How to Litter Train Puppies
A litter of puppies has a lot of wagging tails, a lot of puppy kisses and a lot of puppy poo! It is so much easier to clean all of that poo if it is confined to one general place instead of all over the puppy pen. It isn’t just kittens that can benefit from litter training! Litter training very young puppies is not only helpful but it is very easy.
You will need a shallow pan, such as a rabbit litter tray, pine pellet bedding and puppy pee pads. We also use a litter genie with a scoop to extend time between litter changes.
Start litter training at about 3 weeks, before introducing food to your puppies. Doing things in this order will discourage the puppies from eating the litter. If they decide to munch on the pine pellets it should just go right through them and not cause any problems.
Design a puppy area that is only big enough for a crate, a place to eat, a pee pad and a litter box or two. Place a crate in the puppy area, close to the front for sleeping and a pee pad or two right outside of the crate. This will encourage puppies to come out of their sleeping area to potty. Place the litter box at the back of the area, put a pee pad in the bottom and a thin layer of pine pellets on top of the pee pad. As the puppies use the pads in front of their sleeping crate take those lightly soiled pads and lay them on top of the litter in the pans. The scent will attract the puppies to the litterbox to relieve themselves. Over the course of about a week increase the pine litter and remove the pee pads. The puppies should be using the litter 80-90% of the time. If they are less successful than that, try adding the pee pads back into the litter and maybe right outside of the litter for a few more days and then eliminate again.
The litter is fairly inexpensive, around $5 for 40 lbs. As it gets used it turns into sawdust, that can just be put outside and it will add to the soil. If you scoop out the solids and really wet sawdust the litter doesn’t need completely changed that often, about two times a week. We use a “Litter Genie” to put solids and scoops of sawdust in to keep the litter clean between changes.
You will be surprised at how fast the puppies will be litter trained. Start increasing the size of the puppy area, keeping the crate and food at the front and the litter boxes at the back. By the time the puppies are about 5 weeks old they will be able to play in a large area and know to go to the litter box for potty breaks.
We here at Kindred Spirits will start taking our puppies outside several times a day (weather permitting), starting around 6 weeks, to get them used to going to potty outside. We will just put a little litter on the grass where we want them to go and take them there each time. We will continue to use the litter box also because as we take out the first few puppies the remaining pups may not be able to hold it. When you get your puppy home, however; the transition to going outside will be fairly easy.
Litter training keeps puppies clean, which keeps the breeder clean and makes housetraining so much easier!
Links for the products I use to litter train my puppies:
DuMOR Plastic Rabbit Cage Tray, 24 in. at Tractor Supply Co.
Tractor Supply Pine Pellet Stall Bedding, 40 lb. at Tractor Supply Co.