< See All Questions
How to train an old pomeranian
Submitted by Darci on Feb 28, 2007
My 6 yr. old pomeranian is fully housetrained and I am very grateful for that. However; I want to learn how I can train her to use the potty pad inside the house. She will be home alone for longer periods of time starting in a few months and I would hate for her to have to wait for me to return home to go outside. I have tried having her hold it in and persuade her to use the potty pad, but she has yet to use it.
Answer:
To a dog, going potty indoors and going potty outdoors are two totally separate ideas. So, a dog that is trained to potty outdoors understands that going outdoors is the only appropriate location. And a dog trained to go on potty pads believes that is the only appropriate location.
Part of the conditioning as to what an appropriate location is may be substrate based. For example, a dog that is trained to potty on grass may specifically look for grass, as opposed to snow, when needing to potty.
If it’s necessary to train your dog to potty indoors as well as outdoors, you might try building a litter box with the substrate (ie grass, dirt, etc) with which your dog is already familiar. It will be much more work in terms of cleaning out the litter box, but you can then start to transition to small pieces of the potty pad in the litter box with the grass so that the dog begins to understand that either of those surfaces are appropriate.
Instead, however, it would be better to have someone visit with your dog during the day. This would allow your dog the opportunity to potty outdoors and it would also provide human interaction, play time, and time for exercise … all of which are extremely important and should not be underestimated.
If you don’t have someone in your family or circle of friends who is available to assist, consider hiring a professional pet sitter and/or dog walker. To find a pet sitter / dog walker in your area, visit the websites for the two national pet sitting organizations: Pet Sitters International (http://www.petsit.com/) and the National Association of Professional Pet Sitters (http://www.petsitters.org/). In both cases, you can search by your zip code to find some one who services your area.
There are so many benefits to using a pet sitting service. When visiting both of those websites, take a look at the list of reasons this is a wonderful alternative to leaving your dog without companionship for an extended period of time.
|
|
|
Please Sign In
to submit your question
|
|
|
