…Yes! It certainly is!
Dogs are quite fastidious when it comes to maintaining their dens. For the first several weeks of a puppy’s life, their mother will clean up after them to keep their “den” spic and span. But after about three weeks old, she stops doing this. It’s up to the puppies to learn to eliminate in a way that keeps their area clean.
Fortunately, puppies have an ingrained instinct not to mess in their sleeping and eating areas. Clever is the breeder who first had the idea to tap into this primal habit by introducing potty training from the very start.
…It wasn’t us. But, we’re very glad that they perfected the system and released tutorials for the rest of us to learn from.
As soon as our puppies open their eyes, the litter tray is introduced. Instead of cat litter or pine pellets, we utilize Timothy grass pellets. This is located in the horse feed section of any major rural store such as Tractor Supply or Rural King for about $20 a bag. And at 50 pounds, a bag lasts a long time. Grass pellets won’t harm puppies if ingested, unlike pine pellets or wood shavings.
Any large tray with a small lip will work. We utilize a washing machine drip pan in our outdoor patio area. Inside the box, we use a smaller one. A disposable puppy pad is laid into the bottom of the tray and a thin layer of pellets is added on top.
What happens next is just pure witchcraft. Within a few days time, these wobbly-legged little guys start making the daunting trek to the tray once an hour or so all of their own accord. Once they’ve learned to associate the grass pellets with pottying, the size of their area can be slowly increased. Doing this too soon can cause accidents to occur, so a little bit of trial and error is always on the menu.
I’ve discussed our system with several other breeders who have expressed disbelief. The most frequent question I get is “But how accurate are they, really? They’re just puppies!”
To date, not a single person has believed me when I tell them that by five weeks of age, our pups are using the box 95% of the time. They believe me even less when I mention that by eight weeks they’ve almost got it perfected. But, the proof is in the pictures. See for yourself?
This pen housed a total of five nine week old puppies from about 0800 to 1500. Aside from a few displaced pellets and some wonky underpads, there’s zero mess to speak of at all!
We put forth the effort on this because Scotties, like any of the small terrier breeds, are notoriously difficult to housebreak. So far, our five pups are proving to be the exception to this rule thanks to the early introduction of litter training. I’ve spoken to several of our puppy parents who state that housebreaking has been almost a non-issue. And anything that decreases owner frustration is a good thing in our book!
Raising puppies is daunting work, but potty training shouldn’t be!
Dupplin Scotties 