How To Potty Train A Puppy On A REAL Toilet… yes you heard right. Thanks to the team at Cats Of Thrones.
Someone posted a YouTube video of a cat using a toilet on our Facebook Page – it looked so cool. Then I found a few more including this one:
Kilo the Rescue Pug is a stealth pee and poop master. He hates going outside if it is cold and icy- he loves white carpet, beds, white towels and more recently, pee pads. I was thinking it would be fun to teach him how to use the toilet as he always tries to follow me in to the bathroom and will use a pee pad beside my toilet. Then I went to Global Pet Expo last week. I loved the award winning Cats of Thrones Cat Toilet. I jokingly asked them if they thought a dog could meet the cat challenge.
Little did I know that conversation would result in me hand carrying a cat toilet seat on the flight back to Toronto from Orlando, and some funny stares. I’m sure all the Disney goers wondered why I chose to bring back a rather large toilet seat that looks like Mickey ears not a Mickey, but everyone was excited about the potential once I explained. So here we go. I split the training into small steps and just did two to five minutes at a time, several times a day. This was Phase 1 and 2 of Kilo’s training done over the last 3 days.
First I got Kilo used to getting on the seat on the ground. Then I tried to introduce the idea of peeing on it over a pee pad. He was fine climbing on after gradual efforts but did not pee as he was so happy playing for treats.
Then I got him comfortable jumping up on my knee as I sat on a closed toilet, then jumping up on a closed toilet seat, then on the actual open cat “throne” seat which fits snugly over the toilet. Then I added flushing. I used treats to lure and reward, and Kilo caught on very quickly. He is very agile, he already knew the verbal commands “jump up” and “paw/touch” and he usually follows lures enthusiastically. By late day 2, he came and asked to go 3 or 4 times as he realized there could be treats involved. He is a very greedy Pug after all.
He now seems quite comfortable pretending to pee for a treat on the cat toilet seat but still no success peeing. He can flush the upstairs toilet but the downstairs one is on a strange reverse angle so it is trickier. I have to be careful he does not try to jump up and flush if the lid is up and no one is watching but I don’t think it is likely if there are no treats. We may keep working on it but I don’t really care. Spring will be here soon, and it is all for fun and all based on positive training and rewards.
The award winning Cat Toilet Seat came in third place this year at the Global Pet Expo New Products contest and first at SuperZoo. I am thrilled to have one of my own for Kilo and other friends to try. The Toilet Seat is the perfect Training device, and is the only seat designed for a cat’s (or small dogs) comfort on the market. The drainage system makes clean up easy and the entire training progress run smoothly.
Don’t forget to add on their “dissolving cat litter!” for your feline friend as I think that makes training and cleaning much easier. Kilo thought of Nala the cat’s litter as a treat source so that won’t work for us (Nala the Rescue Cat passed away at 17.5 years old late last year).
Follow our training efforts with Kilo the naughty Rescue Pug here. Have a great week.
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