Hi all, I need some advice… When I first brought puppy home I had his puppy pen in the dining area. When I was home, I would take him to a designated toilet area outside. This area was a little patch of sand at the end of the patio (you wont be able to see it in the photo below). This was about 15meters away from his play area.. not ideal when you taking him to the toilet in the middle of the night as he would sometimes end up going to the toilet along the way. As you can see, the patio is brick and fairly large: http://www.flickr.com/photos/115697696@N07/sets/72157642973590264/ I have since moved his play pen to the other end of the house as it’s a larger area for puppy (3m x 3m), as well as having views of our lounge, kitchen, dining and outside area, so a much better location. The problem though is that this location is about 25-30 meters away from the little sand patch. In the middle of the night, there was no way puppy would be able to hold.. and it’s a bit far for me too when im half asleep in the middle of the night. With this mind, I have just been letting puppy go to the toilet on the bricks outside his play area, which is easier for us both. The thing is that its not ideal as the patio bricks are covered with poo’s and wee’s. At least they are outside! So keeping my puppy’s best interests at heart as well as not letting him get into any bad habits, which option do you think would be best: 1: Allow him to keep wee’ing and poo’ing on the patio outside his play area, but I will need to clean up (daily) and perhaps hose down weekly. What I normally do is cover his poo with white sand, so I know where it is (and I don’t stand on it), it seems to make it easier to pickup and clean and when I get around to hosing it down, I have a ‘marker’ for the places I need to hose down 2: Make two puppy toilets (using synthetic grass), one large one and a smaller one. The large one can be place outside his play area on the patio. I will train him to use this area for his toilet (and not just anywhere on the patio). I will also get a smaller puppy toilet, which I will put inside his play pen, which will be used while im at work. Hopefully this will assist puppy going to the correct indoor toilet area while im at work as both toilets (inside one and outside some) will be similar (both are synthetic grass) What would be a better option (1 or 2)? Added to the above, toilet training is going well. The are hardly any accidents inside the house when im home as I have become good at knowing when he needs to go to the toilet. Obviously when hes alone in the day, he doesn’t have anyone to take him to the toilet, so he goes in the ‘general’ area of where I put down newspaper. Cheers, Robbie
Re: Options for designated toilet areas I would go with Option 2, and I would make the toilet somewhat portable* so that, as his range increases, you can gradually move it out off the patio area to shape him going further out into the yard. Also, if it is portable, you can take it out into the yard and give it a hosing now and then. *I am imagining some kind of framed thing with a waterproof floor and maybe a replaceable sand layer for absorption and a bit of synthetic turf laid over the top but that might be totally overengineered and you might just be thinking of synthetic turf only
Re: Options for designated toilet areas Im going to use a large utility box lid (not too deep), fill it up with good kitty litter (helps with absorption and odors), then cover with synthetic grass and drill/poke holes into it for drainage. This is how its going to look like: https://www.flickr.com/photos/115697696@N07/13436823355/in/set-72157642973590264 [size=8pt] (edit to fix a tiny typo - Oberon)[/size]
Re: Options for designated toilet areas Great idea Might be good to somehow make sure it won't move (if he bounces onto it and it skids a bit that might put him off trying again). Maybe some non-slip drawer liner underneath? Let us know how is goes with it.
Re: Options for designated toilet areas You are putting so much thought into this, Zulu is a lucky pup. You know I work, and think people can work full time and have a happy, healthy dog (I do). But I think you really do need to arrange things so the indoor toileting is emergency only - I never felt the need to train indoor toileting really. Did you have any joy finding a dog walker or puppy care to call in for playtimes? It shouldn't take long before zulu should not toilet inside at all - if say he can have toilet breaks and playtime mid morning, lunchtime, and afternoon for example.
Re: Options for designated toilet areas Well the good news is that i made a puppy toilet pretty easily and cheaply last night ($20), which was about 72cm x 43cm, so bigger than most toilet avaiable for purchase: http://www.flickr.com/photos/115697696@N07/13455059874/ The bad news is that Zulu didnt really take to it, so i wasnt going to force the issue. After thinking about it.. Zulu only really makes 2 poo's a day, which are in the morning (6am) and afternoon, so i dont mind taking him to the designated area at the other end of the patio.. and, if he does go on the patio i created a mixture of sandpit sand, bicarb kitty little, which i put over any poo's. which covers the smell and acts as a marker (so no-one stands in it), then ill pick it up the following day and hose down.. too easy.
Re: Options for designated toilet areas [quote author=JulieT link=topic=5086.msg63926#msg63926 date=1395912358] You are putting so much thought into this, Zulu is a lucky pup. You know I work, and think people can work full time and have a happy, healthy dog (I do). But I think you really do need to arrange things so the indoor toileting is emergency only - I never felt the need to train indoor toileting really. Did you have any joy finding a dog walker or puppy care to call in for playtimes? It shouldn't take long before zulu should not toilet inside at all - if say he can have toilet breaks and playtime mid morning, lunchtime, and afternoon for example. [/quote] At the moment we are spending time with him on our lunch breaks. I have also found a dog walker in the area and her charges are about $9 per 30mins, but at the moment im just doing some reference checks. She is doing a Animal Studies Programme, which is good. Also, my step son (13) is going to be on school holidays soon, so he will be at home for 3 weeks and can help with puppy.
Re: Options for designated toilet areas Well, the puppy toilet looks great and I really like your design. My guess is that Zulu thinks it to be too nice and doesn't want to sully it with a wee Keep trying with it...he might get there. Or maybe just start with a bit of turf without the plastic base etc and then eventually graduate to the full toilet. Though by then he might be able to hold on long enough to make it out to the garden area.
Re: Options for designated toilet areas Yeh it was fun making it.. didnt cost much as all and was quick to make
Re: Options for designated toilet areas What about Putting some of his fresh poop on the "toilet" ? I think I remember one of the ways of encouraging pooping in a certain area was to clear everything up apart from in the area you want the dog to use. Maybe you could just use the turf bit where he most commonly goes anf hope he will mark it then introduce the rest of the device. Very ingenious.
Re: Options for designated toilet areas Did Frankie not use turf for a bit now I am thinking? Maybe he would have a tip?
