Surface Preferences & Toileting Habits

A few weeks ago, a long time client reached out for help with her adult dog.  I've known her since this dog was a puppy and they lived here in California.  She's since moved to the Midwest to be closer to family and that seems to be when the issue with toileting habits began.  You see, her dog was trained as a puppy to toilet on artificial turf as that's what she had in her yard here.  We began with a patch of artificial turf in an xpen to keep her tiny puppy safe and he eventually graduated to using her entire backyard, no problem.  Other than the fact he hated going outside to toilet on rainy days (we added an area covered by an awning to fix that issue!), all went well with his house training.  All went well, that is, until they moved four months ago.  Since then, he's been toileting everywhere, except where she wants him to go!  She actually suggested that I share her story as she'd not seen it here on my blog before and she felt that my suggestions not only made sense, but that they would work for her. 

It's really important to start with the way puppies learn to toilet appropriately.  If their breeder exclusively uses puppy pads, for example, never introducing them to other substrates such as fake grass, real grass, ground cover, or bark, these puppies will develop a surface preference for puppy pads and other soft surfaces like furniture, backpacks on the ground, throw rugs, towels, and piles of laundry. This means that when you bring your puppy home and try to teach them to toilet outside on your lawn or in the ground cover, they'll look at you confused.  They'll play and romp in those areas, but they won't toilet out there, no matter how long they're outside, or how much you cajole or bribe them.  Then, you'll bring them indoors and within minutes they'll void on the rug by the door or the laundry you are sorting.  Why? Because their breeder trained them to do so! If, instead, your breeder introduces several different toileting surfaces, especially adding in those surfaces outdoors, rewarding the puppies for using them all, they won't develop a specific surface preference, instead developing a preference for going outdoors, whatever surface is available there. That way, no matter what your yard situation is, your puppy is primed to toilet appropriately.

Back to my client's puppy.  He had come from a breeder who exclusively used puppy pads for toileting.  The pads were always inside her house and always inside an xpen.  When the puppy came to live with my client, she was instructed by the breeder to continue to use these pads as they "made house training so convenient with a little dog."  My client knew she didn't want a dog who toileted indoors for its entire life, so she reached out to me days after bringing that new puppy home. I quickly debunked what her breeder had told her.  What we did instead was begin with a pad on top of a piece of fake turf inside an xpen near the backdoor.  We gradually keep cutting that pad smaller and smaller until the puppy was toileting on the piece of fake turf religiously.  We then moved the xpen and fake turf just outside the backdoor and gradually moved it further and further from the house until it was out on the larger fake lawn.  As the puppy grew and could be safe in the larger yard, we removed the xpen but left the piece of fake turf in place.  The puppy continued to toilet there as he'd learned that was his bathroom.  We were then able to remove that smaller piece and he continued toileting in that spot regularly up until they made the recent move. 

Her new home has hardscape, stamped concrete winding paths, with a combination of ground cover and bark.  She tried getting him to toilet on any of those surfaces and he wouldn't go, choosing to hold it until she walked him, at which point he'd go on a neighbor's fake front lawn!  I reminded her that he's got a preference now for fake turf and she needs to accommodate that preference, rather than trying to retrain him to a surface he's never had experience with in the past.  Per my instructions, she bought him one of those turf kits with the tray underneath for ease of cleaning. She began with the fake grass inside of an xpen again, just outside her back door on the hardscape surface.  He immediately used the fake grass!  I told her to reward him just as she'd done when he was a puppy (a treat, a good boy verbal reward, and then some free time in the yard).  Over the course of a week, she gradually moved the pen further from the backdoor, toward the corner where she wanted him to toilet going forward.  He continued to use the fake grass in each new location.  So now, no more xpen and he's using his fake grass religiously, not her green bathroom rugs, kitchen floor, or the neighbor's fake lawn.  Yes, she does have to clean that fake grass porta potty for her dog, but it's a huge improvement over the way things had been going for the last four months. Problem solved, to my client's relief!

My wish is always that breeders won't solely rely on puppy pads for teaching toileting habits to puppies. By introducing multiple novel and appropriate surfaces for toileting, experienced breeders know that they will be setting their puppies up for success wherever they go and whatever bathroom area is provided for them in their new home. And if you, like my client move to a new home with a different toileting surface for your dog, know that you now have the tools to make this work right from the get go.

As always, if you have questions about your pet's behavior, you know where to find me.

Here's ten week old Henley getting some free time on the grass after using the bathroom outside. He looks pretty happy about it as well.