Portable Dog Toilet

[GSDowner]

My 11.5 boy started having accidents.

He is an in-house dog and I have no intention to

relocate him outside.

Has anyone purchased a portable dog toilet and if so

is it a good solution.

Many thanks

Edited February 6, 2014 by GSDowner

[cavNrott]

My 11.5 boy started having accidents.

He is an in-house dog and I have no intention to

relocate him outside.

Has anyone purchased a portable dog toilet and if so

is it a good solution.

Many thanks

It would be wise to take your dog to the vet to find out why he has become incontinent. There is medication available for incontinence.

There is also the chance that he may have a urinary tract infection. There is also medication available to treat this.

See if you can collect a specimen of his urine to take to the vet with the dog.

It's good to hear you will not put him outside in the yard due to his problem.

[GSDowner]

Well, he has seen the vet and everything is fine

that's why I am considering an inside toilet

Edited February 6, 2014 by GSDowner

[Salukifan]

is the issue lack of bladder/bowel control or ease of access outside?

[Simply Grand]

I've used pee pads for an indoor toilet, they quickly picked up to use them but there was often some overspray onto the surrounding floor

I have two clamshell pools with potting mix covered with fake grass as their toilets in my concrete courtyard now. They work well and the dogs immediately took to using them. I don't notice much smell outside but they'd probably be a bit stinky inside.

I think the proper commercial dog toilets have some sort of odour reducing stuff so I think one would probably be a good investment. Hopefully he'd be able to hold long enough to get to it, and you could always put a couple around I suppose.

[GSDowner]

Well, he has seen the vet and everything is fine

that's why I am considering an inside toilet

It's not a urinary incontinence

I also leave hime at home for several hours

[cavNrott]

Well, he has seen the vet and everything is fine

that's why I am considering an inside toilet

It's not a urinary incontinence

I also leave hime at home for several hours

So is the problem that he doesn't have access to outside when you leave him at home for several hours and he can't hold it for that long?

[GSDowner]

So is the problem that he doesn't have access to outside when you leave him at home for several hours and he can't hold it for that long?

Yes, also he started getting diarrhea.

The vet said it happens often to older dogs

and nothing really can be done.

[White Shepherd mom]

Casper, 12.5yo, has degenerative myelopathy. The disease has now progressed to the stage where he poos in his sleep without knowing or gets the urge to go toilet too late to make it out onto the lawn. I used to get home from work and have to clean up German Shepherd sized poo from the ceramic tiles and grout and sometimes off the carpet as he'd try to get out quickly. Hubby suggested we lock Casper out and got told off for it ;) We bought a roll of vinyl (looks like floor planks) which we have laid in the places Casper has access to. I will admit, it is not pretty, but it will stay down while my boy still breathes. It is much easier to clean up now, although the colour we chose might not have been the best decision as it's the same colour as the poo

Definitely one of the downsides of old age in our pets.

[Little Gifts]

I know there have been old threads on doggy toilets, both commercial ones and ones DOLers have made themselves with things from Bunnings. Maybe search doggy toilets and see what you come up with?

[Dogsfevr]

So is the problem that he doesn't have access to outside when you leave him at home for several hours and he can't hold it for that long?

Yes, also he started getting diarrhea.

The vet said it happens often to older dogs

and nothing really can be done.

I would tend to disagree with the vet ,not one of our oldies has got the runs due to age BUT all have access outside 24/7 so they don't have to worry about hanging on & getting stressed .

The runs would be more a case of the dog knowing its not allowed to soil inside but can no longer hold in that long .

There is no guarantee he will use the inside loo or that he will feel relaced in doing so ,teaching a very clean dog to do the exact opposite its trained to do in old age is very hard

[GSDowner]

Thanks so much for helpful replies

white-shepherd-mom/ my GSD has also the same condition (at the moment his hind legs are weaker)

I am hoping the disease won't progress too quickly

It started in September 2013, so far it's sort of ok

[Christina]

What about a square of fake grass with some plastic of some kind underneath if you can get him to use it ?

I have made a few for mine using the lid of those large plastic storage containers upside down & lined with fake grass. Work well for my small dogs but you may have to be more inventive re a base for your big dog.

[TigerJack]

My small dogs are inside all day with no access to outdoors. They have all easily adapted to using an indoor loo. I did initially go to the trouble of putting fake lawn on top of a plastic tray but then you just have to wash the fake lawn as it does get stinky, just hosing it doesn't really cut the smell. I changed to putting old towels on top of the plastic tray and those are easy to wash. Downside is they think any floor mat you leave around is for peeing on but you just don't leave them around. Trick to getting them to start using it is to not clean up immediately they use it the first few times. Leave a pee smelling towel on it to encourage them to return to the smell. My baby yorkie is so conditioned to using it that she will be outside playing and get the urge to go and will run indoors to use the loo.

I do have to say that retraining an older (and larger) dog to use it might not work as well. I used to have a 14 year old great dane with multiple cancers. He was never bladder incontinent but he did get dodgy with bowels towards the end. (You want to clean one of those up when he had an accident!!) He never considered going near the indoor loo, he was so conditioned to going outdoors that he would get very stressed at maybe having to go indoors. I ended up just leaving the back door open at night and positioned his bed as close to the door as I could. Sometimes worked, sometimes not as he started getting weak in the back legs and couldn't get up in time.

Good luck, I ended up finding my Dane was really not enjoying life having accidents, he got quite miserable. He hated it and thought he was in dreadful trouble. He was a rescue though and had maybe been treated badly as a youngster for having accidents indoors.

[TigerJack]

My small dogs are inside all day with no access to outdoors. They have all easily adapted to using an indoor loo. I did initially go to the trouble of putting fake lawn on top of a plastic tray but then you just have to wash the fake lawn as it does get stinky, just hosing it doesn't really cut the smell. I changed to putting old towels on top of the plastic tray and those are easy to wash. Downside is they think any floor mat you leave around is for peeing on but you just don't leave them around. Trick to getting them to start using it is to not clean up immediately they use it the first few times. Leave a pee smelling towel on it to encourage them to return to the smell. My baby yorkie is so conditioned to using it that she will be outside playing and get the urge to go and will run indoors to use the loo.

I do have to say that retraining an older (and larger) dog to use it might not work as well. I used to have a 14 year old great dane with multiple cancers. He was never bladder incontinent but he did get dodgy with bowels towards the end. (You want to clean one of those up when he had an accident!!) He never considered going near the indoor loo, he was so conditioned to going outdoors that he would get very stressed at maybe having to go indoors. I ended up just leaving the back door open at night and positioned his bed as close to the door as I could. Sometimes worked, sometimes not as he started getting weak in the back legs and couldn't get up in time.

Good luck, I ended up finding my Dane was really not enjoying life having accidents, he got quite miserable. He hated it and thought he was in dreadful trouble. He was a rescue though and had maybe been treated badly as a youngster for having accidents indoors.

[BCPuppy]

For a long time when we were building and had no fences my girl had to be contained upstairs with access to a large balcony area. We made her 'poo corner' from a car boot liner, one of those heavy rubber ones, lined it with the crystal type kitty litter and topped off with about 1.5m square of fake grass.

We even surrounded it by plants so it was not obvious and afforded some privacy :)

She still uses it today even though she now has access to a fenced off grassed area. Even some visiting dogs use it without prompting! The kitty litter is easy to manage and gets changed out every couple of weeks, only smells if I get slack and dont change it soon enough, solids I pick up daily, and the grass gets hosed off and soaked in disinfectant (i have two pieces and rotate them)when i change out the litter.

Good luck!

[White Shepherd mom]

Thanks so much for helpful replies

white-shepherd-mom/ my GSD has also the same condition (at the moment his hind legs are weaker)

I am hoping the disease won't progress too quickly

It started in September 2013, so far it's sort of ok

I wish your boy a long time on his legs still. Casper's DM started in September 2010 and he is mostly still walking on his own. When he's tired he looks like he's been on a heavy night out but he's a fighter.

Is your DM dog the one with the incontinence?

[judy69]

We are in a caravan and have a Chi who is almost 4yrs old. We use a plastic tub with one side cut out if it lined with newspaper and he is happy to use this and it's easy to keep clean. He was trained from a pup to wee on newspaper anyway so that made it a bit easier to get him to use the plastic tub.

Hope you find a solution.