Potty Training: 5 Reasons Why Training A Pet Is Much, Much Easier
Sure, they’re cute and cuddly companions now, but it took me 6 days (not even a full week thankyouverymuch) to potty train our dog.
I’m still potty training our son, who is 3 and 1/2. I fear I will be potty training him for the rest of my life.
Clearly I am A) doing it wrong and B) in need of a bigger backyard. That way, Jackson can join Red outside and get his marking on.
Here are my top 5 reasons why potty training a pet is easier than potty training a kiddo…
1. Before you have reached a level of in-house-pee-trust with your pet, you can always crate them when you leave home. (This crating thing applies in SO MANY ways.)
2. Pets cannot speak the English language. No one under 3 feet tall is screaming “NOOOOOOOO” while running from you in the opposite direction with poop falling out of their shorts.
3. The solution to every potty training problem with pets = Take them for a walk. Pets have toilets ALL OVER THE WORLD. If you’re having a bad potty training day, put the animal on a leash and take them around the block. Kids… not so much.
4. The gear. Between the diapers and the pull-ups, the waterproof bed covers, and mini potty seats, the amount of money spent on devices to potty train your kid is going to cost them their college education. Sorry Jackson, you’ll need to work for a scholarship. Mommy and Daddy had to find a way for you to poop on the potty. That costs moolah.
5. Tricks. Incentives for pets (at least in my experience, with our lab) actually work! For example, we taught Red to ring a bell that we hung from the back door knob. At the beginning, each time he rang the bell by hitting it with his nose, we would take him outside and give him a treat. After doing that a few times, we would take him outside, he would potty, and we would give him a better treat. Eventually, we took the treats away and our dog had learned that to alert us that he needed to go out and potty, he had to hit the bell with his nose. I don’t see this working with my kid. In fact, I *may* have even tried it over the last year.
Keep in mind, this post was written before my dog decided that he was angry at us for leaving him in the house alone for 4 hours while we went to the beach, and crapped all over his crate.
What do you think? Who is easier to potty train, pets or kids? What funny stories do you have to share?
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Hilarious and so true. We are trying to get our just turned 3 year old girl to move away from diapers. It’s been a very slow process.
My almost three year old stepdaughter is taking her sweet time to learn to potty. She will stay dry, but you have to take her to the potty and make her go. She won’t go on her own, or else she’ll get distracted and get into something she doesn’t need to get into. Like toothpaste. And pooping? She still poops in her pullup and cries hysterically like she’s gonna get in trouble for it. Very hard to comprehend… Hoping we will get it done by the time the baby gets here. I got three months. Clock is ticking..
il admit most kids are harder to train than dogs there are the exceptions though. my young cousin was potty trained in just a month and only on rare occasions after had accidents. and as far as the dogs go my sister has a shitz zue that is 9yrs old and still isnt house broke, she will purposely go in the house. i truely do not understand this dog, you can take he out for a nice long walk (an hour or longer) and she wont go to the entire time but within 5 min of being in the house she will have gone someplace inside.
My dog is the twin of the dog in the picture! Dudley lab <3