Indoor Potty for Small Dogs

Before Nomii came into our life, we had prepared ourselves to take him downstairs – we live in an apartment – several times a day to relieve himself. Such an activity comes with dog ownership and our dinner dates with friends who have dogs often involved scheduling meeting times after their dogs’ evening walk/toilet break. We didn’t like the idea of using pee pads because it felt wasteful AND we were pretty sure most dogs cannot resist ripping up paper of any sort. And then, we were introduced to indoor toilets, which are perfect for a small dog like Nomii.

There’s a HUGE TRAVEL BONUS that comes with using an indoor potty – I will elaborate at the end of this post.

Such indoor toilets typically involve a piece of artificial grass and a receptacle of some sort under it. The receptacle could be a simple tray or a low platform with a tray on which you would place a pee pad or collect pee with. In some countries, such as the US, there’re also options with real grass instead of artificial grass which comes with a subscription for regular grass replacement.

After some research and a recommendation from Nomii’s trainer, we chose to buy our indoor potty from Petgreen.

We set up the potty in our guest toilet and when Nomii arrived, potty training commenced immediately.

After drinking, before and after crate time, every few hours and whenever we think Nomii needs to relieve himself, we would lead him to the potty and get him to go onto the grass. The smart little pup learned very quickly….but not before we humans lost our patience….because his command for going potty is “Hurry up!”.

So before long, Nomii knows about toilets and potty. He would have accidents but we know he knows. It took a couple of months before he was solidly toilet trained. He has accidents very rarely, and usually it seems it’s because he’s mad at us for something.

The Huge Travel Bonus

As promised, here’s the Big Travel Bonus that comes with training Nomii to use an indoor potty like this. He has come to learn that he can relieve himself on fake grass…even without the platform. So now, when we travel, we pack a piece of artificial grass and pee pads and this combination becomes his mobile toilet! There’s no need for us to hunt for grass patches near accommodations or to go out into the dark and cold night/morning in a strange place hoping the dog would pee/poop before something scary happens. Life saver.

We’ve also met another dog owner who uses only a 6 inch square of grass on a pee pad to indicate to her dog where he is to pee/poop. Brilliant. We haven’t tried that…don’t think we will.