[deonk1]

Well I've mentioned to many my preference of the grid system for potty training, and keep promising to take pictures, well I finally got my homemade system perfected. So here is an explanation and picture of my system.

Ok So the grid consists of a shoe tray and rubber mats that are gridded (they're for entry ways where muddy boats drip down etc). The clamps are just because my little bug, I mean sweetheart, has learned how to move the grids and chew the papers...

So essentially, pup pees or poos on the tray, poo stays on top, pee filters down to papers. The first few times we used it, we put puppy pads there so that he'd get the sent, and bingo. If he had an accident I'd just dab a bit of pee on the grid to remind him of the scent, and now he just knows.

Clean up is simple, throw the papers away daily, or every other day, depending on the amount of use, and put fresh papers, as for the poo I recommend cleaning it up as soon as its discovered, so your little baby doesn't decide to eat it... or drag it around.
once a week in the summer, or every 2 weeks in the winter, I bleach the whole system in hot water, a bit of bleach and mr.clean. soak for a bit, rinse twice and let completely dry.

I've also noticed that Harley doesn't like to always poo on the tray. For a while I couldn't figure it out, then I realized that maybe he just doesn't want to poo and pee in the same place. We're making a new tray for another part of the apartment and then he'll have two places to choose from.

I love this system because we didn't even have to teach Harley to go on it. we confined him in an area so that he had his crate, his food and and tray. he just started going on it. We rewarded and only had a few little training mishaps along the way. He now goes outside when we go for walks, but it is rare that he has an off tray pee accident inside, and like I mentioned we're perfecting the poo, but it's overall working well. This is a great option for people in apartments, or who are just plain busy and leave their dogs at home while at work. It cost me about $30 to make (and only because i had to buy 10 tiles of rubber mats and you only use 2-4, but now I have replacement mats) and if you don't have a creative trouble making dog, you don't need the clamps. If you don't want to bother making it, the UGODog and WizDog are products you can buy in the US, they aren't cheap (around $50USD I think, and if you are in Canada it can cost over $100CDN to ship one (I priced them a while ago).

Happy Potty Training!
-Kendra & Harley.