Potty training in one spot

J

jhermit

Forums Novice
My sheltie is about 4.5 months old and we had been totally unsuccessful at training her to go to the bathroom in one spot in the yard. Then I remembered a trick a trainer for Canine Companions taught a friend many, many years ago.

She suggested you create "an area" that was well defined and would be the puppy's "bathroom". This area will provide the boundaries that the puppy needs. So I bought a few 18" wood stakes, put a hole through the top and ran a 3/16" red rope through the stakes. This created a 10' by 10' area with an entry way (area with no rope) of about 3'. I don't think the bathroom has to be this big :biggrin2:

For 3 days every time I take her out I say "Go to the bathroom" and walk her over on a leash repeating "lets go bathroom". When she goes in this area, I praise her and give her a treat. In 3 days of doing this, the progress has been remarkable. Today I took her without a leash and (with the "lets go bathroom" encouragement) she made it to her bathroom and went potty (I was there with her).

In any event, I have been reading this forum for a while now and decided to share my excitement and this tip might somebody else...
 
LOLLLLLL !!!!

I love this!!!!! :lol: I can't stop laughing!!! :lol: My poor husband would be so envious!! Sandstorm loves to find a new potty area and it drives husband nuts, since he does the evening potty times.
 
Congrats on your achievement!

I too, tried to do that, but found that because of my personal situation of moving the dogs back and forth from home to marina to cottage, it was not so simple. Trying to train the dogs to go in place only became a hindrance because they kept looking for "the" spot - which didn't work if they weren't at home.

Eventually, I got the boys to go to a spot of their choosing at each location. At least its easy to find! :lol: If not the same location for each dog!

All to say, you need to keep in mind that you don't won't to "over-train" your dogs to only do their business in one location.

The better trick is to lead them to where you want them to do business, no matter where they are, then give them a cue word - I use "be quick". It works about 70% of the time so far.
 
Wow, that's great! Mine came already trained but maybe I should try it, especially because I have 'poop walkers'. They can cover a surprising amount of ground doing their business!
 
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