Oh My Dog! - Peeing Outside, and other less obvious habits

The Holy Grail of dog training: Teaching your dog to hold his pee / poo until the (reasonably timed) opportunities are offered to relieve himself... outside, that is!

We're Getting There

They say a puppy can be expected to be potty trained around 12 to 20 weeks of age. Bandido is turning 23 weeks old today, and yet... we are still far from perfection. Though I do have to admit, we have come a long way. The greatest challenge I think is the fact that we are living in an apartment, without as much as a balcony. Sure, there is an accessible roof three floors above us, and the street level is one floor below. Also, I placed a small patch of grass just outside our apartment door, as I showed you in this post. However, all of these potentially great options for relieving the bladder and bowels came with its own challenges. One could quite possibly be the fact that there are three!

Where is the Loo?

For a very young puppy the most natural thing to pee or poo right where they happen to be standing, unless it's their own bed, in which case they may take a few steps to the side. So instead of getting upset at the piles and puddles, we simply got used to cleaning them up with vinegar water, to make sure no smell would remain suggesting that the spot was in any way suitable for potty breaks. However, once Bandi was old enough (and vaccinated) to leave the house, we had to make it clear to him that peeing and pooping was okay outside, but not inside. Not nearly as simple as it may seem like.

Natural Grass

Having his lawn around helped immensely, as it offered itself quite intuitively to go potty on. Once it had found its way past the apartment door, it also was a great way to tell the little dog that he needed to go outside to use it. Unfortunately the hallway outside of our apartment has zero sunlight, and it was no wonder that a couple of weeks later the green grass had turned into brown hay. After a while it also developed a bit of a urine stench, so Bandi tried to avoid it as best as he could. Of course, no one intended this to be a permanent solution.

Distractions of the Street

As convenient as the grass was, I think it also kept Bandi from learning the purpose of outside walks: the street is there to pee and poo (among other things). So I ditched the dead grass, and started taking Bandido downstairs... like twelve times a day, making sure he would relieve himself outside. It's not like he really needs to pee twelve times, actually six times are probably enough, but the problem was, lots of times he did not do it. There were so many things to look at, smell at, listen to, get scared at, get excited about, etc. that in the end we would spend ten minutes without any result. Then, once we got back inside, he would pee on the floor. Good thing we removed all the carpets!

The Peaceful Roof

The other option for potty breaks is the roof of the building. It's the place where the residents would do laundry, and hang up their washings. This is also where you could meet other neighbors with dogs, who prefer the secluded calm of the roof over the busy and noisy street. They say distractions should be kept to a minimum, meaning finding a potty place where no other dogs go. (Good luck with that in this city!) But in the end this turned out to be hardly an issue. Bandido is very sociable and loves meeting other dogs, or even smelling their markings. The problem was much more basic: just like in the street, no one ever told Bandi that these places are for going potty! He would on occasion, when matters were pressing, but it took him some time to associate the outside with taking care of his needs.

Celebrate Each Success

We kept persisting, though, taking Bandi either upstairs or downstairs numerous times a day, encouraging him to go pee, and throwing a huge party whenever he did. After a while he seemed to get the hang of it, still, certain challenges remained. One has to do with the local climate. The rainy season in Mexico City is a pretty fierce phenomenon. Torrential downpours like opening the shower full blast that turn streets into rivers are no exaggerations by any means. And in weather like that you don't take a dog outside (nor would you want to go yourself, umbrella or not). Since these deluges can go on for hours sometimes, I decided that having a lawn is not a bad thing after all. More on that later. Of course I can't get lazy, and needed to reinforce going outside for proper potty breaks.

Still a Bit More to Go

After many weeks of relentless practice, by now I am almost ready to say that Bandi has learned it. Almost, because just yesterday I had to clean up another accident. Fortunately these things have gotten exceptional by now. Being nearly an adolescent dog, Bandido has also started lifting his leg for peeing, and marking his favorite spots with short spurts. Of course we need to have a good record of at least a couple of weeks without any accidents inside before we can declare potty training to be successful, and put the carpets back down. But at least by now there is somewhat of a light at the end of the tunnel.

Please visit the rest of my Oh My Dog! series on the various aspects of training Bandido.