Chapter 3

Getting Your Home in Housetraining Order

IN THIS CHAPTER

Choosing a crate

Exploring outdoor potty training

Selecting an indoor potty spot

Choosing the right cleanup equipment

Before you can start housetraining your puppy or adult dog, not only do you have to get yourself ready — you have to get your home ready. A domicile that’s not adjusted to the needs of both the housetrainee (your dog) and the housetrainer (you) can sabotage the efforts of both person and pooch.

Not to worry. In this chapter, I cover everything from finding the right crate to choosing the perfect potty spot — whether you plan to have your canine companion do her pottying indoors or out.

Readying Your Dog’s Room: The Crate

Professional dog trainers and experienced dog owners have dealt with a lot of puppy pee and doggie doo. Not surprisingly, they’ve gotten housetraining down to a science. And just about every one of them will tell you that using a crate makes housetraining easier, quicker, and more effective than any other method.

“A crate?” you ask. “How can that be? They look like cages, not potty-training devices.” Looks, however, can be deceiving. I’ve housetrained dogs with the help of a crate, and I’ve housetrained dogs without one. I’m a believer: I think crates are unquestionably the way to go if you want your dog to become a housetraining ace as soon as possible.

Understanding why every dog needs (and wants) a crate

Few objects are more important to a wild or domestic canine than the den — that safe, secure place that the animal can call his own. A crate makes a perfect doggie den. It’s compact, it’s cozy (or you can make it so with some well-chosen crate accessories), and it’s dark inside (or you can render it so by draping a towel or blanket atop the crate). And because a crate is open on one side but enclosed on the other three, it offers the dog a safe, secure window through which he can watch his world.

Dogs who are introduced to the crate at a young age soon grow to love their special spaces, and an older dog can learn to at least tolerate a crate when introduced to one properly. Either way, the attachment is well worth cultivating because doing so enables you to tap into a crucial component of your canine companion’s denning instinct.

Most domestic dogs do just about anything to avoid peeing or pooping in their dens. When that den is a crate, a dog learns to hold his pee and poop whenever he’s inside. If possible, he lets his floodgates open only when he’s away from these cherished structures of safety.

Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Well, using a crate to potty train your dog is simple, but it’s not quite effortless. You can’t just run out, buy a crate, and shove your dog into it with the idea that you’ll housetrain him at warp speed. Housetraining just doesn’t work that way. Housetraining is a fine art, and it starts with figuring out which size and type of crate to buy for your dog.

Finding the right fit: Types of crates

To begin with, you can choose from two basic types of crates: plastic and wire. Plastic crates, also known as carriers, are molded two-piece units with doors at their fronts and ventilation at their sides. Wire crates are made from panels of welded metal wire that are hinged together. Figure 3-1 shows the differences between the two.

FIGURE 3-1: Plastic and wire crates.

This section explains the benefits and drawbacks of these two crate types. Ultimately, which type of crate to use is up to you. Just assess what your future needs are likely to be and make an educated guess as to which type of crate your dog will likely prefer.

Plastic crates

Plastic crates offer several advantages over wire ones:

• Because they’re enclosed on three sides (except for the vents), plastic crates can easily become the snug, dark, cozy dens most dogs crave. I chose a plastic crate for my shy Shetland Sheepdog, Cory, because I thought he’d be happier having a dark place in which to hide rather than an open-air abode.
• Plastic crates generally meet airline specifications for pet shipment as baggage or cargo — an important consideration if you plan to travel by air with your canine companion.
• Plastic crates often cost a little less than wire crates do.

Plastic crates do have their downsides, though. For example, they can take up more than a little storage space because they don’t collapse or fold. In addition, the plastic makes these crates more vulnerable than wire crates to the ravages of canine teeth.

Wire crates

Wire crates also have some advantages:

• These crates’ all-around openness allows your dog to see what’s going on when he’s lounging in his doggie abode. If your dog doesn’t like such openness, you can throw a blanket over the top and sides of the wire crate to create a more enclosed den.
• Wire crates are totally collapsible, which means you can stash them away in tiny places when you’re not using them.
• Wire crates are far easier to adjust for size than plastic crates are. I chose a wire crate for my Golden Retriever puppy, Allie, for just that reason.
• Dogs who can’t stop chewing don’t get anywhere with wire crates — and that’s a big advantage in the wire-versus-plastic debate.
• Wire crates offer more ventilation than plastic ones do. If your pooch is a snub-nosed breed, such as a Pug or Boston Terrier, opt for a wire crate; such dogs are prone to breathing difficulties.

Like plastic crates, wire crates also carry a couple of disadvantages: They’re not considered acceptable for airline travel, and they cost more than their plastic counterparts do.

A SOFTER SIDE TO CRATING?

In addition to plastic and wire crates, a third kind of carrier is available: a soft-sided carrier. These carriers are lighter and easier to set up than plastic or wire crates, but they’re not good for housetraining, especially puppies. The reason: Such crates can’t withstand the ravages of canine teeth. Stick with a wire or plastic crate for in-home housetraining.

Adjusting for size

Picking the right size of crate for your dog is crucial — not just for when he’s a puppy but also for when he’s an adult dog.

A correctly sized crate is just large enough for your dog to comfortably stand up, turn around, and lie down in. A smaller crate will cramp your canine companion. A larger crate will allow your dog to sleep and eat at one end of the crate and relieve himself at the other, which defeats the whole purpose of using the crate.

Either type of crate — wire or plastic — comes in several sizes. For example, one major retailer offers wire crates in four sizes that range from 30 x 20 x 23 inches to 48 x 30 x 35 inches. This retailer also offers a plastic crate in four sizes that range from 28 x 20.5 x 21.5 inches to 40 x 27 x 30 inches.

Does the need to keep the crate the right size mean that you must buy a new one each time your puppy’s size increases significantly? Fortunately, the answer is no. You can actually buy one crate that can serve as your dog’s den from puppyhood on. The secret: Buy an adult-sized wire crate and block off some of the inside space while your dog is a puppy. Many wire crates come with dividers, wire panels that are similar to the plates at the back of the drawers in metal file cabinets. You simply slide the divider back as your puppy grows and needs a bigger crate. The budget-friendly result is that you have to buy only one crate for your dog’s lifetime.

Investing in crate accessories

For the sake of your dog’s comfort and your own convenience, you may want to invest in a few crate accessories:

• Mats: Chief among the crate accessories is some kind of soft mat or carpet for the crate. Crate manufacturers make a variety of mats and carpets to fit their products, including luxurious items such as cut-to-fit mats made of synthetic sheepskin and more basic (but still very comfortable) plastic polyurethane foam mats. Whatever kind of soft flooring you choose, though, make sure that you can clean your dog’s crate mat easily — machine-washable is ideal.

  Before you leave your puppy or dog alone in a crate with a mat or cloth, make sure she won’t chew or swallow it.

• Attachable dishes: You may want to buy a couple of dishes that you can attach to the inside of the crate door. Some crates come complete with such dishes, but if yours doesn’t, pet product manufacturers offer them separately. Such dishes make feeding your dog in her crate much easier — and eating in the crate can help her associate the crate with something positive if she hasn’t done so already. Moreover, most airlines require that a crate contain food and water for your jet-setting dog to consume.
• Crate dollies: Traveling canines and their owners may also appreciate having a crate dolly: a metal platform with four wheels and a nylon pull handle. Set your dog and her crate atop the dolly, and you can whisk her through the airport with ease.

Situating your doggie’s den

The best place to put your dog’s crate is wherever you are. Sounds simple enough — until you realize that you don’t stay in one place 24/7 or even, sometimes, for more than a few minutes at a time.

Fortunately, you can move a crate just about anywhere. Whenever I’m housetraining a dog, I keep the crate — with the housetrainee inside — in my bedroom with me at night. During the day, I move the crate into the living room near the kitchen so that my dog can see me and the rest of my family moving around the house. When I go downstairs to my office to start writing (I’m fortunate to be able to work from home), both dog and crate come with me.

Keeping your crated canine close not only makes housetraining easier — because you can keep tabs on what your housetrainee is doing — but also helps build the bond between the two of you.

Gearing Up for Outdoor Training

Teaching your pooch to potty outside means that you don’t have to provide an indoor doggie bathroom facility; however, you still need some equipment to get the job done. You also need to choose an outdoor potty spot for your dog during the housetraining process.

Selecting a potty spot — no matter where you live

Until your dog figures out that the bathroom is outside — and that she can hold her ammo till she gets there — the backyard or some other outdoor area near your house is your best bathroom bet. After all, if you choose a potty spot close to home, you and she won’t have to go too far when she needs to poop or pee. After your dog consistently restricts her bathroom maneuvers to the great outdoors — and lasts a couple of hours between potty breaks — you can expand her bathroom horizons beyond your property line.

A young puppy hasn’t received all the immunizations she needs to protect her from potentially fatal diseases, such as distemper and canine parvovirus, so the backyard is the best place to start outdoor-training a puppy who’s younger than 16 weeks of age. A puppy can catch such diseases through contact with infected dogs’ bodily wastes or vomit, so keeping your dog away from these substances is important. Until your pup has completed her shots, keep her potty in your yard and keep her away from areas where other dogs may do their business.

Within your yard, a good potty spot is any place that’s fairly close to your house and easy to clean. Plan to clean up your dog’s potty area at least once a day.

If you live in an apartment or don’t have access to a yard for another reason, you need to walk your puppy to her potty area, but make sure that area isn’t where other dogs congregate. Your vet can suggest where to take your apartment-dwelling puppy until she’s fully immunized.

Cleaning up after your dog takes on added importance when you start taking her to public places. If your dog poops in a public area, clean it up immediately. Most communities have enacted compulsory cleanup statutes for very good reasons: Dog poop is gross, and it carries disease-bearing organisms.

Securing collars and leashes

Unless you and Fido plan to spend the rest of your lives behind four walls, sooner or later you’ll have to venture into the great outdoors. Even if you plan to have your four-legged friend do most of his pottying within your fenced yard, sometimes — such as when you travel — a fenced yard isn’t available. Plus, when you get the urge to saunter around your neighborhood on a gorgeous day, won’t you want to take Fido with you?

For most pooches and their owners, collars and leashes are facts of life. But these ties don’t need to bind you or your dog. This section provides info on choosing the right collar and leash for your four-legged friend.

Types of collars

A collar isn’t just a collar. You have lots of doggie neckwear to choose from, and making the right choice is important because if you don’t, you run the risk of injuring or even losing your dog. The following list describes the most common safe options for canine necks (and in some cases, bodies):

• Leather collars: These rolled collars resemble leather rings for gigantic fingers and have several advantages, including the fact that they look nice, smell nice (if you like the smell of leather), and don’t damage the dog’s fur. However, they often cost more than other types of collars and may not provide the control you need if your pooch is an unruly walker. Still, they usually offer good options for puppies, small adult dogs, sensitive pooches, and any adult dog who walks nicely on a leash.
• Fabric collars: Collars made from fabric, such as cotton or nylon, resemble very small belts or very large watchbands. Some fabric collars buckle around the dog’s neck. You secure others with plastic snap-in clips. Either way, fabric collars are best suited to puppies, small adult dogs, and well-behaved adult canine walkers. These collars generally cost less than leather, but dogs may find them a tad less comfortable because they’re wider than leather collars are. They tend to absorb dirt and odor more, too.
• Head halters: If your dog is unruly, what can you turn to? One option is the head halter, a little nylon device that consists of a loop that goes behind the dog’s neck and a second loop that encircles the muzzle. When you place it on the dog, it looks like a horse bridle. The head halter works in the same way a bridle guides a horse — where the head goes, the body follows. Many trainers recommend head halters not only to restrain rambunctious dogs but also to deal with other problems, such as dogs who lunge at other canines and people or who bark a lot while walking. The only disadvantage of the head halter is that some dogs find them itchy and difficult to get used to.
• No-pull harnesses: Need another option to keep your pooch from pulling? Try a no-pull harness, a device that uses a chest strap to restrain your sled-dog wannabe. By attaching the dog’s leash to the chest strap instead of to a collar, you direct pressure to restrain the dog away from the neck and to the chest. No-pull harnesses can be difficult to fit, though — and for the owner of a persistent puller, they may not provide enough control.
• Body harnesses: For a small puppy or tiny adult dog, such as a Maltese or a Yorkshire Terrier, a body harness may be a much better option than a neck collar. Conventional neck collars may injure a small dog’s trachea, but a body harness bypasses that danger because it doesn’t touch the dog’s neck. Body harnesses are also good options for dogs with back or disk problems or breeds with especially long bodies, such as Dachshunds, because they provide support to the back. Dogs whose heads are smaller than their necks, such as Greyhounds, are also good candidates for body harnesses.

Some collars designed to help owners “correct” their dogs seem more likely to punish than to teach. Practical owners recognize that the following neckwear can hurt or injure their dogs:

• Slip collars: Also known as training collars or choke collars, slip collars were once a mainstay for most dog trainers and owners. The collar’s snap-and-release action puts momentary pressure on a dog’s neck, which theoretically creates an incentive for the dog to cease her bad behavior.

  Slip collars can damage a dog’s windpipe when used incorrectly — and that happens more often than not, because instead of performing a quick jerk (the correct method), many owners pull on the collar without releasing it. The prolonged pull causes the dog to gasp for breath and often fails to stop the behavior that prompted the owner to pull on the collar in the first place. Bottom line: Dog owners don’t need slip collars, because people can use less coercive methods to teach their dogs to walk nicely while on leash.

• Prong collars: If slip collars are bad, prong collars are worse. This neck gear is exactly what the name says: a collar with prongs that poke the dog’s neck when the owner pulls on the leash. Prong collars hurt, and they’re cruel. You don’t need to inflict pain or be cruel to teach your dog proper walking etiquette, bathroom manners, or anything else. For information on how to teach a dog to walk politely on leash without hurting himself, check out Dog Training For Dummies, 2nd Edition, by Jack and Wendy Volhard (Wiley).

MEASURING UP ON COLLAR SIZE

To determine your dog’s collar size, simply wrap a tape measure fairly loosely around her neck. Add 2 inches to the measurement, and you have her size. For example, a dog whose neck measures 12 inches around needs a 14-inch collar. After you buy the collar and put it on your dog, see whether you can slip two fingers under it. If you can fit only one finger, the collar is too tight; if you can fit more than two, the collar is too loose.

Types of leashes

You don’t have quite as many leashes to choose from as you do collars. Still, enough variety is out there to stump the average dog owner. As with collars, choosing the right leash is important — for your comfort, your dog’s safety, and the safety of other people you and she may encounter while you’re exploring the great outdoors. Here’s what to consider as you sort through your leashing alternatives:

• Leather leash: I prefer leather leashes to fabric ones for two reasons: Leather’s easier to hold on to, and it lasts a long time. The easier hold comes in handy if your pooch bolts while on the leash, because you can tighten your hold without getting the rope burn on your hand that a cotton or nylon leash can give you. However, leather leashes generally cost significantly more than nylon or cotton leashes of the same length.
• Fabric leash: Fabric leashes are cheaper, and because they come in lots of colors, they allow you and your dog to make a fashion statement, such as matching the collar color to the leash color. The downsides are that such leashes are generally less durable and less comfortable to grip than their leather counterparts. Some manufacturers have tried to solve the latter problem by adding padding to the handles.

• Retractable leash: A retractable leash contains a long wire or cord (up to 16 feet) and a hook. The wire resides within a plastic housing, and you can retract the leash by pressing a button or lever on the housing. Retractable leashes can give your dog a feeling of greater freedom, but they also carry several disadvantages. If your dog pulls when she walks, a retractable leash doesn’t help you control her; in fact, it may encourage her to pull even harder. These leashes are also tough for other people to see; more than once, I’ve nearly broken my neck after tripping over such a leash.

  At the very least, don’t use retractable leashes in populated areas where people can trip over them. Also, don’t use them near streets, because your dog can run into the street and become instant roadkill even while attached to the leash.

Leashes can range between 4 feet and 50 feet. For ordinary walks, your best bet is a 6-foot leather or fabric tether. If you opt for a retractable leash, make sure that you don’t extend the leash to go beyond 6 feet when you and Fido are in crowds or in public places; in many municipalities, leash lengths longer than 6 feet are illegal.

Containing the situation: Fencing

A fenced yard can provide the foundation for an outdoor paradise for your pooch. It can also make housetraining easier if — and this is a big if — you realize that you’re still the one who needs to teach Spot when and where to do his business. That means you need to go out with him while he learns to poop and pee outdoors. Only when he’s mastered the art of outdoor bathroom behavior can you stay inside while he heads out into the yard to do his thing.

Still, having a fenced yard has several undeniable advantages. For one thing, you don’t have to hassle with leashes every time Spot needs to make an outdoor pit stop. And in mornings and evenings, you can stay in your nightwear while you take Spot to his backyard bathroom. That beats having to get dressed and embark on a bleary-eyed walk around the neighborhood with your canine potty trainee.

Just make sure that the fencing you install doesn’t awaken the escape artist in your dog’s soul. Ask your local hardware store and fencing contract professional which materials are best for keeping canines in the dogs’ own yards. And as you or your contractor install the fence, make sure that no openings or crevices — either aboveground or underground — provide portals through which Fido can escape.

Even if you have a fence, don’t turn your dog out into the backyard and leave him there all day, every day. Would you want to be in the same place every day, with no way to leave it? All too often, yard dogs become bored dogs — and bored dogs frequently turn into noisy dogs who bark all day or destructive dogs who resort to digging in a desperate attempt to escape the yard or simply amuse themselves. Your neighbors will be grateful if you keep your dog inside with you most of the time. Your yard will look better, too.

ZAPPING ELECTRIC FENCING

Electric fencing sounds like a dream come true. Manufacturers of such invisible boundary systems claim that they teach your dog to stay within the boundaries of your property without your having to erect a conventional fence. The dog wears a special collar that gives him an electrical shock when he crosses the boundaries of your yard.

However, such fencing is far from foolproof. Some determined canines venture beyond their property lines despite getting shocked by their collars, only to refuse to come back home because they don’t want to endure another shock upon reentry. Another problem with electric fencing is that other dogs, animals, or people can enter the yard freely, and your dog can’t escape from them, which makes him vulnerable.

As with so many other products, electric fencing seems to promise a shortcut to teaching and taking care of your dog. All too often, though, such shortcuts only shorten the path to problems.

Installing a doggie door

A doggie door, which is a canine-sized portal built into your door, provides a passage between the inside of your house and your outside yard. Covering the passage is a flap or panel that the dog pushes aside with his nose. Thus, as Figure 3-2 shows, a doggie door enables your dog to take himself outside whenever he needs a potty break.

FIGURE 3-2: Your canine companion can use a doggie door take himself outside whenever he needs to go.

A doggie door can be a simple portal-and-flap affair or an elaborate electronic system. Different models can go into walls, French doors, or regular doors. A doggie door can be a godsend for you and your already-housetrained dog: She doesn’t have to hold it all day while you’re at work, and you don’t have to get up to let Bowser out in the middle of the night.

Make sure that the doggie door leads your dog to a secured area — either a fenced backyard or some sort of dog run. Experts suggest that you close and lock the doggie door when you don’t need it (such as when you’re home and are able to let the dog outside yourself when he needs to go) and that you install it in an inconspicuous area of your house. These precautions give you the convenience of a doggie door without extending an invitation to burglars or other intruders.

Don’t rely on a doggie door until your pooch has mastered his housetraining fundamentals. For some dogs, figuring out where and when to do their business is complicated enough without also having to learn to maneuver that doggie door flap.

Prepping for Indoor Training

If you choose to have your pooch do the doo inside your home, you don’t need to think about fencing or doggie doors at all, and you need to think about leashing your dog only when you go out for a casual stroll. But indoor training still requires some equipment and forethought. In this section, I offer ideas about how to choose the proper receptacles and where to put them inside your house.

Exploring types of indoor potties

Many options are available to the pooch who potties indoors. Those options include the following:

• Newspapers: They’re cheap, but they’re not necessarily neat. The first time you clean up a few squares of newspaper soaked in dog pee, the potential messiness of this enterprise becomes evident. If you don’t pick up the paper carefully, the pee that was on the paper may drip down to the floor — or worse, onto you. Plus, those newspapers never look very nice when they’re spread out on your floor, even before your dog uses them.
• Puppy training pads: Some stores sell absorbent pads you can lay out on the floor, but I don’t recommend them. They’re messy, and the dog can shred them. Reusing old newspapers is cheaper and more environmentally friendly, too.
• Litter boxes: They look better on the floor than newspapers do, and cleanup’s a lot more sanitary: Just scoop the used litter into the trash and flush any solid waste down the toilet. But litter boxes aren’t as portable or convenient as newspapers, and they’re also more expensive.
• Novelty potties: Innovative companies are creating indoor potty options for dogs all the time. For example, one novel facility is the UGoDog (www.ugodog.net), which consists of a plastic tray and a plastic grate that lies atop the tray. The dog steps onto the grate and does his business, which drops from the grate into the tray.

I say more about indoor potties in Chapter 7. Ultimately, the indoor potty you choose is a matter of personal preference. If you hate the look of newspapers all over your floor, a litter box or novelty potty may be a good alternative. But if you want to housetrain your pooch as cheaply as possible, newspapers have the edge.

Setting up your dog's indoor living area and potty spot

Indoor training is a lot easier for both people and pooches when the dog’s living area — his home within your home — is arranged appropriately. And I say “home within your home” for a very important reason: Until you’ve fully housetrained your dog, he shouldn’t have access to your entire home unless you can be right there to watch his every move.

This no-total-access rule is crucial whether you live in a pocket-sized apartment or an abode that rivals Hearst Castle. That’s because if you’re not watching what Fido is doing, you’re not likely to see when Fido’s about to have an accident. Whenever you have to clean up the accident after the fact, you’ve missed a golden opportunity to remind Fido where he’s supposed to do his business.

So during those times you can’t pay close attention to your indoor trainee, confine him to a dog-proofed living area that he can call his own. The living area should include the following:

• A soft, comfy bed, possibly within a crate (see the earlier section “Readying Your Dog’s Room: The Crate” for info on choosing the right crate for your dog)
• A place to eat
• A place to potty
• Containment to keep your pooch from making unauthorized forays outside his living area

The containment can take the form of baby gates or an exercise pen, also known as an x-pen. An x-pen looks like a six- or eight-sided wire crate without a top or bottom. Make sure the gate or x-pen is high enough that your puppy can’t leap over it, and make sure it touches the floor so he can’t squeeze under it.

When you have those essentials, you need to decide where to put them. Here are some factors to consider when figuring out where you should set up your dog’s living area:

• Your dog’s needs: Your indoor trainee needs more than just a place to sleep, eat, poop, and pee. He also needs to be in the middle of his household’s action. A dog is a social being; the closer he is to his people, the happier he is. Plus, the time your puppy or dog spends in the hub of the household gives him the mental and social stimulation he needs to become an easy-to-live-with member of your family.
• Your needs: When figuring out where to place a dog’s living area, one of the most important considerations is whether the area is easy to clean. That’s because no matter how carefully you follow the instructions in this book, your pooch will have some accidents before he masters the art of proper potty behavior. Removing those accidents easily and thoroughly is crucial — both for your peace of mind and for your four-legged friend’s housetraining progress. For those reasons, locating the dog’s living area in an uncarpeted room is often a good idea.
• Your home layout: The place in which you establish your dog’s living space needs to have enough room for both you and him to go about the business of living. This consideration may prompt you to place your dog’s living area in a different part of your home than someone else would, which is okay. There’s no one-size-fits-all best place to locate your puppy’s palace.

Many people opt to house their dogs in their kitchens, which often makes sense. After all, kitchens are usually relatively large, the floors are easy to clean, and families tend to gather there more than in any other room in the house. However, corralling a dog in the kitchen may not be practical if that room is very small, as is often the case in many city apartments.

If you have a small kitchen, house your dog in your bedroom with you. By keeping the dog’s living area in your bedroom, your dog can spend lots of time with you without your having to watch him every second.

After you decide which room your puppy can share with you, you have to arrange his things. Generally, you need to remember only one cardinal rule here: Place the bed and dishes away from the designated potty area. By doing so, you encourage your dog’s instinctive desire to keep his sleeping and dining areas clean.

When your dog is first learning to potty properly, cover all but a small strip of the entire living area with newspaper. Then, as he begins to show that he knows where to go, gradually reduce the papered-over area. You can also put some plastic, such as a shower curtain, between the papers and the floor to keep your dog’s pee from soaking through the papers.

Doing the Dirty Work: Cleanup Equipment

Countless communities have jumped onto the canine cleanup bandwagon. From New York to San Francisco, American cities and towns have enacted laws that require their citizens to clean up immediately after their dogs poop. Failure to do so can lead to hefty fines for the human offenders.

The cities with pooper-scooper laws aren’t just concerned with the gross-out factor of pet poop. Animal waste from yards or near streets often slips into storm drains and streams. The extra fertilizer encourages algae to grow and carries poop-dwelling parasites to your favorite fishing spots and swimming holes. Yuck.

In this section, you explore the best ways to clean up after your four-legged friend.

Choosing an outdoor cleanup method

Cleaning up outside isn’t just a matter of aesthetics; it’s a matter of sanitation. What’s the best way to clean up your dog’s poop when she goes outside? Here are a few methods to choose from, along with tips on how to properly execute them.

Bagging it

The quickest, easiest way to get rid of a dog’s poop is to put it in a plastic bag and then either drop the bag in a trash can or flush the bag’s contents down a toilet.

You may think that this method has a high gross-out factor — and it can. But it doesn’t have to. Here are the two keys to effective bagging: using the right size of bag and developing the proper bagging technique.

Choose a bag that’s large enough to hold your dog’s poop, such as an empty bread bag or the plastic bag that your newspaper came in. Both of these types are oblong, which greatly eases your ability to get the poop into the bag instead of on yourself. You may want to carry two bags at a time — some dogs poop more than once during bathroom breaks.

Before you use your bag, make sure that it doesn’t have any holes, especially at the bottom. Picking up a bunch of dog doo only to have it hit the ground again is a surefire recipe for frustration.

After you have the right bag, gathering up the poop is easy. Here’s how:

1. Pull the plastic bag over one hand like a glove.

   If you’re cleaning up while walking your dog, loop the leash around your wrist and pull the bag over the leashed hand.

2. Pick up the poop with your bagged hand.

3. With your other hand, grasp the open end of the bag and pull the bag inside out.

   The poop will now be inside the bag.

4. Knot the bag and drop it into the nearest trash can, or take the bag inside and flush the contents down the toilet.

Of course, if you’re walking your dog and can’t find a trash can nearby, you have to carry the bagged poop until you find one. But take heart. Soon, not even the thought of having to tote your dog’s poop around town will gross you out — it’ll just be a fact of life.

Scooping it

If you can’t bear handling your dog’s poop, consider using a pooper-scooper. A pooper-scooper is a long-handled rake, shovel, or spadelike device that enables the owner to scoop up the poop without having to bend down and get close to it.

Digesting it

If you don’t want to put your dog’s poop in the trash, or if you like the idea of high-tech waste disposal, you may want to acquire a waste digester system. This small in-ground system works the same way a septic system does: It liquefies any dog poop deposited there and drains the liquid into the surrounding soil.

The basic waste digester system has two parts: the digester unit itself (including the lid) and the digester mix. Follow these steps to use this system:

1. Find a convenient but out-of-the-way spot in your yard to install the digester.

   Don’t install a waste digester near a storm drain, water well, or vegetable garden.

2. Dig a hole about 48 inches deep.

3. Install the digester and lid in the hole.

   The lid should be just a little bit above the ground.

4. When your dog poops, bring the poop to the digester, remove the lid, and place the poop inside.

5. Add some digester mix and some water and replace the lid.

   Then the digester does its thing.

Digesters are a good option for the same people who go for pooper-scoopers — owners whose dogs do most of their pooping in their own yards. In fact, owners often use the two methods together. They use the scooper to transport the poop to the digester and then use the digester to process the poop.

You can find digesters at pet stores, in pet supply catalogs, and on pet retail websites. The cost, including both the digester unit and the digester mix, ranges between $40 and $55. Make sure, though, that your land is suitable for digesters: Soils with heavy clay, land with high water tables, and areas with low temperatures may not be suited for these products. And check your local laws to make sure that digesters are okay for use in your community.

Digesting isn’t the same as composting. Composting is a great way to recycle certain materials, but your dog’s poop shouldn’t be among them. The temperatures in the compost pile don’t rise high enough to kill the pathogens in that poop. For safety’s sake, dispose of your dog’s solid deposit in another way.

HELP! MY LAWN IS DYING!

Plastic bags, pooper-scoopers, and dog-doo digesters do a great job of removing poop from sidewalks and lawns, but they’re totally ineffective in dealing with the damage a dog’s urine can do to a carpet of green grass. Female dogs are especially lethal to grass, because they squat and urinate in one place. Males, on the other hand, often lift their legs and anoint vertical surfaces such as bushes, trees, and shrubs.

Of course, keeping your dog off the grass does the most to preserve the lush green carpet better known as your front lawn. But if that’s not an option — or if your dog gets away from you and takes a whiz on your prized turf — you can try the following options:

• Flush the area. Immediately after your dog does her duty, saturate the area with water. Doing so dilutes the nitrogen in the urine and reduces the damage the urine causes.
• Change the grass. Some varieties of grass, such as ryegrass and fescue, are more resistant to urine damage than others. Planting such varieties, at least in the spots that your dog most often anoints, can help save your lawn.
• Give your dog more water. Giving your dog more water can help dilute her urine before it hits the grass, thereby reducing the damage the urine inflicts.

Indoor cleaners

Until you fully housetrain your dog — and perhaps even thereafter, if she becomes ill — she’s going to make some mistakes. Instead of doing her business outside, on the papers, or in the litter pan, she’ll do it inside — on the floor, on the carpet, on the furniture, or even on your bed.

In any case, you want to get rid of the mess as soon as possible. Of course, you want to preserve the surface on which your dog has put her unwelcome deposit, but you need to get rid of the puddle or pile right away for another more important reason: Canine pee or poop is like a magnet to dogs. If Lassie urinates on the carpet and you don’t clean up that urine promptly and thoroughly, Lassie will come back to that spot again and again to pee on it.

To prevent repeated accidents, you need to remove not only the pee or poop and the stain it leaves but also any odor it emits. Certain cleaners accomplish all these objectives. Others don’t quite do the job.

If you’re looking for a product that cleans up your dog’s bathroom boo-boos, make sure the product’s label specifically states that purpose. Such products contain special enzymes or other properties that break down the dog’s waste and neutralize its odor. When the odor is gone, the dog can’t smell where she performed her last unauthorized download and, lucky for you, doesn’t have any incentive to repeat that performance.

Here are some cleaning products to avoid:

• Ammonia: If you use an ammonia-based cleaner to mop up your dog’s accident, you may as well ask her to return to perform an encore. Ammonia smells like urine to dogs, so the odor from an ammonia-based cleaner draws your pooch back to where she peed before and prompts her to do it again.

• Club soda: Some dog owners advocate using club soda in a pinch to clean up a dog’s bathroom boo-boo. Although club soda is cheaper and more readily available than a commercial pet stain remover, the soda is much less effective than the commercial product. Club soda may help remove the stain caused by a dog’s bathroom accident, but it does nothing to remove the odor.

Other cleaning aids

The products I describe in the preceding sections more than do the job of cleaning up your dog’s bathroom byproducts both indoors and out. However, you may want to consider a few other products and services:

• A black light: If you think you’ve removed all traces of stain and odor from your favorite area rug but Fido’s still peeing on it, invest $20 or so on a black light. This handy device illuminates old urine stains that you may not be able to see. Use your indoor pet stain cleaner to remove such stains once and for all — and remember that one application may not be enough to do the job.
• A pooper-scooper service: Does the very thought of dealing with your dog’s poop give you the willies? Do you have mobility problems? Or do you just not have the time to deal with cleaning up your poop-laden yard? If you answered yes to any of these questions, consider hiring a professional poop-scooping company. To find one, type “pooper scooper service” and the state you live in into an Internet search engine. Depending on how populated your state is, you should come up with at least a few hits. Another option: Visit Poop Butler at www.poopbutler.com and check out its Pooper Scooper Directory.
• Undergarments: Sometimes even the most trustworthy dog has a health problem that temporarily makes holding water impossible for her to do. Until you and your veterinarian figure out why she’s having such problems, you can protect your carpets and furniture by fitting your pooch with an undergarment, such as a doggie diaper, underpants, or even the canine equivalent of a sanitary napkin. Check out Chapter 9 for more info on these garments, and see Chapter 10 for more on illnesses that can cause bathroom problems.