Potty Training My Puppy and Review of the UGODOG Indoor Dog Potty - Part 3 of 4: Conclusion
Review of the UGODOG Indoor Dog Potty: Conclusion
UGODOG Indoor Dog Potty
Recommended, Rating: 9/10
Cost: $50
- Good quality, precision construction. High-quality plastic, well made. Two half grates fit precisely into tray.
- Sturdy. Grates survived getting stepped on by full-sized adults without collapsing.
- Nice attention to detail. Baffles in tray help prevent urine from sloshing excessively. Grate openings have rounded corners to minimize paws getting pinched.
- Cleaner. No more urine paw prints or overflows around potty area!
- Reasonably priced at $50 for permanent doggy potty solution. (See $249 Porch Potty.)
- Effective. Performs as advertised. Handles both doggy pee and poop well. Easy to clean.
Conclusion and Overall Opinion of the UGODOG Indoor Potty
Autonomous Vs. Scheduled Potty Training
First, I had to define how I wanted my puppy to deal with waste alleviation in a manner that was agreeable to the both of us. I favored the flexibility of autonomous potty training over scheduled potty training.Don't Worry; Be Happy
I found that I could begin potty training my puppy in earnest when he had sufficient bladder control (4-8 hours) at around six months of age. In hindsight, I should relaxed more until then and not worry that my puppy couldn't "learn" potty training.
How Positive and Negative Reinforcement Can Both Be Important
In theory, I wanted to rely primarily on positive reinforcement (praise, doggy treats) in potty training Miat by closely supervising my puppy and interrupting him when he was about to go potty on the floor. In reality, my puppy had a human like propensity to want to go potty in private, i.e., when no one was looking. As a result and by necessity, negative reinforcement (five-to-ten minute timeouts) became an important tool in potty training him. By training him with both rewards and punishment, Miat was soon consistently pottying on his training pad.
Accidents Will Happen
Being of the mindset that potty accidents were going to occur helped in reducing the stress in potty training. Having a plan to cleanup potty accidents was also very helpful in the overall potty training of my puppy.
UGODOG Indoor Dog Potty
Doggy training (wee wee) pads were a good starting point for indoor potty training, but they have a few disadvantages as a permanent solution. They are somewhat messy, expensive. The permanent, washable UGODOG is reasonably priced (the porch potty starts at $239), is made well, lives up to its promises, and addresses the shortcomings of training pads. Placing smaller and smaller pieces of training pads on the UGODOG allowed my puppy transition from training pads to the UGODOG.
Overall, I have been pleased with both the UGODOG and my puppy's potty training. A potty trained doggy is well worth having!
Article TOC
