I'm not sure what others may think about this, but I'll give you my 2cents... I have two small dogs that use a newspaper (potty pads). When we were trying to train our boxer puppy to go outside, we noticed she followed the little dogs to the paper and used it. She still goes outside, but if it's rainy outside or too dark, she simply uses the paper. She's a big girl now so we have to clean up right away, but it helps. Especially if you have a young puppy.