Toilet training is mostly a matter of getting the puppy to the right place often enough that the right place becomes the habit. A pad with an attractant in it does one small useful part of that — it makes the pad the obvious spot rather than the rug next to it — and the plastic backing does the other, which is protecting the floor for the times it does not work.

Each pad is super absorbent with a plastic backing to keep the floor and carpet underneath dry, and Simple Solution treat them with an attractant to draw the pet to the pad. There are 100 in the box, which is about the right quantity for the phase you buy them in. They are not only for puppies either — Simple Solution list them as an alternative toilet area for indoor, confined or unwell pets, and for use in carriers, crates, cars and hotels.

• Box of 100 pads
• Super absorbent, with a plastic backing to protect floors
• Treated with an attractant to draw the pet to the pad
• Also for indoor, confined or unwell pets
• Useful in crates, carriers, cars and hotels

Pads are a stage, not a destination. They are genuinely useful in the first weeks, in a flat, or with a dog who cannot get outside — but a puppy taught that indoors is an acceptable place to go has to be untaught it later, which is harder than teaching outdoors first. Use them as a safety net alongside taking the puppy out, and move the pad towards the door as you go. No pad dimensions have been supplied to us, so if you need a specific size for a crate floor, ask before ordering.

Who it's for: new puppy owners, flat-dwellers without a garden a few steps away, and anyone nursing an older or unwell dog who cannot always make it outside.