I’ve never owned a dog, so apologies if this is a patently ridiculous question, but I’ve recently wondered why dogs can’t be trained to use litter trays in the same way that cats do. I appreciate that it’s unnatural behaviour, but then helping the blind, sniffing for drugs or rescuing earthquake survivors doesn’t come naturally to dogs either, so what gives? Hell, if we can train a dog to drive, we can sure as hell train them to poop in one specific place, can’t we?
I do not support toilet-rain, on dogs, cats, or anyone else. Gross.
I also reported the post so a a mod can fix the typo in the subject
I know of at least one small dog (a chihuahua) which has indeed been trained to use the litterbox. I think it might be more difficult for the big dogs, though.
My mother-in-law did train her chihuahuas to go at a designated place indoors, basically, a diaper placed in a particular location on the floor with an old paper towel or toilet paper roll to satisfy the male urge to raise a leg and mark territory. Not a litterbox in form, but definitely in function.
The fact that her area featured black bears wandering through her property on a regular basis, among other critters, had a lot to do with this system as opposed to chucking the dogs outside when they needed to go.
So, while it is possible it’s just not often done.
We once rescued some puppies that had been living in a sandy cave. They were about 7 weeks old. My friend was fostering a few of them and had a big open litter box set up for her cats. All of the puppies started using it, she said they were the easiest pups she’d ever had.
You can, often. As you say, a reasonably bright dog can be trained to do many things that aren’t “natural” to the species. But training isn’t easy for the people, and most folks just don’t care enough to do the training. Most people don’t train their dog to reliably sit, fetch or sniff for drugs, either.
Cats don’t require training to use the litterbox. You literally only need to show them where it is, sometimes a couple of times, but usually only once. Because going in one spot and burying their waste is an instinctive behavior for them, all they need to be told is where, not what or how. Since it’s so easy, most people do it.
Most dogs are house-trained, and will only go outside. That does not come naturally to them either, but it is sufficient for most people’s purposes.
Actually, my last dog pretty much trained herself to only poop in my back yard, and would not do it on a walk (though she had no objection to peeing on a walk).
Well it sort of does, in that dogs don’t like to poop in their den, where they sleep. It’s just a (not always simple) matter of persuading them that their den is the whole house and not just their crate.
It’s raining toilets and dogs!
Sorry, could a Mod please amend the thread title to “Why can’t we toilet-train dogs?”
Thanks
I didnt realize this wasn’t normal. I would have thought that most dogs are not litterbox trained simply because of their size and the size of their shits. They would fill up a litterbox in one use. Plus the whole dog wouldnt even fit in a normal sized litterbox.
I have a small (4.8lbs) dog so it made sense to train him to use a potty pad. It wasnt anymore difficult than normal house breaking. The fact that the pet stores have so many different variety of mats and potty pads leads me to believe that I am not alone in this.
So I’m going to guess that size plays the major role here. Why would someone train a shepard or lab to use a tiny box that would have to be cleaned out after each use.
Yes, I think size is the biggest issue. I’ve had dogs ranging from 20 lb to 175 lb animals (growing up my parents owned Mastiffs at one point) and even the 20 lb Scottish Terriers I’ve owned in the past create more waste in a single go than a cat, and they go more often during the day from what I’ve seen as well (around three times.)
But dogs are highly trainable, there is absolutely no bar to training one to void in a specific place in your house I just think most people would not want to deal with the mess.
I knew a guy who worked shift work and owned two Yorkshire Terriers (if you met him you’d be shocked this beer-guzzling blue collar guy owned basically the smallest arguably most “girly” breed of dog) that he had trained to only use pee pads inside the house. Due to their small size cleaning their waste up wasn’t a big problem when he would get home from a 12 hour shift, and because of his irregular shift work schedule he never was able to “house train” them as you would a typical dog.
Ask Tom Waits.
I have to ask “why would you want to?”
Having had and loved both dogs and cats, one thing I can definitely say is better about dogs is no litter box. Litter boxes are nasty, require constant upkeep, and expensive. Dogs + fenced yard and/or convenient place to walk them is much better IMO.
Schedule had a lot to do with it for me as well. I work around 100 hours a week, and my wife works long hours on some days as well. So there isnt always someone around to let him outside.
Funny you mention the blue collar guy with the girly dog. I have a pomchi… lol. Well hes my wife’s but hes awesome. You can only imagine the looks on Soldiers’ faces when I bring him to work. Never would expect the Drill Sergeant to have a tiny little bitchdog like that.
I admit though, I didnt want him at first, but hes the best dog Ive ever owned.
But don’t you have to pick up the poop anyway? It seems like a catch-22 - poop if you do, poop if you don’t.
Fixed typo in title.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Currently, no. We have a huge yard, and the places where the dogs go are generally in the woods, so there’s very little chance of anyone stepping in it.
I have had dogs in previous yards where I did clean it up, but picking up dried-up dog poop once very couple weeks is nowhere near as bad as cleaning out a litterbox every day. And picking up after a dog while walking isn’t bad, either.
But yeah, the best situation is what we have now. Just open the door and forget about it. I guess you could do that with outdoor cats as well, but the life span of outdoor cats tends to be low. At least with dogs, they stay in the fenced yard.
Our dogs are perfectly toilet-trained: whenever anyone is using the toilet, they want to come in and get petted or scratched on the behind. “Ooh, captive audience!”
As far as training them to use the toilet,
Yeah, walking ours 4-6 times a day has certain advantages. We really get to know the neighbors and the neighborhood, plus a very modest amount of physical activity.
Absolutely. In our area, the watershed empties into the Chesapeake Bay, and it’s a matter of law to pick up after your pets. But we’d do it anyway – we don’t want the neighbors thinking of us every time they’re scraping something off their shoes. A few folks in the neighborhood do not pick up after their dogs – this pisses me off mightily. I’ve even been blamed for it – a neighbor who was mad at us for other (imaginary) reasons told someone she’s seen me not pick up after our dogs.
dogs eat shit including their own. who wants to throw food away?