Consistent potty training should start from day one, I'm sure everyone will agree on this. However, things aren't that simple when you live in Mexico City. Puppies are not supposed to expose themselves to lots of other dogs, or places where they frequent, until they are fully vaccinated. This is at least what our vet told us, which also matches with what I gathered from countless puppy-training videos. Though going outside is not a problem in and of itself, everyone seems to recommend a place that's not crawling with other dogs. Okay... in our neighborhood that would be... exactly nowhere! Even in our apartment building there are so many dogs, who also get to visit the roof, that for the first weeks we really had to adapt to having Bandido pee and poo inside. 😩
What Works Well and What Doesn't
The first way we tried to handle this temporary situation were the so called pee-pads. These are essentially flat diapers that are stuck on the floor, made to absorb the dog's pee, if he happens to relieve himself right on it. There may be some scent in it too, letting the dog know what it supposed to be for. In practice, however, they didn't work at all. Occasionally Bandi approached the pad, but ended up peeing next to it. The pad itself, however, caught his attention in a completely different way: a perfect opportunity for shredding it up! Since we didn't want him to ingest any of those tiny pieces, we stopped using the pee-pad all together. (This pic I just took for reference before discarding it...)
As a second option for a good place to pee we got a patch of real grass. Our neighborhood plant store sold me a square meter of a roll that is typically used on football fields and such, and I cut off a good size for a tray I had prepared in the hallway, in the area where Bandido first started peeing and pooping. The little dog was immediately thrilled by this patch of lawn! Though it took him a day or two to realize that it was meant for peeing on, he had fun rolling around on the grass, and ripping chunks out of it. And why not? This grass was meant to be temporary anyway. And it only took us a moment to sweep up the bits of dirt around it.
Since we didn't want our dog to get used to going to the bathroom in the same place, I kept pushing his lawn towards the apartment door, half a step every day. Two weeks later it even made it past the door, meaning that Bandi was now confronted with a barrier that would remain part of his everyday experience. This was the first bigger challenge, implemented a week ago, to which he has been getting accustomed slowly. Once he is good at holding it until he goes through the door, the next step will be to wait till he's all the way outside.
The Ball is in Our Court Now
As you will have guessed, now that that the dog has to wait for us to let him out, it's also up to us to do just that, in very reasonable intervals! In fact, if Bandi happens to have an accident, it's really our fault for not giving him a chance to visit his lawn. And there are plenty of occasions to step out:
- after each play session
- after each training session
- after eating or drinking
- after each nap time in the crate
- every time he signals us. At night this could be a brief yelp, in the daytime it's more typically a bit of frantic sniffing / circling around.
And yes, at first it was not easy to remember all this. Fortunately, humans are just as trainable, so every time we had to wipe up a puddle, we were reminded to pay more attention next time. Now, after a week of practice both us and our dog seem to be getting the hang of it.
Looking Into the Future
Ultimately we want to get to the point where Bandido will be able to hold his pee until his regular walks twice a day... but for that he will have to grow up into a mature and responsible adult. Before we face the street, though, the next step will have to be the roof. We've been practicing going there a number of times a day already, but he has yet to realize that he is welcome to pee or poop there. Also, there are always so many distractions (such as puddles on the ground reflecting the sky, or shadows of birds flying past), that he usually forgets he has to pee.
As disturbing as all these things may be, they are still benign to the terror that the street has to offer. I've taken him out there twice already, once late at night, and once in the early morning, and both times he was so scared that we had to go back inside after only a minute. Never mind, though, we must keep up the practice, so one day he can master walking around the neighborhood, just like any other dog. At the moment this seems like quite an ambitious goal.