The Box

As you may recall from my last post, I mentioned the one thing that I dreaded most about acquiring a new dog, and that was the DOG WALKING. The early morning walking (ouch!), the early evening walking and my most feared, the late night walking.

In my extreme laziness, I had imagined a product much like a cat box, a small plastic box filled with sand or whatever, where my highly intelligent new pup would sprightly beeline into in times of need. Maybe I could invent such an item? My heart raced with just the thought. But low and behold, to my dismay, there was already such a product on the market EXACTLY like this, and readily available at my local pet store. Miracles do happen!


Immediately we darted to Petco and made the purchase. A small gray box and a bag of “puppy litter” were all we needed. We brought it home, filled up the box, positioned it nicely in a corner of a room we rarely used, and called Sadie to join us. We put her in the box and said “Go pee. Go on… go pee. Go on, Sadie, you can do it… go pee” She looked at us like we were crazy.

We repeated this over and over and over. For nearly an hour. “Come on... go pee and we’ll get a treat. FINALLY… she peed. And we had a party the size of Texas! Clapping and shouting and congratulating her with a treat. Later that day, we put her back in the box and repeated the process all over again. We had another party. That evening, before bed, another party. This went on for a couple of days and then she started to get it on her own.

We went through a rough few weeks where in her attempts, she missed the box. In some instances, she even missed going in the right room with the box. But after awhile we were home free. As Sadie got bigger, she outgrew the small box and moved into the roomier “medium” sized model.

It’s been years now. No early morning walking, early evening or late night walking is ever needed. We take Sadie out for walks when she wants to go, or when we want to take her, and it works out just perfectly.

Sadie using her box today!!