# Puppy pees in vents



## merneric (Sep 3, 2008)

Max is 18 weeks now and has been at our house for almost 3 weeks. The first couple weeks were fine, he did poop on the air vents in the floor a couple times, but now he pees and poops on them! We wanted to train him to go outside, so we took away the pee pads and he does fine going outside, but he will only halfway pee, then comes inside and pees in the air vents. So I covered the vents with pee pads because I didn't want urine in our ducts. But I am afraid this just makes him want to go inside on pee pads. Also, winter is coming and I need to be able to uncover my vents. I feel like we always have to have him in his ex-pen, which he will not pee or poo in. Anyone dealt with this or have any ideas what I should do??
Thanks,
Mary Anne


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## cloey70 (Jan 6, 2008)

Can u put laundry basket over the vent? I would confine him, and train him properly with a crate. He is too young to be roaming around if he is. Gate him in a kichen area, with food, water, crate, and let him outside every couple hours. Never let him roam around unless u are watching him, and I mean watching him. If u can't watch him, then gate him in the kitchen area. This is something that needs to be trained, and will take time, likely until he is 1.


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## jmm (Nov 23, 2004)

1. Prevent the opportunity. As cloey said he should be confined unless you are watching. Preventing the accidents breaks the habit.

2. If you know he is not emptying his bladder, bring him back in and crate for 15 minutes and take him out again. 

3. Be sure to clean the vents thoroughly with a cleaner like Simple Solutions or Nature's Miracle. Some dogs dislike the smell of vinegar diluted in water and sprayed where they like to potty. It is something you can try in addition to not letting him have unattended access to the vents. 

4. REWARD for going in the right place. Urinating is inherently rewarding to dogs. You need to make going potty in the right place even more rewarding with a valuable food reward EVERY time they go in the right place. 

Why is he picking this spot? Dogs tend to like absorbant surfaces to potty on. It makes sense that since the urine goes right through the vent, this is a surface a dog might pick.


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## GreenFuzzer (Jun 16, 2007)

Another reason Max might be picking the vents could be that he was trained to use a pee pad that was covered with a type of grate that kept the pups feet off from the pee pad. He might only relieve himself enough outside to take the pressure. If you have a specific spot outside that you want Max to always use you can go to the hardware and get a piece of grate that goes in the ceiling to cover fluorescent ceiling lights. Make sure the grid openings are smaller then his little feet. Anyway you put that outside where you want him to potty at. You will easily be able to clean up the pooh and over time you use make the grate smaller. I use a small piece of this over Gracie's pee pad it keeps her feet off the pad and and because I bought a piece that had a corner broke out of it I got it discounted, so it was much cheaper than one of the pee pad systems. If I wanted to I could use a boot tray under the pee pad and have the complete system. LOL


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## dogloverx3 (Apr 14, 2006)

I'd just like to give you a sympathetic :grouphug: It sounds GROSS , but good luck  Sarah


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## lilguyparker (Aug 16, 2007)

OMG! Parker used to do the same thing when I first got him! Well, not so much with the pee'ing, but definitely with the poo. I ended up training him to strictly go outside. So he got out of that habit pretty quickly. 

Last December when he was a little over 6 months old, we went to NYC, and I noticed he would only poo on the metal grate. The kind that you see around trees planted in the sidewalk, and this metal covering on the sidewalk near our hotel. To this day, if he can't find an absorbent spot to poo outside, he'll seek out something metal. For the longest time I couldn't figure it out, but then realized that it probably has to do with the raised metal crate bottom to keep puppy's paws clean. 

Ah, puppyhood.


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## Cosy (Feb 9, 2006)

Yes, it sounds as if the pup may have lived on grates so it only makes sense he would 
gravitate to something similar. You can try spraying Bitter Apple on the vents
while training him. It should help deter him.


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