Indoor potty training. The time has come.

Cat owners have been doing it for years. In fact, of all the pets in the world, dogs are the only kind of pet that people commonly take outside to do their business. Taking the dog outside to go potty is often inconvenient. Think about the times when its pouring rain, or those miserable snowy, sleeting, windy days. The dog has to go when he has to go no matter what. What if your dog starts whining at the door in the middle of the night or at 4:30 AM? Many dogs learn to whine at the door as if they need to go just so we let them out so they can investigate some new noise, or to visit a neighbor's dog, chase a cat, or just because it's fun to fool the stupid human. Dog's are smart and often its the human who gets trained. I was a victim of that one. As soon as I tell the dog "No, you don't need to go out!" is when I'll find out he has an upset stomach and diarrhea. And that is the worst kind of mess to clean up.

Still one more scenario is when the dog is back at home alone and the owner who is at work has to come home daily at set times (like lunch break) to let the dog out. From time to time, something comes up where the owner cannot get home on time. Either something came up at work, they got an irresistible lunch offer, there is a traffic jam, the car won't start, or what ever... who wants to worry about that? Besides, Its costly, what ever your commute expense is... double it. Let's not mention the added traffic and pollution, besides aren't you supposed to relax at lunch time? Enter the dog walker. They don't work for free. And are they reliable? Do they not also suffer from the same delays and emergencies that we all do? Of course they do.

Then there is the city dweller. Are they supposed to get up and race to the elevator every time their puppy has to go? Please! You just got out of the shower and there is your dog at the door looking like he needs to go. Quick! You have less than a minute to dress, throw on some shoes, grab a leash, pooper scooper, the dog, don't forget the keys, lock the door wait for the elevator, so you can stand out on the street with your wet hair in cold, wet, weather with no real guarantee that spot even really has to go! Suppose he does go. If he pees its kinda smelly for everyone else. If he poops you have to pick it up. It's a little gross and somewhat undignified but you love your pet and you do it with a positive attitude so onlookers wont risk snickering and being themselves seen as petty. Now you make your best effort to give your dog a sincere praising for not messing in the apartment. Pick up the poop and dispose of it. Take up the leash or the dog and your poop smeared pooper scooper and head back up the elevator. Hopefully there is no one else on the elevator 'cause you are in no mood to be seen by anyone. Get back in the apartment, dry your wet dog, clean the pooper scooper then resume your life. Whew!

I live in the country. I have lost two dogs to passers by on my little country lane. So I fenced in my yard, I'm still the only one in my area that has their dogs in a fenced yard. That was expensive. and I hate pulling the weeds that grow around the fence because I can no longer mow the grass where the fence line runs.

Just train the dog to go indoors. The dog should have continuous access to a place to go potty where it is OK to go potty in the comfort and privacy of your own home. You do! Use the puppy pads that are on the market now, they are absorbent, leak proof, and have odor controllers. If your dog likes to shread the pads, use the puppy litter like Purina's second nature puppy litter. Designate a place and teach the dog to use it. Wouldn't is be great if your dog's crate was connected to another crate where it was OK to go potty? This is a feature of SuiteDigs indoor canine habitats. See http://www.suitedigs.com/ With SuiteDigs, you dog has his own "habitat" that contains everything he needs, a comfortable, safe, "den" to sleep in, a place to eat and drink and a place to go potty. The potty module has puppy pads or litter in it and you teach the dog to go on the pads or in the litter. The dog learns to go only on the pads or litter through "surface association". Its a process of elimination. (pardon the pun) Dogs have a natural instinct not to go potty near where they eat or near their bed. So if you had two suite modules one could have a bed and food and water bowls, (no room to potty here) and the other had nothing but puppy pads or litter and a little piece from the last pad or litter for scent purposes, it is easy to teach the dog to go in the correct suite module. You will have to do some training here as with any housebreaking routine. We'll cover the actual training techniques in another article.

Now you can put your dog in his suite when you go to work confident that there will be no mishaps in your home of any kind. No amount of chewing, peeing, pooping, clawing, vomiting, will damage your stuff. If you are unavoidably detained, no worries! Your dog has everything he needs, he and you will be OK! When you are home, You can leave the doors to the suites open because SuiteDigs and only SuiteDigs has a patent pending sliding door so you don't have to avoid a door that is hinged to swing out into your living space. It saves space and you don't have to worry that you or one of your family, friends, or guests will tear their clothes on or have a painful encounter with the swung open door. That way your dog has continuous access to food, water, bed and potty while you are home as well.

You are not off the hook for walking your dog daily though. You and your dog need it and benefit from it. Not exercising your dog will bring a host of other issues. Not exercising you will bring on a host of issues. Go! Get out! Walk! It's fun! At least now that your dog can go either way you take the drudgery out of it.

Now life is good, you and your dog can relax because some of the biggest pet dog issues are positively solved!