Transitioning Your Puppy to a NEW Litter Box

I tried to explain litter box transitions to everyone when they visited...but I know that sometimes it is better to have things written down.    So here are some ideas to help set your puppy up for success with his or her new litter box...

Your puppy (along with ALL his siblings) has been consistently using the litter box at our home since he/she could walk.  That does not guarantee that he will recognize your plastic box as a potty spot.  Your puppy will have to LEARN that your plastic box is his/her new litter box.  To help your puppy to understand his new potty spot you will need the following: 

SUPPLIES:

Ideally you would use a similar plastic box as we have here, with the same kind of wood pellets, with the same smell of urine (a sprinkle of used puppy litter would do the trick.)

When you empty your litter box, do NOT wash it!  You need to have some of the odor remain…or at least keep a tiny bit of used litter in the box when you add the fresh litter.  The smell only needs to be subtle…as puppies have a very acute nose.  I don’t want you to have a stinky home!   I always empty our litter box if I start to smell it….and I always pick up and flush the puppy poops down the toilet, as soon as I see them. 

If you use a cat litter box, make sure the sides are low on one side so your puppy can easily get in.   If you use wood pellets, you will want to transition to paper pellets to reduce the amount of sawdust that tracks onto your puppies paws.   But transition to paper pellets gradually by adding a little more to the box every day.

If you start with a new paper pellets instead of wood pellets then be prepared to spend more time getting the puppy use to his new litter.  The paper litter smells nothing like the wood pellets.  You will need to make sure your puppy has no opportunity to pee anywhere else but in his new litter.   Use a very small pen…or lock him in his crate for naps and put him in his litter box as soon as he wakes up.

In the House:

Confine your puppy in a pen or small area and put him in the litter box after every play time, or nap.  Don’t give your puppy a chance to pee anywhere but in his litter box for the first few days. Your puppy should adopt his new litter box within the first few days and start using it reliably.  

Your puppy should not be allowed to run freely around the house.   If he does, he may not be able to get back to the litter box in time.  He will have an accident and then you are setting yourself up for future potty accidents.

If you want your puppy to follow you around the house…have him on a leash so you will see when he needs to go to the potty.

For the first several months I recommend that your puppy be kept in his pen when you cannot be with him.  When you are playing with him inside, keep him in a single room with a litter box within a few feet of him.  

Beginning Outdoor Potty Training:

When to begin outdoor potty training is an individual decision based on your lifestyle.  I would at least wait for your puppy to become adjusted to your new home (perhaps the first week).  After that you can start a out door potty training schedule.   You may wish to keep the litter box in the house to avoid in door potty accidents.   I would also recommend using your litter box at night time so your puppy doesn't wake you up to go.  But feel free to do what seems right for your family and your puppy.

When does a puppy gain full bladder control?

Your puppies bladder is still very immature and does not yet have full control.  He will not be capable holding his bladder reliably until he/she is 7 months old.  That is the age that most dog owners find that their dog is fully reliable with outdoor potty training. At that age, most dogs can hold their bladder for several hours.

Puppy Potty Training is about Owner Training!

Your puppy wants to use the potty in his designated potty spots….but it is up to you to make that easy for him.   When puppies have accidents it is NOT the fault of the puppy, but it is usually the owner who did not set the pup up for success.  Make sure your puppy always has EASY access to his litter box.  Learn to recognize your puppies signs when he has to go potty!  Use a schedule with outdoor potty training so you learn to recognize the natural potty times of your puppy.

NOTE:

If your home was previously occupied with a dog or cat that urinated on the carpets or flooring…you may have more difficulty training your puppy.   Do not let your puppy frequent carpeted areas with previous pet stains…he will smell ammonia and think it is OK to pee there.  There are many Enzyme cleaners on the market that are suppose to neutralize pet odors…but it is very difficult to get the smell out completely…especially if it has soaked through to the padding under the carpet. It is better to keep your puppy away from the smelly carpet as much as you are able until your puppy is fully reliable and has a mature bladder. 

Where to find Dog Litter pans

 A few of you have commented that you are unable to find the Dog Litter pans in Petco.    It appears that they have been discontinued in stores.   There is a very small stock remaining on the shelves and some stores may have one if you are lucky.  But certainly call ahead, as it seems most stores have run out.

I have to wonder why they are discontinued.  The product itself has received very high reviews on their store website.  Additionally dog litter training in general has also been very highly encouraged by all the breeders who are using them on the internet.   I wonder if so few people know about it, that it was not profitable for the pet stores to keep such a bulky item on their shelf.

If you were not able to find one by now, it may be time to be innovative.   All they are is a plastic box with one side that is very low to the ground ( a 2 1/2 inch lip )  The low side is really important, since the puppy needs to be able to get into it very easily.  The other 3 sides measure 7" high.  The box itself is a rounded rectangle that measures   23" x 20"  .

What I would recommend that you do is to get a Rubbermaid or Sterlite container with low sides and a similar rectangular size.  Here is one online box that would work well ...but I see it is a set of 6. 

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Sterilite-10-Gallon-Stacker-Storage-Bins-Nickel-Driftwood-Set-of-6/17164519

Perhaps the local Walmart store sells them individually.  The size works well as they measure 25.75"L x 18.37"W x 7.13"H
But for this box to work, you would have to cut down one side leaving a 2 1/2" lip.  That allows puppy to EASILY enter, and litter does not fall out.

One man on the internet, commented that he was able to cut down the side with a utility knife.  He got it hot to make it go more smoothly.

"Sterilite boxes from Walmart, Lowes, or Home Depot work fine. You just have to get one of the low sided ones. I make the ones we start puppies in out of a Sterilite box. I cut one side down to a height that we want with a utility knife blade clamped in ViseGrips, heated up red hot with a propane torch-don't do this inside....."    Tom King


Here is an blog post I found from a breeder who used a cat litter box.   Perhaps some of her ideas would be helpful to some of you  ..... http://www.kturby.com/litter/litter.htm

I hope that is helpful to some of you.   

Litter training begins!

Now that the puppies have become steady on their feet and are now able to walk pretty well, we need to start litter training immediately.

NOTE:   I DO NOT use Kitty litter! Because Kitty Litter is clay based it would cause an intestinal blockage if the puppies happened to ingest it.  Instead I use WOOD PELLETS for the puppy litter.  Wood Pellets dissolve to sawdust when they get wet.  Therefore, they would pass through the puppy intestines more easily if ingested.  The puppies do not normally eat the wood pellets but we wouldn't want to risk using anything else right now.  
 

 
Here is how I set up the litter training box:  I take an XL dog crate and remove the screws that hold the top to the bottom.   Then I put the two sides end to end so the door openings match up.  A small amount of wire runs through two holes in the crate and securely keeps the two sides firmly together.  Where the openings meet there is a little space that a puppy could possibly climb into....so I tape that up securely with duck tape and then drape a towel over it.  I roll the towel up on each end and drape the middle over the lip.  The rolled ends of the towel give the puppies something to climb onto to easily get over the lip into the other side.  (Without the towel in place, the puppies would have a hard time climbing from one side to the other).

One side of the crate is the puppy bed.  I line it with a pee pad.  Then I place a carpet on the end.  The carpet will now be a permament bed for this litter in their puppy quarters.

Why do I use a carpet for the puppy bed?  This is so the puppies grow up to understand that carpets are for sleeping...not peeing.  If you give puppies an appropriate place to soil from the beginning it will be so much easier to potty train.

The puppy blanket fleece from Walmart

Please Note: I will send a puppy carpet home with each puppy.  It will have the smell of the puppies on it already.  Use this carpet for the first few weeks that your puppy is in his new home, and nap time will go so much better.  

I also send a little fleece blanket that they can snuggle in.  Here is the cool puppy fabric that I found (Walmart carries it, if you want more.)

The puppies like the carpet, its so comfy. I take the collars off during nap time since they don't like them too much.

When we first put the puppies in their new quarters, they go to sleep pretty quickly on their little carpet.  As soon as they wake up from their nap, I immediately place them on the wood pellets.  They pee right away since puppies always need to go potty after a nap.  This is perfect since now the litter has the right smell of a potty place.  

Litter training a young litter is this simple!  From this point forward the puppies do what comes naturally.  They walk away from their bed to use the potty ...and that lands them in the wood pellet litter.  The pellets have the right smell and the puppies know its a good place to potty.  If a puppy has an accident while he is on the pee pad, we just exchange it for a clean puppy pad right away, so there bed side is always kept clean and fresh.

On the other hand, we do not clean up the litter too often.  Once a day is enough.  And we always sprinkle some soiled saw dust into the fresh wood pellets so they always have the right smell. 

It is pretty exciting to use this method, within one day the puppies are consistently using the litter box.  It won't be long that they are strong enough to jump out of this crate box....but by that time, they will know what wood pellets are for, and a regular doggy litter box work just fine in their puppy pen.

Note on Puppy Litter

One of our readers who has litter trained adult Shitzu dogs commented on an earlier post of mine concerning litter training.  He remarked that the Wood pellet litter is good for young puppies but that it is good to transition to Second Nature dog litter as the puppy gets older.   The problem is that the sawdust being so fine gets tracked around the house on the puppies paws.  The Second Nature litter is a paper product and does not create such a mess.  So on his recommendation you may wish to be prepared to transition your puppy to the less messy product when you bring him home.  Another recommendation, is to put a rough doormat outside the litter box to help catch the mess while you are using wood pellets.

Here is the link to the Second Nature Litter website if you want to read up more about it.
http://www.doglitter.com/GetPage.aspx?D=28924995&T=5957901

Beginning Puppy Litter Training - 25 days old

Up to this point potty time for the puppies has not been much of an issue.  But now that the puppies are starting to eat solid food, it is time for their potty training to begin.   It is wonderful that nature has also provided the puppies with increased mobility at this time...and the innate desire to keep their sleeping quarters clean!   It is so important to wash and clean the puppy bedding often and also provide the puppies with an appropriate potty area. 

This is just one more area where good breeding practices make a huge difference.  If a breeder or petstore keeps a puppy in a small crate, the puppy has no ability to keep his crate clean.  He learns early on  that it is OK to soil the bedding, and that can create a huge potty training nightmare for the new owners.(one that may never be resolved)

So here is our LITTER BOX set up....

 For the very young litter we are using a large crate...

Note:  Don't buy this size for your 8 week Schnoodle puppy as it is suitable for a Collie, but too big for a Schnoodle....This size would be helpful for a toy breed if he were JUST beginning litter training at 8 weeks of age.

Next we remove the door and separate the top from the bottom and join them at the entrance...

On one side the puppies have their bed.  On the other side we  put the puppy litter.  We keep them in our family room (in front of the fireplace), so they are close to all the action, and we can check on them often.



Puppy Bedding:
For their bed, I have put a carpet sample under the puppy pad so the puppies will become familiar with the smell of the carpet in their bedding.  Then as they become more reliable about keeping their bedding dry, I will remove the puppy pad, and have them sleep directly on the carpet.  My hope is that by associating carpets with their bedding so early in life, that they grow up with the idea that carpets are  a NO PEE Zone!

Training Dogs at any age is about setting them up for success from the beginning and not giving them opportunities for bad habits!


By the way....I got a whole stack of 3'x2.5' finished edged carpet samples for just a dollar each at a local carpet store in their carpet remnants section.  They fit perfectly in the crate...and  I can just throw these samples away if they get dirty!  This is a great idea for any puppy bed.

Puppy Litter:  
 Our Puppy Litter does not come from the pet store.  The litter they sell is more expensive, and not as good as this.  What I have chosen are Wood Pellets, manufactured for use in Wood Pellet stoves.  They actually are just saw dust pellets.   They are inexpensive and come in a 40 lb bag, that will last a while.

IMPORTANT:  NEVER use Kitty Litter for a puppy.   Kitty Litter is clay based and clumps together when it comes in contact with moisture.  This will cause a dangerous blockage if ingested.   Wood pellets on the other hand are pellets of sawdust and will dissolve into fine sawdust when it comes in contact with moisture.  So it would pass through a puppy if ingested.






When you bring your puppy home you will want to start them with the wood pellets that they are use to so they are not confused.  But it will be a good idea to transition them to Second Nature Dog Litter, since it will not track sawdust around the house, like the wood pellets do.  To make this transition, add more of the Second Nature Litter to your Wood Pellets every day, until you eventually have no more Wood Pellets.  (You need to help the puppies get use to the different smell and feel.)  

In this last picture you can see how the puppies tend to sleep at the end of their crate.  Even though the litter is brand new to the puppies they will quickly gravitate toward the pellets to do their tinkling.  This set up will be perfect for our puppies, until they are big enough to jump out of the crate.

I don't know how to use my video camera yet...but here is a fun video of 3 week old Schishon Puppies using their litter box....Schichon Puppies

About Litter box training of Puppies

Here are Papillon pups with a litter box option.

   I've been educating myself more and more about litter training a new litter of puppies.  I am so excited about it!
    The litter training does not replace outdoor potty training, but it gives the puppies a better alternative when they can't get outside.
    The advantage for the new owner is tremendous.  If he or she has to go to work, and cannot be home to let the puppy out to the potty, the puppy is already in the habit of using the litter box, instead of the corner behind the living room chair!  For winter puppies, it is so much easier on the owners, then trudging their puppy out in the cold, ice and snow.  Even in the summer, if your puppy needs to use the potty at night, this is a great alternative to a middle of the night routine.
  Of course as time goes on and your puppy bladder matures, it is likely that most people will not need the litter in the house too much. So the regular potty training is still important.
    If you are thinking of trying litter training with an older dog, I understand many people are not too successful.  But for puppies given litter as an option at 5 wks old, the use of litter is very natural.
    There is a great post, Forever Litter Box Training, that shows the litter box training with Papillon puppies.
     I can't wait to litter box my Schnoodle litter since it will be so much cleaner for me than messy newspaper.  The problem with newspaper lining in pens, is it doesn't absorb very quickly, so pups get pee all over their paws, and the ink on the newsprint also gets on the paws.  I will still continue outdoor potty schedules with my litters, since most owners will prefer an outdoor potty spot.  But having a litter box alternative will save everyone involved a lot of house breaking frustration.