them at: www.petsmart.com/global/pr...detail.jsp

Blessings,
~Devi~