Potty Trained and Some Thoughts About Crate

I'm happy to say that Ginger is potty trained now. After months of training and monitoring, she is very consistent in going to toilet to do her business no matter where she were and what she were doing. When bringing her outdoor, she understood the potty command and she is able to potty outside. I wrote about potty training in my previous post.


This is the current setup of Ginger's play pen. I still confine her nowadays whenever I'm away or unable to supervise her.

We have long ago removed the wired bottom crate you saw in the previous post. Please note that wired bottom crate is bad for dog, they might get hurt with their feet/muzzle stucked between the wires. We are using a plastic crate which we will find her retired into it during the day for a nap.


Ginger chilling inside her plastic crate.

I can't say enough good things using a crate for your dog. Many scorned at the thought of confining a dog in a crate, thinking that it's a cruel thing to do.

Dogs are by nature a den creatures, crate if properly introduced is a den - a safe haven for your dog. It's a quiet place where your dog can retreat into for a quiet time or rest. It's not a jail or toilet!

Ginger will run and hide in her crate whenever she feel threatened or uncomfortable when encountering a strange noise or object. :)

When your dog is trained to use the crate, you will find your dog more easily handled: in the car, at the vets, when travelling, etc.

Ginger will automatically go into her crate and wait for us to lock up the crate when she knew it is bed time. We will then move her crate into our bedroom where she gets to sleep in the same room with us. Next day morning, we will move the crate back into the playpen and remove the door.



We moved the pee tray into a corner of the toilet and the gates are moved to block the toilet bowl (Ginger used to lick the toilet bowl's water, yuck!), so we humans have our toilet back. We doing this by shifting the pee tray to the left side inch by inch over weeks and expanding the gates slowly.

How I potty train my puppy Ginger

When we first got Ginger, we decided to crate training her : only let her out to potty every 30 minutes. However, a problem has arisen. This little bugger would just hold her bladder for as long as 6 hours. She wouldn't pee/poo if we brought her out to the toilet where we put some pee pads. She would however just pee anywhere in living room when we let her out to roam a bit. There's no established pattern of where she would pee, we just wiped it off with an ammonia free cleaner. This went on for a few days, we got so frustrated.

On the 2nd week, we suddenly had an idea. We went to bought some play pens and set up a confined area in a corridor beside the toilet. The area is big enough to put her crate in and there's a decent area for her to run around and playing her toys. Again, we placed a few pee pads inside the toilet. We noticed she would go into the toilet to do her business, but the spots are inconsistent, sometimes she would just pee outside the pee pads. We would praise her and reward her with a treat if she pee/poo on the pee pad.

A few days later, the pee tray I ordered arrived. I put a pee pad(sprayed with Puppy Trainer) inside the pee tray and put it inside toilet. Ginger immediately went to investigate it and proceeded to pee on it. (JACKPOT!) No more puppy biting and stepping over the pee pads.

Then we noticed she wouldn't just pee on the pee tray all the time, but on the toilet floor. To fine tune the potty training, we went to buy more play pens and limit the toilet to a smaller area.



We confined the toilet area so she has fewer room for mistakes now. Just wipe it clean when she pee/poo outside the tray.


This is the play pen we set up, we feed her in the crate and placed her water bottle inside(so she will not sees it as a toilet area) and she will just sleep/play outside the crate.

Since the toilet area is more visible to us now, if we catch her going into toilet, we will just chant "pee pee" or "poo poo" when she do her business on the pee tray then praise and reward her with a treat when she finished.

After a week, we let her out to roam and led her from kitchen to the play pen so that she will learn the route and we noticed she will run into the toilet to do her business now. Yes, she will do it on the pee tray now.

Several tips for new owners in potty training :
1) Slowly start with a smaller area then expand it gradually, don't let your puppy roam all over the house until she is potty trained.
2) If your puppy peed at the wrong spot, it's your fault, don't blame your puppy. Just clean it up and start over.
3) Praise and reward your puppy when she potty at the right spot.
4) Be patient and don't give up.
5) Get a pee tray as it saves you a lot of trouble, no more puppy stepping on poo and pee or messing with the paper. Just pick up the poo and wipe it off with a damp paper. It's more economical also, just need to change the pee pad every 2-3 days and you can wash the tray with water once a week.

Tools you will need : Ammonia free cleaner, a puppy trainer spray, Pee Tray & Pee Pads.