Part 1: How to house-train a pug
House-training a pug when living in an apartment building
Oh, what a day Sunday, May 3rd, 2020 was. Mummy was the happiest person in the world when she saw me, Mishti, for the first time around 1 pm. Because of the state lockdown for COVID-19, the breeder brought me over, and I got into her arms in the driveway. Don’t mind me saying, but I was the cutest little bundle ever! I’m quite the little furry fluff ball with eyes like the Disney character “Puss in Boots”. I can melt anyone's heart and hypnotizing you completely.
The COVID-19 spring had forced working from home and apparently, my mummy had gotten quite the puppy fever. She told me about her heartwarming golden retriever Daisy who’d passed away five years prior. Daisy’s passing had been a hard hit, but luckily I was now here to lick those sorrows away. What better time since I could get room service 24/7 with everyone stuck at home. Don’t judge, I required care, I was only a pup. What better way for my mummy to spend her days than cleaning after me, right? She had all the time in the world to look after her perfect little princess.
But apparently, I wasn’t easy. I don’t know what she meant by that, I did everything a puppy would. But she kept complaining about how a challenge to house-train I was. That Daisy had been way quicker in “getting it”. Getting what, I thought, I mean I peed a lot everywhere to keep her interested and engaged. What more did she want? It was hard work I tell you peeing and pooping, while at the same time being her muse. No joke here’s proof of my adorableness in a poem she wrote.
Isn’t she cute,
sitting there enthralled,
with a curly tail y’all,
looking so sweet,
chocolate eyes to all,
in a puddle of pee if I recall
I’ll tell you this. I was perfect from the start, but like always mummy has her own drama to share…
Hi I’m the servent/mummy/owner and all I’m about to tell you is based on my own experiences, so take it with a pinch of salt. You can find the table of contents below to jump quickly between parts or skip to the one you find most useful. I do always recommend the whole read for the moral support it will provide and the confidence in knowing that you are not alone in your doggy worries. As always, if you have any questions or comments, feel free to drop in a line ;)
What this post is all about
In this part I’ll tell you all the mistakes I made, so you won’t make them. I’ll go through the different training tools from pee pads to doggy toilets and beyond. I’ll let you on some secrets and materials I found useful while in this messy conundrum. In short, don’t use pee pads, don’t use doggy toilets, do outdoor potty training with positive reinforcement. Read more to know more and why.
In part 2, I’ll go deeper into crate training, potty scheduling, supervision, and positive reinforcement. I’ll give you suggestions and solutions I found useful and in this long process of house training. I hope you will find your path to a pet pee free home sooner than I did.
Table of contents:
Apartment living challenges
Now don’t judge, I thought my experiences with Daisy would have automatically made me a house-training expert. I remember vividly how easy it was to train her. So I imagined Mishti would be no different. But, a few things had changed between Daisy and Mishti. For one, I had moved to the big city, now lived in a small apartment, and taken a full-time job working from 9 to 5. There was the obvious change of breed from a big dog to a small dog and their completely different temperaments. So, what could go wrong? I definitely hadn’t taken to those warnings about pugs being notoriously hard to housebreak. I put it down to other people’s lack of experience and knowledge. Boy was I wrong!
Living in an apartment with a puppy is a full-time job. From the time you get them at around 8–9 weeks to about 6 months (if you’re lucky) you’re doomed to an existence of running up and down the stairs in haste and panic. It’s said that “the job’s done” when there have been no accidents in the house, stairway, etc for a consecutive three months straight! I got to about a month and a half multiple times and then pee… Yes, it got me down, but life goes on even with pee covered carpets and numerous dry cleaning bills.
Having lived in the countryside with a backyard, forests, and lakes, I have to confess that taking a puppy into an apartment is so much more work. You need to be committed to potty training 24/7. Yes, this means day and night, with the flu yourself or otherwise sick, halfway through food, in a customer meeting, and all the rest.
Those sleepless nights that can last a few months in the beginning. I’ll tell you about this one night at 3.20 am when Mishti gave her toilet bark and I half asleep thought “oh no, not again, didn’t she get past this phase already”. This hadn’t happened in months but had been a common occurrence when she was 8 to 12 weeks of age. So just when you least expect it they might get an upset tummy and the doggie runs forcing you back to square one.
Puppies need to pee frequently, waking up multiple times in the night to go potty. This is expected as their bladders aren’t fully developed. The smaller the breed, the smaller their bladder, meaning more potty breaks. To cope with this uncertainty and give a little structure to planning, the formula below gives an estimate of how long a puppy can go without peeing. But note, I believe it’s been optimized for big dogs and only to about 8 months of age. No dog should be expected to hold for more than 8 hours. Personally, I always took about an hour and a half off when calculating for our pug puppy Mishti.
The equation roughly estimates the number of hours a puppy can hold their pee (PetPlace, 2016):
N+1,
where N is the puppy’s age in months (max 8 months)
View on pee pads
Now pee pads are a glorious thing if you’re out of the house for a long time or traveling and know there is no place for your pup to go. Most puppies, including Mishti, learned to pee on pads in seconds. I think by day 2 she was already running to the pee pad by the door to do her business. This is when I already thought, this isn’t so hard. What helped in teaching was not placing a fresh pad immediately after each pee, but leaving the slightly soiled pad to re-enforce where to pee with their own pee scent. This is because puppies will pee in a place where they smell pee. The same logic goes for un-wanted pee in the house. If you clean it well with enzyme cleaners a puppy shouldn’t be doing it in the same place. (Bovsun, 2020) Pads worked for a while, but what if you want to eventually move toileting out of the house?
As I said, pads are great if you really aren’t able to take your dog out and want to use them forever. Using them as a travel option (at airports, terminals, etc) should be taught after the puppy phase. Pee pads are not great if you plan to phase them off the pads. This is because it just confuses the little puppy. How could they possibly understand why suddenly it isn’t ok to pee inside? This is where I went wrong. I thought, let's teach her how to pee on pads so we’ve got the option when traveling and keep it close to the door to transition easier from pads to outdoors. What happened after I took them away was Mishti trying to find a soft surface, like a carpet, to pee on or just do it in front of the door. She didn’t understand the transition at all. Now I know, this is because dogs learn to go on a particular surface, where it grass, paper, sand, or something else. They get comfortable with that one surface and know that’s where they’ll pee. So even with carrying a pad out with me in the beginning and placed it on the lawn, we continue to have accidents at age 6 months. My advice, just don’t teach pee pads to a pug puppy unless you plan on using them forever.
Doggy toilets
When doing research on apartment living and dogs I came across a lot of cool doggy toilet options. This was a huge trend in New York and London a few years ago. There are also various services that will deliver fresh patches of grass right to the front door. You can check Fresh Patch, Doggielaw, Piddle Patch for grass options. There are also various dog litter boxes and plastic mesh re-usable pad toilets, but these felt like too much work. The best I found and fell in love with was the Porch Potty which you place on the balcony to simulate a yard.
Unfortunately, there aren’t any of these services or products in Finland so as a summer project I made one. I’ll write on this soon to give you the details on what you need if you’re interested in making one yourself. But back to the topic on hand.
After pads and during my unsuccessful and stressful transition attempts to outdoor potty train, I started using my balcony grass toilet I’d built. I thought this might help in the transition from paper to grass surface. But again I was wrong. This confused my 4-month-old even more. So making it simple don’t start using these until you are certain that they understand the primary potty place to be outdoors and fully potty trained.
Outdoor potty training
There are a lot of reasons outdoor potty training is hard with a puppy before week 16. For one before this, they are susceptible to dangerous, potentially deadly, and, thankfully, mostly preventable diseases because they aren’t fully vaccinated. To start outdoor, potty training at an early age before week 16 requires either a yard or a sure place that isn’t being used by other dogs as a potty place.
A not on vaccinations. It is especially important to stick to the vaccination schedule with a pug, do to their small size. With bigger breeds, pre-shots might be possible, but a toy breed like the pug can get severe allergic reactions to these vaccines before they have grown and developed enough mass. My veterinarian strongly advised the later schedule of 12 and 16 weeks. For more information, on vaccines and potential threats check out the American Kennel Club pages on the subject. (AKC, 2020)
Now back to outdoor potty training. It is especially difficult in a city where there are less grassy areas and lots of other dogs using those areas. You need to be very vigilant about other dog fesses and unknown dogs. Unknown dogs might not have their vaccinations up to date or had them at all, carrying diseases that might harm your puppy. Try to find spots near the front door you know aren’t being used by other dogs. Also, ask your apartment cooperative or housing comity if it’s ok to use the grassy areas around the apartment. Do remember to be mindful of others and clean after your puppy! It is important to pick after your dog no matter what age for the welfare of other dogs and yourself.
My advice, starting potty training as soon as possible outdoors. I believe, it is the key to less confusion and faster housebreaking for a pug puppy. In a city, it’s not without its risks so make your own judgment call on what’s best. If you start only after your pup has gotten all their vaccinations, be patient with potty training. It will take time to transition from whatever you had them pee on inside to outdoor surfaces. And this might be significantly longer than you predict so triple the number of weeks you have in your head. This might be anywhere between 6 months of age to close to a year.
Crate training and controlling the environment
Now I’ve only talked about tools and methods, but what really sets you up for success is crate training and controlling your dog's environment with heavy supervision and positive reinforcement. Crates need to be introduced as soon as possible. This is where I did right and I’m so happy that one thing went perfectly with Mishti! Right after I got my little pup in the driveway I placed her into a crate that had been made comfortable with blankets toys and treats. She took to it immediately cuddling herself into the blankets and knowing it was her safe-haven.
Next comes the hard work of learning to control your dog's environment with heavy supervision. This means not allowing a pup to just roam around a house, but having them in a single area (a pen or a puppy-proofed room) gradually expanding their living space. This eventually teaches them that the entire house is their home and not be soiled in. Dogs by nature don’t want to go in their home where they sleep. (George, 2016)
Thirdly comes positive reinforcement and giving great praise for pooping in the right place. Accidents shouldn’t be punished, because this might just lead a dog to become fearful of you and start doing anxiety urination/pop, which is way harder a problem to fix.
In part 2, I’ll go deeper into crate training, potty scheduling, supervision, and positive reinforcement. I’ll give you suggestions and solutions I found useful and in this long process of house training. I hope you will find your path to a pet pee free home sooner than I did.
References
AKC, S. (2020, May 21). A Complete Guide To Puppy Vaccinations. Retrieved October 21, 2020, from https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/health/puppy-shots-complete-guide/
Bovsun, M. (2020, June 29). How To Potty Train Puppies: A Comprehensive Guide for Success. American Kennel Club. https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/training/how-to-potty-train-a-puppy/
George, Z. (2016, February 21). How to Potty Train your Puppy EASILY! Everything you need to know! Youtube https://youtu.be/7vOXWCewEYM
PetPlace, V. (Ed.). (2016, February 23). What to Expect in the First Year After you Adopt a Puppy. Retrieved October 21, 2020, from https://www.petplace.com/article/dogs/pet-care/what-to-expect-in-the-first-year-after-you-adopt-a-puppy/
