Our work actually starts in the whelping box.

You will need to make your first set of decisions and start planning earlier than you think.

Most puppies remain in their whelping box for 3 to 4 weeks before moving to a larger space. But there is no reason to delay setting up a potty area for that long!

How will you know when to set up the first toilet area? 📌 We want to start our toilet training right around the time the puppies start standing up and voiding on their own, without requiring stimulation from the dam. So, you will be carefully observing your puppies for this developmental milestone. At what age puppies start voiding voluntarily isn’t uniform, breed, gestational age, and rate of development all vary. You might also look at the pads under your footing, as pee passes through to the pad it will show you if puppies are starting to move to one end or area of the box to void. When you clean your bedding you can look for signs that pee or poo marks are migrating to a certain side or area. So, observe your puppies carefully! Once you see your puppies voiding without help from the dam, you are ready for this step! 🤓

This plan is easier with a square or rectangular whelping box, but if you are using a kiddy pool this can be modified with some creativity.

We will start by simply dividing our whelping box in half with bedding. Half of the bed will have a comfy bed (I use the Yak Fleece Bed) and half the bed will be a “potty” area (I use the Pooch Pad).

Why? 🧐

Because we want our puppies from the very beginning to wake up, and learn to prefer to move away from their resting area to void. ⚠️

We also do NOT want to inhibit the dam from laying down anywhere she wants, if we crowd the dam she might lay down too near or on a puppy and injure it. This is why I don’t always use a “frame” for my potty pad holder, unless I have a small litter and a large whelping box, or am using a thick(ish) bed area like doubled sided fleece that I might use during a cold winter and instead use the large washable potty pads. This allows the dam to lay anywhere. In all cases, safety of the puppies comes first.

Supplies needed in addition to your regular whelping box supplies.Bed Area: Yak Fleece, or fleece bed for the “bed” half of the whelping box. The bed area should be one that keeps the dam and puppies comfortable, so a cool material in warm seasons and a warm material in cold seasons based on the preference of the mother and puppies. Thin material remains the safest choice, especially in the first few weeks. Toilet Area: Washable dog potty pad (I use Pooch Pads). I prefer these washable potty pads made specifically for dogs, because they are “unlike” the bed and later, the durawhelp pads I use for traction in my weaning pen, they are “attractant” and puppies seem to easily learn to find them when they need to void, they are washable so I’m not buying a lot of disposable pads, and the dam and puppies are unlikely to drag them around or play with them at first. BUT, you can use disposable pads if you prefer.Disposable Potty Pads: (If you don’t want to use washable). choose the largest size possible, they are less likely to be drug around and played with. Get Duct Tape, double sided tape, or carpet tape and tape the underside of any pad seams together, to reduce playing/dragging the pads around. * Note: We will NOT start at 14 days with a proper litter box with litter, the puppies cannot navigate it yet. 2024 Update: I have found that the disposable pads do seem to attract puppies better than the washable ones and further, after a week or so my puppies can navigate the frame pretty well, so if I’m using disposable pads at first I think using the frame to hold them in place is rather worth it. You will need these supplies to be ready a few days BEFORE you expect your puppies to be able to stand up and void on their own. As a reference, my GSD puppies do this around day 10 to 14. ➡️ Important! It’s extremely important that this first toilet area is positioned in the exact same spot you will put the litter box later! We’ll talk about this more later, but for my own set up, this is on the west wall of my whelping box, which will become the west wall of my weaning pen a week or so later. If the whelping box is in a different room or area from the weaning pen I still use the western side of the whelping box for the toilet.

Step 1: It All Starts In The Whelping Box