Puppy potty training can be difficult to learn. And it’s not any easier living on the fourth floor in a big city. I’ve previously written about potty training a puppy, but today I want to focus on potty training in an apartment. These three simple indoor solutions are also effective if, for whatever reason, you and your dog or puppy find it difficult to go outside as frequently as you would like or need to.
The foundation for building a loving, trusting relationship between you and your new family member is good toilet habits. If not, you’ll become frustrated and worn out worrying nonstop that your puppy will have an accident. What’s worse is that because there will always be a part of your brain that worries about accidents, you won’t ever fully commit to training anything else.
Sadly, one of the main reasons people return, sell, or even euthanize their dogs is because they ignore potty training. It often becomes too much of a struggle for people to bring their dog when they leave the house without worrying and to never be able to fully trust their dog.
As you can see, it’s crucial to comprehend how to do it correctly. And once you and your dog master it, life will be so much simpler for everyone. Your relationship will have a great start because your puppy will be content and self-assured. Additionally, it will make all of your interactions with your pup, and later, your adult dog, much simpler and more enjoyable.
Since you can’t just open your door to a yard or garden to let your puppy out to relieve himself, how do you potty train your puppy in this situation? It’s crucial to understand the fundamentals of potty training because there are some guidelines.
Therefore, I’ll go over the fundamentals of potty training in general before I get to the specific solutions for indoor potty training. This will help your training plan and set you and your puppy up for success with potty training right away. Go directly to this section if you are familiar with the fundamentals of potty training: “A Back-Up Plan for Potty Training in Apartments.” ” Hidden Content.
To be clear, you should take your puppy outside to urinate and defecate whenever possible. Why? Well, first of all, this is her nature. She urinates not only to release her bladder but also to signal to nearby dogs. Also, she enjoys going outside and marking her territory. So don’t take this away from her.
Second, our homes are not designed for dogs to go potty inside. Despite our best efforts, even humans can easily detect the smell of dog urine. Additionally, a dog’s sense of smell is significantly superior to ours. As a result, other dogs will want to pee in the same location as your dog or another dog if they smell urine inside your home. Trying to cover up the smell of dog urine in the long run rarely works…
Bring your puppy outside to relieve herself whenever possible. Always and when at all possible. Your puppy will develop a strong habit of going outside if you take her outside to relieve herself on a regular basis. When the time comes, she will soon seek the door, giving you the chance to let her out whenever necessary. After a while, this will function in the vast majority of cases.
However, you might need a backup strategy before taking your new puppy outside, especially if you reside in a city and live on the seventh floor. Or maybe you can’t move as fast as a young puppy needs you to. Later, when your dog has mastered this behavior, I’ll return to these backup plans, but for now, let’s assume you prefer your dog to go outside to relieve herself.
But first, she needs to learn. And some fundamentals are the same whether you reside in an apartment or a house with a garden right outside your front door. Keep a close eye on your puppy during the critical first few days. It also helps to adhere to a strict routine and some simple rules. Keep reading to find out why.
Remember these tips, and you’ll be halfway there. Your puppy will develop strong and consistent potty habits if you pay close attention during the first week or so.
Along with adhering to the fundamental routines, you can facilitate your puppy’s ability to relieve herself and continue with her activities. To start, you must constantly watch over your puppy. Although it seems simple, it can be challenging since you probably have other things to do. But you can get ready for those moments when you have to look away from her.
If you need to do something else, putting your puppy in a crate will help her keep it in until she is let out again. She will view the crate as her den, and her natural inclination will be to not soil her sleeping area. Of course, you must first accustom her to the crate before placing her inside. Therefore, it’s crucial that the crate transform into a haven of peace and joy rather than a place she despises.
Even if you try your hardest, your puppy may occasionally evade your constant surveillance. Don’t let your puppy run around your house to prevent this. Restrict her area to where you are. You can do this by:
It’s crucial to maintain consistency throughout all dog training. Unless you instruct your puppy, she will never know what to do. Recall that canines and puppies are the ones who speak “consistency” the best.
Therefore, always express your gratitude to your puppy when she poop or pees at the appropriate time and location. You do this by praising your puppy. Keep your voice quiet so as not to interrupt her while she is speaking. Be consistent by making sure to compliment her on a regular basis while using the same words. This will encourage her to do her business.
Set the stage for successful potty training with your puppy. This means that you should consistently visit the same location. She’ll develop a strong habit out of going there because of the scent. If traveling to the same location is not possible, choose the same ground type, such as grass, dirt, stone, or a road.
Don’t let your puppy get distracted when she needs to go potty. Don’t play with her because she needs to take care of business. Additionally, even when you are outside, avoid taking her for a walk. Wait until she has done her business. Instead, move around as movement will help her urinate or poop more easily. However, be sure to stay in the same place. This will prevent her from being distracted by the unfamiliar smells, sights, and sounds.
Additionally, watch out for your puppy’s eating and drinking habits. The best way to establish a reliable routine and prepare your puppy for success is to do this. If your puppy is unable to drink throughout the night, she will be more likely to hold it. And yes, she’ll survive. But if you reside in a hot, muggy climate, you might want to leave a small dish of water out so that your dog won’t become dehydrated.
Also, you must be patient. You may sometimes take her out and nothing happens. Take her back inside, then do it again in five minutes. She won’t have an accident, and you won’t get hurt from the exercise, so this is much better. Make a loud noise to startle your puppy if she has an accident inside, being careful not to scare her.
She’ll want to run away from you every time she needs to go if you scare her. Therefore, refrain from yelling at or punishing your puppy because, in all honesty, if your puppy has an accident, it will be your fault. Instead of interrupting her, send her outside to complete her business, and don’t forget to give her praise. Make a plan to avoid this situation in the future after cleaning up the mess. (To reduce odors, remember to use enzymatic cleanser rather than a cleaner with an ammonia base.
Enough with the guilt trip. Let’s discuss what to do if you can’t take your puppy outside as frequently as she requires. Let’s assume you have exhausted all other options and are aware that walking your dog is the best course of action. Perhaps you’ve had trouble finding a dog walker or are unable to enroll your puppy in dog daycare.
Additionally, getting your puppy outside to relieve herself can be impossible at times. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take care of her and assist her in doing it correctly. It’s quite the opposite. Your puppy still has to go, and if you don’t show her where to go and how to do it, she’ll poop in the corner or in the middle of the floor.
After all, she doesn’t know any better. Therefore, it is still crucial to pay attention to and respond to everything mentioned above. But you might be wondering how to respond and where your puppy can go to relieve itself.
Potty or pee pads are an option. They enable your dog to relieve herself inside the house. Similar to how you teach your puppy to relieve herself outside, you can teach her to use these. So, take her to the restroom and instruct her to use the facilities. So that she stays on the pads, keep her on a leash. When she urinates on the potty pad, compliment her quietly and softly.
However, there are some potty pad downsides. Potty pads are plush and soft, and they have an ammonia-like odor. Additionally plush and soft, bathroom rugs and carpets have a slight potty pad smell to them. Your sweat-stained clothing and towels also frequently smell like ammonia.
Your puppy’s nose is much more potent than ours, and she loves to use it, even though it is not always detectable to us. She notices that these things are in the same rooms, feel the same, and have a slight similarity in smell. So it’s no wonder when it sometimes goes wrong. Potty pads produce a lot of waste as well, and the majority of brands are not biodegradable.
Therefore, be aware that using potty pads doesn’t make things easier for your puppy. Because it’s simple for her to mistake a carpet for a potty pad and because doing so may become “normal” for your puppy, she might not want to use the grass or dirt outside even if it’s possible. However, there is another option.
Even though it isn’t a particularly large lawn, there is some sort of lawn there. There are numerous variations of real and artificial grass mats available. Some can be used a few times before being replaced, while others can simply be rinsed and used repeatedly. Now, if this is just a backup strategy, I’ll strongly advise trying the ones you use a few times before replacing them. They will serve the purpose, are less expensive, and have real grass.
If you intend to use your indoor lawn frequently, it might be too expensive since you’ll need to purchase a new mat after your dog uses it a few times. However, it’s the best choice if you only intend to use it as a fallback. I’ll come back to this in a second, but you can even make one yourself if you have access to dirt and real grass. However, if you’d like to purchase, grass puppy mats are available online. There are numerous other examples available in addition to this one.
You can make one yourself as mentioned, as one of my students, Pia, has done. She purchased a bed roller from IKEA and filled the bottom with hydro grains. She then covered it with dirt and planted grass. For her new puppy, she had a lovely lawn in just three weeks.
She is concerned about getting her puppy outside in time for the morning because she lives on the third floor. In fact, she didn’t have to worry. She has had her puppy for a little over a month, and she has only twice used the balcony lawn. In addition, she had to use it both times because, in her own words, she wasn’t paying attention.
Although she actually created two of these “lawns,” she chose to keep one and replace the other after three weeks. She took out the grass and dirt and replaced it with sand, which is simpler to maintain and replenish. She is pleased to have had two accidents avoided thanks to the backup plans.
Also, the “real” lawn has had an unexpected advantage. Pia discovered that when she waters the lawn in the evening, the water will evaporate during the following day, leaving the lawn a nice cool place for her puppy to rest and play. This summer has been extremely hot.
Her contingency plan has increased her puppy’s chances of success. Even better, it has given her peace of mind and space to enjoy her pup, Ninja, even more.
Pia does have some advice, though: even if the lawn is small, it still needs to be mowed in order for the grass to continue growing.
A Full-Time Indoor SolutionHowever, if you don’t need a backup strategy but must leave your puppy alone each day for a period of time that is too long for her to tolerate, you need a full-time indoor strategy. Other justifications for not letting your puppy relieve herself outside include inclement weather, ill health, or having an elderly dog that can’t climb stairs.
If this is the case, you need an indoor solution. Both of the above-mentioned solutions will work here, as well. However, I would advise using a different type of indoor lawn if you require a permanent solution. These have artificial grass, giving the option for rinsing and recycling it.
Of course, you can also use pee or poop pads. However, there are still a lot of downsides. The biggest drawback is that teaching your dog to go potty outside will take a lot longer and require more patience if you ever have the chance to do so in the future. And some dogs never succeeds. Keep in mind that the habits your puppy develops in the first few months are the most durable.
Therefore, if there was only one justification, I would advise using indoor lawns as an indoor alternative. I can’t advise you on which lawn to purchase because I haven’t used the various lawns. However, I will suggest this approach as the best back-up or permanent strategy. This is due to the fact that you can still teach your puppy to use the restroom outside without confusing her. When your puppy is older and able to endure them long enough for you to take her outside, you won’t need to use these “lawns” anymore.
You’ll occasionally smell it whether you have a balcony or the lawn/mat must be in the bathroom. And you’ll have to clean it often. So even though it might seem simpler to let your puppy pee inside, doing so will require a lot of work on your part. Therefore, you only use a lawn mat or tray after trying the other options. I completely understand if this is the price you must pay to own a dog, but don’t make it your top option.
You’ll really appreciate it if you get a warning that your puppy needs to go outside, especially if you live on the fifth floor. In this manner, you can descend all the stairs before your dog loses control. Most people rely on their dog or puppy to go to the door and knock to let them know they need to go outside. Therefore, even as your dog ages, you must continue to watch over her because otherwise, you may not notice when she needs to go outside.
Instead, you could train your dog to ring a bell when it’s time to go potty. Everyone can teach their dog this trick, but it’s especially useful when you need a head start. Additionally, it is useful when your dog urges you to move quickly rather than just waiting for you to notice her as she stands at the door. The only other way your dog can communicate with you what you cannot see, namely that she needs to go, is to bark, but a bell sounds much more subtly than barking.
You must first teach your puppy to touch the bell before having her associate it with going outside in order to teach her to ring a bell. Similar to teaching your dog hand targeting, teaching your dog to touch the bell In my first blog post, “How to Get Your Puppy’s Attention,” I provide an example of teaching hand targeting to a dog. You’ll see that the instructor is using a clicker while teaching hand target. This is one approach, and it works amazingly well. I also use praise.
Hold the bell and give your puppy a treat when she touches it rather than holding your hand in front of her. Your puppy will initially just sniff the bell the first few times, but with encouragement, she will eventually touch it to hear the bell ring and receive the cookie. Teach her to press the bell in different places, such as the door, once she learns to do so.
Simply substitute another reward—going outside—for the cookie to get her to ring the bell and go outside. Therefore, when she rings the doorbell, thank her and then open the door to let her out and have fun. Soon, she’ll get the connection. You must link the two behaviors—touching the bell with her nose and going outside to use the potty—if you only want her to ring the bell when it comes to potty training. Make your puppy touch the bell whenever you believe it is time for them to go potty and just before you take them outside to do so.
When she first learns to ring it, do it as soon as you can to help her associate the sound with having to go outside. Be consistent, but of course you can skip it if she’s about to have an accident. But consistency also necessitates that you let your dog out each time the doorbell rings.
If your puppy constantly rings the doorbell to go outside for play or to get your attention, I would suggest making going outside “not fun.” Do not play with her or take her for a walk while she is still on the leash. Stay put and watch for her to urinate. If she does not, take her inside again. You could also take the bell away and only hang it by the door when you know it will soon be potty time, and if she does, congratulations on her ringing the bell. Do this repeatedly until she recognizes the difference and only rings the bell to use the restroom or poop.
I still urge you to let your dog out to relieve herself. It’s her natural way, and when your puppy is older and able to hold it for a longer period of time, it won’t be a significant obstacle. My 10-year-old can manage to spend the entire day inside, but she gets up after dinner to go outside. But if it’s pouring rain, I’ll have to drag her outside later that night. (And while I do believe she can wait until the next morning, I do not want her to.)
Additionally, walking your puppy will give you both some healthy exercise. Additionally, you get to see your best friend. However, I am aware that there may be occasions when you require a backup, and these are my suggestions for how to go about doing so.
I’m sure some of you have brilliant ideas, so post your comments and suggestions below. Please feel free to share this blog post with others if you found it useful. If the answer is no, share your most effective potty training tip to help this guide.
Keep Other Scents Away
Early on, your puppy will recognize the potty area based on the smell of his or her previous excretions. Therefore, it’s important to make sure there are no strong odors near the dog’s bathroom. For instance, your dog might be confused by the scent of an ashtray. To achieve the desired effects, you must remove all potent odors from the dog toilet.
Choose the Right Spot
It is among the most crucial elements in potty training a puppy. Because dogs adhere to their routines so closely, you must choose a dependable and well-known location. It will therefore be very challenging to change the location once your dog becomes accustomed to it.
Make certain that the location you choose is far from the edges. Not only is it safe for your pet, but it also stops it from surprising your neighbors with unpleasant things.
How do property managers and leasing agents feel about this?
According to Urteaga, “the property managers and leasing agents we’ve dealt with support our service because they view it as a way to help keep their existing units clean and prevent damage caused by dog residents.”
“Unlike our rivals, we actually service and replace the grass patch, making our company different from those who merely offer a product,” No liquids pass through the grass patch’s five layers and onto the floor or carpet.
“You would be very surprised, but some of our customers had only placed newspapers and poop pads on the floor when we first walked into their unit,” It was pretty gross. As a result, we think 92101 Dog Solutions assists property managers and leasing agents in keeping their apartments much cleaner with dog-owning tenants, ” he said.
“Our business is nothing new. We are not re-inventing the wheel,” Urteaga said.
What we did was identify a demand and a need. We examined some currently offered services and goods and came up with a way to improve them, he said.
He claimed that as of now, they only provide services to San Diego and that they soon intend to announce plans to broaden their service scope to include a full range of dog concierge services, such as dog walking, dog sitting, and pick-up and delivery for vet appointments.
“We examined the market and the statistics before deciding to pursue it as a legitimate business. We discovered that there are about 35,000 people living in the 92101 downtown zip code, and about one-third of them have pets, mostly dogs. There are not many open parks and grassy areas in downtown San Diego, which is one of its biggest drawbacks. There aren’t many open spaces like dog parks where these animals can relieve themselves. So that is the demand we had identified.
This service provides a quick and convenient way for dogs living in high rises to use the restroom, he said, adding that all dogs need to get exercise.
FAQ
How often do dogs pee apartment?
Letting dogs go outside to relieve themselves after every meal and at least three to five times each day should be included in a dog’s bathroom schedule. The maximum amount of time that dogs should be made to wait before taking a bathroom break is about eight hours.
How do you toilet train a dog in an apartment?
- Establish regular feeding times for your puppy and monitor their drinking habits.
- You should take your puppy to the indoor dog bathroom every 30 to 60 minutes.
- Put them on top of the indoor dog toilet, point to the area, and command them to “go to toilet” (or another appropriate command)
Is having a dog in an apartment hard?
Whether large or small, many dogs are at home in apartments, but their owners should still take daily precautions to keep them content and healthy. Although a dog’s size and energy level can be an issue for owners who live in small spaces, it is still possible to raise a dog there.
Can dogs be trained to pee on balcony?
Teach your dog a potty cue while you’re out for your daily walks to show them where to go on the balcony. After bringing your dog to the balcony potty spot, use the cue to let them know it’s okay to use it. Of course, your balcony shouldn’t become your dog’s regular toilet.