It seems that all the info I can find on housebreaking is about taking dogs outside to do their business. That's all well and good, but I'll be living in an apartment shortly and so I'd like to train my pup to use a litter box, but am not 100% sure how to go about that.
Can I just leave the box in her pen and when she soils on a paper or pad, put it in the box to encourage her to go there? Or, should I keep the box somewhere seperate and then take her to it for potty breaks? And how about overnight... I've read that it would be good to keep the crate in my bedroom overnight, so if I do that, do I just get up every hour and take her out to the box?
well, most puppies if they go before bed, will only have to go once at night if that much, unless you feed them directly before bed. After you feed her or play with her, put her in box, if she goes, praise her like crazy. Reinforce her behavior. As far as placement, i would think seperate for now, but thats only my opion.
treat the training the same as you would for taking them outside. BTW, we tried to train Chewy to the litter box. He would only put his 2 front feet in and then pee. Needless to say it didn't all make it in the box. We found pads much easier.
Rufus is 9th months old, litter trained and pretty reliable now (he occasionally misses with his poops, half in and half out the box). We use the wood litter (woody pet).
I did just what you mentioned, had the box in his playpen and night time crate in the beginning. Gradually reduced the newspaper until he was going in the box only. He did have regular accidents until he was about 5 months old - just didn't have the bladder control, I guess.
We now don't put the litter box in his crate (he makes it through the nite just fine) and only in the playpen if we'll be gone for a longer time. He has free run of the house, and we have three litter boxes in various places (it's a big house!)
It's easy to clean up the poops as I notice them and scoop out the whizzed on litter once a day. I especially appreciate this system when the weather is lousy! Good luck on litter training your pup.
I had a hard time potty training Harley. We used pads and he was great about peeing, but he almost never pooped on it. He is a boy so when he got a little bit older he began to lift his leg and it was almost impossible for him to aim onto the pad. So now we go outside to pee but he still has a hard time telling me when he has to pooped. WELL i wasn't much help i guess!! Good luck!
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