Windsong Shop

Litter Box with Artificial Turf !!! 

Our litter box system is a washing machine pan with a piece of cut (cheap) artificial turf. We buy everything we need at Home Depot. We buy the cheap artificial turf that many RV’ers like. It is more like a green carpet type of turf. It doesn’t have any grass like strings that poop can get stuck on.

I would recommend getting 2 trays so you can always have one clean and ready to go. To clean I spray down with a garden house and let soak with either bleach water or vinegar water. Then I spray off again and let dry in the sun.

You can layer the bottom of the pan with pee pads to catch the urine. However, my pups are super smart and tend to pull the grass up so they can play with aka shred the pee pads in a million different pieces. So I omit the pee pads myself as I’d pre- fer them not to ingest the toxic ingredients in the pads.

We start potty training our puppies using this system at 2 1/2 weeks old. Typically, our pups go home 80-100% litter trained. While you don’t necessarily need a litter box when you take your pup home, I personally find that having one as a back-up plan cuts down on accidents, especially on my throw rugs.

When setting up your puppy pen you want a space to sleep, play and potty. I prefer to zip tie my metal x-pen to the crate so that the puppy has a bit more room inside the pen itself. They are very used to sleeping in a crate with the door open. I achieve this by placing their dog bed and blanket inside the crate. I place the lit- ter box on the far side of the pen. Then they have the open space to play as well as eat and drink.

If you choose to crate your dog in your room next to you at night, but you also want a play pen in the main part of your house for the daytime, I would suggest you pur- chase 2 crates. 1 for the playpen set up and another for your room. Make sure both crates have comfy beds and blankets to encourage good sleep habits (imitating what we do at Windsong).

As I send videos of the pups you will watch the progression of the pups from a whelping box into a toddler pen and eventually into the full size pen that you will create at home. Keep in mind this is a slow process from 2-7 weeks. I don’t place them in a full size pen at 4 weeks old. It is a gradual process. If you choose NOT to do a playpen and your pup is having a lot of accidents in your home, it is because your space is TOO BIG! Limiting the space the pup has to roam will ensure he/she can quickly find the litter box when the need arises.