Introduction

During his first few days with us, Miat, my Maltese puppy, seemed to be a mobile, frequent, random pee and poop dispenser. Potty training (or housetraining or housebreaking) my puppy was probably the most stressful, most important behavioral training task I faced. After successful potty training, enjoying Miat's company was worry free.

I began potty training my puppy in earnest when he was about six months old, at an age when he developed good bladder control and consistently averaging 4 to 8 hours between urinations. In hindsight, until this age, I should have confined him to non-carpeted areas to save on cleanup work. I wanted Miat to go potty anytime he wanted (autonomous potty training, see sidebar) as long as he went on his training (wee wee) pad.

Doggy training pads are disposable, absorbent pads and are sold virtually everywhere. With the help of positive and negative reinforcement (see sidebar), my sixth month old puppy was well on his way to consistently using the training pad as his potty location. However, there were a few things I didn't like about regularly using disposable training pads:

• The pads were somewhat expensive at about $0.50 to $0.30 per pad (2008). Miat used one to two pads per day.
• My puppy loved to bite, drag around, play with his training pads.
• Miat often stepped on the wet areas of the training pad and, consequently, tracked urine around the surrounding area. Also, if my puppy happened to go pee near the edge of the training pad, pee would spill over the edge.

After searching for options to training pads, I found and purchased the UGODOG from amazon.com for $50 (including S&H) (Fall 2008).

The UGODOG indoor dog potty replaces the doggy training pad and consists of two grate halves (removable for cleaning) which sit atop a tray (see picture). Doggy pee goes through the grates, collects in the tray, and, thus, allows my puppy to keep his paws dry after peeing. Doggy poop falls atop the grates.

Taking the UGODOG out of the box (see picture), I was favorably impressed with the build quality. Made in Turkey, the UGODOG

• consists of high quality plastic,
• is precision made (the two grates fit in the tray like a glove), and
• is very robust. In fact, I accidentally stepped on the UGODOG more than once without damaging it. According to text on the box, the UGODOG "will support any canine, regardless of breed or size."

Additionally, the UGODOG indoor dog potty has some very nice details. The top of the grates have convex moldings to be comfortable and prevent pinching of your puppy's paws (see sidebar). The base tray has six baffles to help prevent doggy urine from sloshing excessively when moving the UGODOG for cleaning (see sidebar).

See bigger picture and read text on back of UGODOG box.