# Potty Pen Training!!!



## jedoublefy (Jun 16, 2012)

Actually I have no idea what its called, but I built my own potty pen area attached to his crate in order to train him to properly go like a good boy when he's in the house!!

When we first got him 3 and a half weeks ago, he was a little over 4 months old and had very little control as in where to go potty. We tried potty pads first, putting his face in the soiled spots and adamantly yelling NO!! But that didn't really work too well. While researching for crates (cause he didn't really have anything to sleep in yet) we found what is called the Puppy Apartment and thought it was the coolest thing lol (Google it!). Of course it costs an arm and a leg and only has a tiny sleep area which I thought was way too close to where he should potty.

After deciding that we were just gonna get him a normal crate from petco.com for $35, I decided to build him his own pen to attach to the crate that would be coming in. As soon as it came in, I went to my local Lowes and bought wire-shelves and had them cut it to reasonably fit the size of the crate itself. With some snapties, cappers for the shelves ends, the shelves themselves, and some coupons lol, making the pen cost me about $20 give or take :3

I highly recommend it as our JJ at 5 months old knows to go in to potty there as we give him treats periodically when he pee's and poops in the area! We've only had him for less than a month and he's really learning quickly. The magic word we decided to use for both was POTTY!! Now I definitely recommend you supervise it at all times for in the early stages as our JJ tended to poo then step and walk all over it making a huge mess and sometimes even chew up the potty pads when he got hungry or anxious D: JJ did bark alot whenever he went if we left him unsupervised to let us know he went, but now since we clean it up immediately after he goes we haven't had that issue. We also switched to a plastic potty pad where we put the cotton pads in between and just clean consistently. Once again he's still learning, but it's been a tremendous help and an amazing progression having only been 3 and a half weeks.

That's his mommy Joy trying out the pen in the second pic lol. Feel free to ask any questions if you wanna know measurements in building one!!


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## ckanen2n (Jan 2, 2012)

I think the wire shelves were a great idea! I'm going to try those to make a barrier across a wide doorway!


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## lynda (Oct 11, 2005)

I think what you have done is a great idea. Just one tip. If he is still just a puppy, and I believe he is, I would make the crate that he is sleeping in much smaller. If you have any of the shelving left over you could use that to make it smaller. It looks like right now he has enough room to go do potty in a corner of his bed then go sleep in another corner. I would make the bed/sleeping area just large enough for him to stand up and turn around but no bigger. I would also make sure that he can access the potty area without having to go through his bedroom for when he is out of his crate. Just some, hopefully, helpful tips.


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## Grace'sMom (Feb 22, 2012)

That is an awesome idea!!!


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## jedoublefy (Jun 16, 2012)

ckanen2n said:


> I think the wire shelves were a great idea! I'm going to try those to make a barrier across a wide doorway!


Yeah they're easy to make and inexpensive and you can get them cut at Lowes or Homes Depot. Pending on the size of your fluffs, I recommend atleast 2 ft high where he kinda can stand up if he uses his paws against it but definitely can't jump it! You also may have to figure how to mount it against the wall, in this case buying a gate off craigslist may be cheaper :x




lynda said:


> I think what you have done is a great idea. Just one tip. If he is still just a puppy, and I believe he is, I would make the crate that he is sleeping in much smaller. If you have any of the shelving left over you could use that to make it smaller. It looks like right now he has enough room to go do potty in a corner of his bed then go sleep in another corner. I would make the bed/sleeping area just large enough for him to stand up and turn around but no bigger. I would also make sure that he can access the potty area without having to go through his bedroom for when he is out of his crate. Just some, hopefully, helpful tips.


Yeah he's had a couple accidents, but only cause we keep the his second door closed until we feel he can go in and out without our supervision. Other than that he'll bark at us to let us know he has to go so we can open it up for him :3 He's a smart little critter haha, but if the dimensions of the crate were to shrink, then his pee area would be pretty small too unless you made the pen area a wider dimension too! I guess this only works with 2 door crates^^


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## lynda (Oct 11, 2005)

Yeah he's had a couple accidents, but only cause we keep the his second door closed until we feel he can go in and out without our supervision. Other than that he'll bark at us to let us know he has to go so we can open it up for him :3 He's a smart little critter haha, but if the dimensions of the crate were to shrink, then his pee area would be pretty small too unless you made the pen area a wider dimension too! I guess this only works with 2 door crates^^[/QUOTE]

Ok, I just looked at your crate again and if you just block off a portion of the crate inside, like say where the front door is to the side, leaving him just enough room to lay down I think it would work. You don't need to get a smaller crate or bigger pee area, just make the inside of his crate smaller. I did this when my Gigi was just a puppy. I had a small crate but had to make the inside even smaller cause she would piddle in a corner. I think if he knows to pee on the pee pad you should allow him access to it all the time, another words, don't close the door to the pee area. JMHO.


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## Furbabies mom (Jul 25, 2011)

I like the crate with potty attached, but why would you put the puppy's nose in the soiled spot? That is definitely not the way to house break a puppy! Praise, rewards and cosistency work! Some dogs are easier to train than others(I've had both) , but yelling or putting their nose in it WON'T WORK! For him not to soil his crate, as Lynda said it should be just big enough to stand up and turn around in. Good luck, it looks like J J is getting the hang of it! I don't mean to sound mean, but I think that you already found out that yelling and putting their nose in it doesn't work.


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## hoaloha (Jan 27, 2012)

great DIY potty pen  !!!! I love DIY projects. As lynda mentioned, you could easily use a pillow or something to make the crate smaller inside so that he only has room to sleep. Thanks for sharing your idea!


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## lmillette (Apr 23, 2012)

That looks a neat idea. I also wanted to mention that you shouldn't yell or put their noses in the accident. If he has an accident and he still will because training takes time don't say anything to him, don't spank him, or put his nose in it. Negative attention is still attention and you don't want him to be nervous about you. Just clean the mess and move one. He will learn that he gets lots of attention and treats when he potties in the proper place.

Also, establishing a schedule with feeding and potting is very important. Now, the key ingredient in potty training is consistency. You will also need to have lots of patience. If you're consistent and patient then the potty training will go a lot quicker.

It sounds like sweet little JJ is getting the hang of it but I wanted to add my two cents in for what it's worth.


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## jedoublefy (Jun 16, 2012)

No no, I like all the input, any advice is more than welcome. He's on a very consistent schedule and has a pretty general time frame of when he goes. The last few days I haven't had any issues with accidents and just a few minutes ago I told him to go "night night" and he walked into his crate to sleep on his own^^ He's been learning so fast lol. 

Thanks guys!


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## StevieB (Feb 2, 2012)

Oooh, I like that setup! It's like a Penthouse Potty Training Puppy Apartment! I've seen that video - I love it! How they say it over and over and over again and the cute little min pin just runs over and does his business. They make it look so easy!


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## jedoublefy (Jun 16, 2012)

StevieB said:


> Oooh, I like that setup! It's like a Penthouse Potty Training Puppy Apartment! I've seen that video - I love it! How they say it over and over and over again and the cute little min pin just runs over and does his business. They make it look so easy!


Haha with a little bit of motivation, my JJ does exactly that!! He now knows where to "potty" and go "night night" lol some words we keep repeating^^ I'm amazed at how fast he learns :3 He gets rewarded with treats up until a certain hour of course! After that he gets lots of praises and kisses ;D


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