Dogs
What Is A Dog Pee Post?
May
You want your dog to toilet in one desired outdoor spot. It minimises pet messes, pet smell in your home and helps maintain lawns.
While a dog’s natural response may be to regularly pee in one specific area, you will need to show him where you want him to go.
Dog house training methods can seem overwhelming to a busy pet parent. Let us help! In our blog below, we teach you all about how to use a dog pee post.
How Does a Dog Pee Post Work?
A pee post is a training aid designed to encourage pets to urinate in a preferred toilet area. The goal is for your dog to pee on or next to the post. They are also known as potty posts.
How A Dog Pee Post Work?
Pee posts are an incentive for dogs to pee in an owners preferred spot.
This prevents your dog toileting in unwanted areas (such as on decks, flowerbeds or inside your house) and minimises you having to clean up toilet accidents.
Why Do Dogs Pee on a Post?
Dogs will naturally return to the same spot regularly to urinate.
When a dog needs to pee and is trying to decide where to go, they sniff around to try find the smell of their pheromones (which are deposited when they urinate).
Why Dogs Pee on Posts?
It is their natural instinct to pee in the same areas.
The pheromones marks their territory and designate a toilet area that is away from your pet’s food or where they sleep.
Even if you have cleaned up pet stains well and cannot smell it yourself, your dog usually can. They have incredibly powerful noses!
Are Pee Posts Any Good?
The fact dogs like to pee in the same areas regularly is a great benefit to pet parents. It means that it is possible to toilet train a dog not to pee in your house or unwanted areas of your yard.
Pee posts help you to show your dog exactly where you want them to go. They will learn to recognise this designated location as their toilet area and desired outdoor spot.
Many pet owners report that using a pee post reduces the number of toilet accidents in unwanted areas and that they are very effective.
Why Dogs Pee Posts Are Good
The primary benefit of a pee post is that it keeps your home looking nicer, smelling better and means less time cleaning up accidents for you.
Another benefit is that it minimises the number of brown pee patches marked on your lawn. This is great for those that take pride in their yard and what to keep their lawn green.
What To Use As a Pee Post
You can use any marker as a pee post. You can buy a special dog pee post from stores that sell pet supplies.
You may see some advertised by third party sellers that are a plastic stake pee post. They claim this yard stake releases a pheromone scent continuously that naturally encourages your dog to pee on it. Weird stuff!
However, these still require dedicated house training time to become effective. Plus a plastic yard stake is not very decorative in your garden. We recommend using a fire hydrant pee post.
Fire Hydrant Pee Post
A fire hydrant dog pee post is a fun way to teach your furry friend where to pee.
Fire Hydrant
A fire hydrant pee post is a fun way to teach your furry friend where to go to the toilet.
Hydrant statues are beautifully hand-painted and is made of high-quality resin. They not only help with training, but also make a great ornament in your garden.
They are extra fun if you own a dalmatian!
Where To Set Up
Most pee posts are put on grass in the backyard. We recommend choosing a quiet grassy area. Make sure this spot is away from where your dog eats, drinks or sleeps.
Choose a spot your dog already often uses to go to the toilet. It is easier to train if your dog to go here if he already likes the area. Apartment dwellers may put the pee post on top of puppy pads or a section of artificial turf on their veranda.
Installing the Fire Hydrant
Fire hydrant pee posts are easy to set up. There is no assembly required. Simply unbox the post and sit it where you want it to go.
If you are placing the post on grass or dirt, use provided stakes to gently hammer it into the dirt. This will help prevent it being knocked over.
How To Install The Fire Hydrant Pee Post
Unlike other training aids on the market, there is no need to partially bury the a fire hydrant pee post into the ground. They are sturdy enough to sit on top of the grass.
This means the pee post is easy to move if you decide you want it in another spot.
House Training
While a dog pee post should prompt your dog’s natural instinct to wee in one place, it will still require a little training. Help your pet hit the right spot!
Firstly, set up your dog pee post where you want your dog to toilet. We recommend a quiet grassy area of your backyard that your dog can easily access.
Make sure it is far away from your dog’s food, water and bedding areas. To make things easier, choose a spot where your dog already likes to go to the toilet.
Take note of when your dog naturally goes to the toilet. This is often first thing in the morning, right after eating a meal, after exercise or before bedtime.
At these toilet times, lead your dog to the dog pee post. Let him go up to it on his own and let your pet smell it. When he goes near it, praise him.
Use a command to let him know you want him to go to the toilet, such as “go toilet” or “pee-pee”. If your dog pees in the correct area, reward him with positive reinforcement. This can be with praise, a pat or a food treat.
Start off easier – reward him if he goes to the toilet anywhere near the spot. Then as time goes on, only reward him when he gets very close or directly on the pee post.
Continue training until he is regularly going in the correct place. Like all things pet parenting, you need to be both patient and persistent. If you don’t have a dedicated daily routine, house training problems may arise.
Puppies
House training puppies is typically easier than training an adult dog. They are without established marking habits and are less stubborn.
Some owners have trouble leading their puppy to the pee post during training time, as puppies don’t always come when they are called. One convenient shortcut is guiding your puppy to the pee post on a leash.
If you keep your pet indoors, you will need to take him out more regularly to practice.
Accept that pet mess clean up is part of training. The occasional indoor accident cleanup does not mean your puppy isn’t progressing! If you patiently follow directions, he will eventually learn.
Adult Dogs
Daily training with adult dogs encourages them to form good habits faster.
Male dogs are more naturally drawn to sniff out pheromones and pee in one specific area. Therefore, they will learn faster to use a pee post or at least to pee in the same spot every time.
When training to pee in a desired outdoor spot, female dogs often require a more concerted effort. They are less interested in pheromones.
They also typically don’t cock their legs so won’t pee directly onto the pee post. But, with thorough training, they can be trained to pee next to the pee post or in a specific area of your yard.
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