Simple Solution Training Pads

House training is a fortnight of standing in a dark garden waiting for something to happen, punctuated by the times it happens indoors instead. A pad is not a substitute for the garden — it is the thing that keeps the indoor version off the floorboards while the garden lesson lands.

These pads are built in layers: an absorbent core to draw the wet in and hold it, and a plastic backing underneath so nothing reaches the floor or the carpet. They are also treated with an attractant, which is the part that separates a training pad from a sheet of plastic-backed paper — it is what encourages the puppy onto the pad rather than next to it. They come in more than one size, with the larger giving 60% more surface area than a standard pad, and they get used well beyond house training: as an indoor toilet for a confined or unwell animal, and in crates, carriers, cars and hotel rooms.

• Super absorbent core with a plastic backing
• Treated with an attractant to draw the puppy onto the pad
• Available in more than one size
• The larger pad gives 60% more surface area than a standard pad
• Also used in crates, carriers, cars and hotels
• Suits indoor, confined or unwell pets as well as puppies

The only size figure here is a comparison with no baseline. Simple Solution say the bigger pad has 60% more surface area than a standard pad, and nowhere do they tell us what a standard pad measures — so 60% more than what is genuinely unanswerable from the label, and no dimensions have been supplied for either size. If you are buying to fit a specific tray, crate or puppy pen, measure the space and check the figures with the manufacturer before you order, because getting this wrong means a pad that curls up the sides or one that misses the corners.

Who it's for: anyone house training a puppy on a hard floor or a rented carpet, owners of an older or unwell animal who cannot always get outside, and people who travel with a dog and would rather not explain a hotel carpet.