# 8 wk. old litter box trained



## Tom King (Aug 2, 2006)

That's litter as in the whole litter. Not the litter in the box.

The whole litter. In the whole dog room. The dog room is 16x22. I've been letting them run with the pack loose in the room a little while several times a day for a couple of weeks now. They went through our system and for the past three days they can run loose in the whole room for an hour at the time with their expen just open on one side and each of the four go back to the box EVERY time. It has been a progression though from the start.

Hard to train indeed.


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## Kathy (Nov 9, 2006)

Tom,
I am going to attempt to litter box train this litter I have now. The new puppy pen I bought isn't going to work the way that Mary Anne had explained in a past Hotline though. I was planning on putting the litter box at the "door" of the pen and then connecting an xpen from either side of the "door" so they come out of the puppy pen into the litter box and then on into the xpen "play yard". The litter box though is a wee bit higher then the exit door. I was thinking of turning the pan around so that the lower side was there and then that would work, but then they wouldn't be able to climb over the edge to get into the xpen. 

Do you have any suggestions?


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## Tom King (Aug 2, 2006)

Sorry Kathy, I don't get a picture from the explanation. We start with a litter box in the whelping box as soon as the pups can toddle around-maybe 3 weeks???? I start with a box I made for a "Sterilite" plastic box Pam found at Walmart. It's only about 4 inches tall total and I cut one side down so that it's the same height as the pads in the other half of the box (there's a picture somewhere in the Gallery) because at this stage they can't step over anything. It's a tight fit in the box we use which is just half of a big crate. I use a utility knife blade held by Visegrips and heated to red hot with a propane torch to cut the box down. We use the Purina Yesterdays News to start the little feet on. It's the same stuff as the dog litter but smaller diameter and easier for tiny feet to toddle on. From there it's a progression. From the start they have the instinct not to soil their bed. They never know anything different from the start. We have had a fair number of pups who never do anything on the floor.

And to those wondering, no it's not confusing to switch to going outside. In fact if there is a particular place outside you want them to go just put a handful of litter there to start with.

I wish some of our puppy guardians were here to tell how their pups have done after they left here.


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