Improvia Reusable Puppy Pee Pads: Not Just For Puppies and Not Just For Pee

The Complex Problem

In August 2024, Tucker spent five days in the hospital after an emergency splenectomy, and upon returning home he had a lot of rehabilitation to do. He had reactions to the medications, he didn’t want to eat his usual food, and he had trouble walking and coordinating his body.

With all of his challenges, I stopped making him come to his “table” to eat his meals in the kitchen. Instead I brought the meals to him, usually in the living room, which meant I needed to protect my wool rug and hardwood floors from foodstuffs.

He also sometimes leaked urine and other bodily fluids a little, so I needed something to protect his numerous dog beds and my own bed that he sleeps on. He also was downright filthy and given that he had stitches, he was still weeks away from being able to get a bath.

Having spent a number of nights at the vet hospital, I can attest that their way of dealing with messes is to use copious amounts of disposable puppy peepads. The kennels have a gym-mat style bed with blankets, but for those dogs with a propensity to make a mess, they get an extra layer on top: Disposable white, paper-like puppy pee pads with blue perimeters.

I wanted a better solution than that. I hate the waste, I despise the smell (especially after they get wet), they rip easily, and they often contain chemicals that really aren’t great for your dog — or you — to be in constant contact with.

Unrelated to messes, Tucker was also unstable on his feet due to his medications. I was going to have to put down rugs to give him some traction indoors, but I needed something I could wash.

Improvia Reusable Puppy Pee Pads

Visit Amazon $14.99 from Improvia

The Simple Solution

Similar to cotton diapers, reusable pads provide you with an opportunity to be a bit more environmentally conscious. Whether you have a new puppy, incontinent senior dog or a dog recovering from surgery, you may find yourself going through multiple disposable pee pads per day. Washable pads alleviate that waste while also giving your dog a more pleasant surface to walk and lie on.

While frequent indoor peeing wasn’t my problem, my goal as the same: Protect the floors and bedding while keeping Tucker clean and dry. And so I went down the reusable puppy pee pad rabbit hole. After reading about many of them, I chose the Improvia brand. They make other incontinence supplies, so I had a feeling they were experts in this area. The pads have excellent reviews and are certified through OEKO-TEX Standard 100, assuring me that Tucker wouldn’t be in contact with unsafe chemicals when he lay on it.

One Product, Multiple Uses

Aside from one area rug in my living room, all of the flooring in my house is either hardwood or tile. Tucker’s aging feet don’t give him the traction they once did, and with the meds making him even more unstable, these pads worked well to help him stand and walk. The small pawprint shaped grippies on the bottom keep the pads from sliding around on hardwood floors, and the soft, slightly fuzzy top provides just a smidge of resistance. Unlike thin area rugs, they don’t curl up when a dog uses them as a launch pad to take off running.

When it comes to keeping the area clean and tidy, they work great. I seldom give Tucker rice but when I do, it’s a gift that keeps on giving. Below is the result of helping Tucker consume his meal without the puppy pee pad beneath the bowl (it’s in the background on another dog bed). I was cleaning up rice for days.

Once he moved back to his assigned table for eating, I used a folded puppy pad for traction on the tile floor. It helped him stand and also captured food, making regular cleanup easy. I still don’t know how he got food underneath his body while eating, but I’m also still perplexed on how he got it over his head as well. Perhaps I should have hung a puppy pad on the wall like a tapestry.

Using the puppy pad as a barrier to keep blood and gak from getting on nice things worked excellently well — as long as Tucker used them.

Much like any new blanket I buy for him, he avoided it to begin with as if he didn’t want to get such a nice new thing dirty.

Once he did use them, they worked as designed and he didn’t feel uncomfortable on them at all. Unlike disposables that easily move about and get torn, this acted like blanket and stayed put no matter how he rolled round on it.

Puppy Pad vs. Water

Liquid got on the pads while Tucker used them, but seldom enough to really test the pad’s waterproofness. Mostly we were dealing with drips and drabs, general filth, and food bits. Tons of reviews mentioned these pads’ ability to absorb liquid leaving the top dry but not soak through. I would say based on our real life experience, that’s valid. But what about when a big dog really does let loose, or your friend dumps their entire bottle of beer on the floor? (Puppy pads can also be useful around clumsy friends.)

I might have gone a little overboard, but I have a big dog, so I went big with my experiment: One full 16 oz cup of a water poured in one spot like a girl dog squatting and peeing.

For a minute I thought the vessel wasn’t clean and I had somehow poured oil on the fabric, but it was indeed just H2O on the pad. The water pooled like raindrops on a windshield treated with Rain-X.  It looked like one of those resin and wood projects.

If you want to know if this pad is waterproof, the answer is Yes. 100%.

I made the mistake of doing this experiment on the counter so I wouldn’t have to bend down. Because I had only half of it on the counter, the little lake of water found its way to the edge and made a waterfall to my kitchen floor.

Once the lake was secured, I let it sit.

For a long time.

An hour later, the surface tension had broken and the top was sopping wet.

An hour and a half in, I lifted the edge and found some water had managed to come through. Not a lot, but a little bit and not throughout the entire pad.

Much of the water remained on the pad. Touching the wet spots proved just that: It was wet.

I don’t know how anyone managed the 10 minute dry time mentioned in the reviews and the ad. In an effort to recreate their findings, I did a second experiment and put just a 1/4 cup on a dry area. It created the same lake effect but lost that surface tension within a minute or two. It was still wet to the touch ten minutes later. However half an hour after that, it didn’t feel wet on top and hadn’t soaked through. Clearly, volume is everything.

Meanwhile, the 16oz of water I dumped was still evaporating. The top later remained wet but other than the one small area I had found earlier, there was no evidence of leaking through. It took about five hours for it to completely dry in the not-so-humid 72 degree Southern California air inside my house. 

I have washed these a number of times, and while the washing is fine, I’ve yet to see one dry in 10 minutes, even in the dryer. I usually have to set them outside in the sun to dry for a few hours. 

None of them have stained, but it’s not like Tucker (or I) ever dropped a glass of red wine on them. I also tend to wash them regularly and not let anything set in. If you’re washing them less often than you wash your own bedsheets, you may find you get more stains.

What We Didn’t Test

Some reviews mention that the urine odor was terrible, even after washing. Tucker’s urine doesn’t have a strong odor to begin with and he hadn’t peed on any of them, so we didn’t experience that for ourselves. Fresh dog urine shouldn’t have a strong odor, though; if it does, you may want to check your dog’s hydration levels and diet, and consider talking to your veterinarian. Urine that sits can accumulate bacteria which can cause odor. I also imagine that urine smell is akin to skunk odor: If it isn’t washed out completely and then put in the dryer, it will smell worse than before and forevermore. 

I didn’t have Tucker lie on the pad or stomp around on it after I put an excessive amount of water on it. The traffic could affect absorbency as well as possibly make the liquid filter through and out the bottom. 

Tucker also did not attempt to eat the pad. Since puppies explore with their mouths, there is a possibility they may chew on these. However, I posit that puppies are more likely to chew on disposables because those are light, tend to slide around, and have a distinct odor (even when unused). These reusable pads are like stiff blankets due to the grippy texture on the back. If you dog eats blankets, they may eat these. I suggest hiding the corners and edges in puppy pens so dogs will be more likely to ignore them. That said, some dogs are going to chew and dig no matter what textile you put down.

Improvia Reusable Puppy Pee Pads

Visit Amazon $14.99 from Improvia

The Final Bark

As an alternative to disposable pads, Improvia pads are an excellent choice. Being chemical-free, they’re safe for you and your pet to use frequently.  They’re multi-functional and nice enough looking to be left out long term for floor and couch protection from liquids and mess from any animal, including your clumsy friends or self.

Large volumes of liquid do keep the top surface wet for a longer period of time, so it may not be the best choice for older, big dogs left alone for many hours that may urinate a lot all at once. However, for smaller dogs and puppies, the top surface dries pretty quickly. For post-hospital stays, this is more than enough protection from leaks, grime, and dropped food. Washing them right away will help keep them like new and avoid long-lasting, deep-seated odor.

Picking them up quickly as you would with disposable pads is the key, except instead of throwing them away, toss them in the washer. What’s good for the environment is also good for you — and your dog. The Improvia Puppy Pee Pad is no exception.