Indoor Dog Toliet!

[bbjai]

Hi guys!

Long time reader of the forums as I was leading up to get my dog and finally pulled the plug a month ago on a little French Bulldog. His been an absolute monster so far and I'm so glad I got him (currently 4 months old). Toliet training has been going well but I've encountered some problems. I have a crate for Mac (his name) with a play pen attached to one enterance of the crate. There is a second enterance where he can enter the lounge room. I have an indoor pet loo (Piddle Place) which I have at the very end of the play pen. Mac has no issues peeing and poo on the pet loo and have some minor accidents in his play pen when I wash the pet loo and the smell goes away. I have an apartment with a balcony and the ultimate aim is to move the loo gradually towards the balcony and have him pee on the loo on the balcony outside.

I have two main issues that I'm not sure how to approach. One is that when he has free reign of the house (usually when we are home) he has issues running back into the pen and peeing or pooping in the toliet. It's almost like someone has to bring him back there for him to do that. I know he has no issues finding it because he always heads back for a drink (his water bowl is in the pen as well). How do I let him know that the loo is in the pen and he should head back to pee. He has accidents all the time usually on the carpet. I really want him to have more run of the house and start moving the loo towards the balcony but he doesn't seem to get that he has to pee there even when his been let out!

Secondly he LOVES dragging his toys to the loo and playing on it! It's kinda disgusting to my wife but I don't mind it as much, but is this behaviour normal?

Anyone else with indoor loo's have any experience of moving it to the balcony? I based this off a colleague who slowly moved her toliet across from inside to out as well in an apartment. Just for fun I've saved a picture of the little monster. will be doing a proper intro thread later!

[minimax]

I raised one of my pugs in an apartment and used pee pads, but I started out putting them where they were always going to be. Why make the issue confusing by changing the toilet location? Pick a spot and stick to it.

One of my pugs eats his dinner sometimes on the pee pads, even if they aren't clean. It's gross but he's toilet trained so I let him. Since your guy isn't trained I'd probably not encourage playing on the pee tray, and using it just for toileting.

[bbjai]

Sorry just to be clear I haven't moved the location of the loo yet it's just he has trouble finding it when his outside of the pen and crate even though he has access to it through the crate/pen

[minimax]

But if you want it to be on the balcony for the rest of his life, why is it inside? Put it where you want it to always be.

When he does go in the right spot does he get lots of praise and rewards? And what do you do when he doesn't go in the right place?

Sounds like you need to reduce his access to the house when you're not supervising him, so he is in his pen with access to his toilet and can't pee on the carpet.

[bbjai]

We haven't got the door insert for the balcony yet. But when his going to the right spot het gets a lot of praise and treats. He always gets it right in the pen just not when his outside his pen. Sometimes he goes in and goes on the loo but sometimes he just pees outside. When he does it wrong we just clean it up

I was thinking we might need to reduce access to the house when not supervised. Maybe a bit early for him to have more freedom in the house

[luvsdogs]

We haven't got the door insert for the balcony yet. But when his going to the right spot het gets a lot of praise and treats. He always gets it right in the pen just not when his outside his pen. Sometimes he goes in and goes on the loo but sometimes he just pees outside. When he does it wrong we just clean it up

I was thinking we might need to reduce access to the house when not supervised. Maybe a bit early for him to have more freedom in the house

This is exactly right. I never give a puppy access to the whole house until they are 99.9% reliable, unless they've already gone outside, for me in the yard, & I'm watching them. Did you start with taking him to his toilet after waking, eating, playing & every hour in between? That's been successful for me.

[Rebanne]

your puppy does not yet appear to connect the dots that he needs to use his indoor loo every time no matter where he is. If you had a backyard you would still be taking him out each and every time, so do the same with the indoor loo. Have him outside the pen, watch him closely and actually take him to the indoor loo frequently, just as if you were taking him outside. Praise and treat. He is no where near toilet trained and needs more input from the humans in his life if he is to succeed and not just locked back into his pen.

I'd be putting the loo out on the balcony as well and take him to it and wouldn't be relying on a doggy door for several months yet. The balcony is your backyard.

[Nushie]

We did the exact same thing as you. We had the loo in Jagers pen in the house and then eventually moved it to the balcony. It was always in the house just inside the balcony door so that as a pup when he was in his pen he could see out off the balcony. Eventually when he was old enough and had the hang of toileting we moved it out onto the balcony on the Friday night, spent all weekend at home so that we could keep an eye on him and make sure that he went outside and knew where it was, about every hour i would walk outside and call him out, he would have a sniff at the loo and we would go back inside. It only took that weekend for him to know it was there. but he was about 5-6 months at the time. I wasnt confident that he would go back to his pen to toilet until he was about that age, but it will be different for each dog.

If he is still struggling with finding the correct place to toilet now, then dont move it, you will just confuse him more.

[kiesha09]

I lived in an apartment with my dogs and used a pet loo too. I actually did the same thing, I restricted access when i wasn't around and put him in the pen with the pet loo (he needs somewhere to relieve himself while you're out for long periods of time). WHen I was home and could supervise 100% he was out of his pen BUT I would take the puppy back to the pet loo every hour or after drinking, eating, napping or any other time he looked like he needed to go.

Even though the puppy knows to go on the pet loo when he is confined in the pen, you have to show the puppy that when he is out and he needs to pee/poop he has to go find the pet loo and go there. That is where taking him back there frequently comes in. The more you practice the more he will understand.

The puppy at this stage should never be unsupervised so shouldn't have accidents on your rugs.

Once the puppy is reliable going to the pet loo from anywhere in the house, that is when I started to move it towards the door and then outside.

Good luck and remember never leave the puppy unsupervised unless he is in his pen

[bbjai]

thanks for all the advice everyone! I will continue taking him back to the toliet every hour then. Hopefully we can minimize the mistakes and keep practicing! Given his 4 months old I take it will still be a 2 month slog to get him toliet trained?

Good to be reminded I still need to be vigilent in his toliet training, I think both me and the wife have been a bit lax about it

[Nushie]

thanks for all the advice everyone! I will continue taking him back to the toliet every hour then. Hopefully we can minimize the mistakes and keep practicing! Given his 4 months old I take it will still be a 2 month slog to get him toliet trained?

Good to be reminded I still need to be vigilent in his toliet training, I think both me and the wife have been a bit lax about it

It really depends on each dog. Jager was really good from about 4 months but we kept him penned when we werent home just to be sure as we didnt want to encourage him to be lazy. But generally we didnt have to watch him all the time or take him back to the pen from 4 months on, he just did that himself.

You really have to teach them that no matter whether they are penned or not that you want him to go back to the pen to toilet. And to do that you have to take him back each hour and show him. He will get it eventually. Good luck and please post more piccies! Frenchies are adorable!!

[andrewang]

Right now you just have to be really consistent by bringing him to the pet loo every few hours. I too live in an apartment and Caesar (my dog) uses a pet loo. How I do it is I pen Caesar up with his loo and only allow him freedom when he goes "pee pee", even if it's just a few drops. Teach him the pee command to make things alot easier. Like many others before me have said, limit the area he has free reign to unless you are home to supervise him.

Things will get better buddy,trust me. When Caesar was 2 months old, I thought he'll never learn. Now he has free reign to the house, so everyone's happy.

[bbjai]

Thanks guys that's all I needed some encouragement! Yesterday took him back to loo regularly and no accidents!!!

[persephone]

[Christina]

I would get another Pet Loo & put it outside the pen in whichever room he is playing so that way he doesn't have to go back in the pen but at least knows to use the pet loo.

He is still only a baby yet & may forget when playing or not have enough warning sign that he needs to go to have enough time to get back to the playpen.

Toilet training can take time & seems longer with smaller dogs.

[bbjai]

Another pet loo would be quite expensive but ill consider it

[smashtank]

My Frenchie does the same thing you talk about in the first post (he's also four months old) re not always leaving a room to go and pee on his pee pad. If he's in the bedroom with me while I'm doing something, he'll hide behind the door and pee or hide next to the bed and pee. He's getting better, but he is taking his sweet time! :laugh:

[TigerJack]

Another pet loo would be quite expensive but ill consider it

you don't need to buy a brand name 'pet loo' you can do it cheaply. I use the plastic tray out of a crate and put towels in it. Works fine, just wash towels each day. You can always stick pee pads in there if you prefer. I just got some new replacement plastic trays from Vebo pets on the weekend. They were $13.95 each!

(PS: my pup likes to take her toys to the pet loo and play with them there too, not sure why.)

[minimax]

I have this one - http://www.oo.com.au/Pet-Toilet-Mat-with-Removable-_P36933.cfm $35

Except we use pee pads not the grass. Although my girl will pee on just the top plastic mesh stuff without the grass or pee pads if she's desperate.

If any pee gets in the tray (which it doesn't often as the pee pads catch it) we tip it down the toilet, and regularly hose the whole thing off (as we have a back yard, this is just for overnight back-up and emergencies such as when the princess doesn't want to get her feeties wet in the rain :laugh: )

Oh, and if you have a male dog you might want to put something on the pee tray for them to pee against if the leg cocking instinct kicks in. We have an upturned plastic potplant thing for my boy, as he won't use it if he can't lift his leg on something.

Edited July 17, 2013 by minimax

[Nushie]

As a cheaper alternative we used a plastic tub lid from Bunnings, some fake grass cut to fit the lid and then just put kitty litter in the lid and put the grass on top.

Whenever we went to my mums place we used it as she only had a concrete back yard and it worked fine. Just threw out the litter and hosed down the lid and the grass - easy!