Help! Playtime in the Potty Area

It just kills me...

To fix the potty area over and over again because one puppy decides that the potty area is for play time, eating time and everything else except pottying.

I know that some dogs require more training to finally get them accustomed to the potty area, but I was hoping that their mom could hint them on it like how my older dog has taught her to potty there. Unfortunately, she herself will no longer use the potty area because pup number 2 is pottying there.

Any advice on what to do? My current set-up is that I have two potty spots made of newspapers. Potty spot 2 is being used properly while potty spot 1 is being used as the play area. I would appreciate the enlightenment.

I'm sure its advice you've heard before, but I think all you can do is tell them NO when you catch them playing in the area, and rewarding them when you see them pottying in it like they should. I don't have experience with 2 dogs using the same area at once, but my dog used to shred up her pee pads and throw little cottony bits all over the apartment that I'd get to clean up every night. Amazingly she'd still pee on one of the larger shreds, believe it or not. But whenever I saw her going for the edge of the pee pad to pull on it, I'd say no, and make a big deal over her saying GOOD GIRL GOOD GIRL! when she used it correctly. In time she stopped. Hope that helps, good luck!

(05-24-2013 08:04 AM)cliverederson Wrote:  Amazingly she'd still pee on one of the larger shreds, believe it or not. But whenever I saw her going for the edge of the pee pad to pull on it, I'd say no, and make a big deal over her saying GOOD GIRL GOOD GIRL! when she used it correctly. In time she stopped. Hope that helps, good luck!

That is funny. She would still pee on the larger pads. LOL.

A funny thing happened, actually. One time, a person accidentally left hatch open for long and Chooey decided to potty in the third floor potty area. And we decided to leave the third floor hatch open so she can go there anytime.

Sine she got into an accident recently, we had to use the the newspapers again and there weren't any issue at all. She knew where to go and I was happy I didn't have to re-teach it.

Yeah, it's surprising how smart dogs can be. I would come home from work and there would be shreds of cotton all over the apartment, usually on one of the bigger shreds there'd be a fresh pee spot right in the middle. She's been pad-trained all her life, the breeder would stick the baby pups on pee pads from the very start to get them used to it. That's not to say she didn't ever have accidents, I highly recommend hardwood floors for new puppies, hehe.

Try positive reinforcement. Reward them with a treat when they play in the play area. I also found it helpful to clean the area that they were not supposed to pee in immediately with a disinfectant. Don't just use water because the scent is still there and it might trigger them peeing in the area again.