A breeder’s secret to a clean Golden Doodle puppy nursery
Over the past couple years we’ve noticed an increase in clients asking how we keep our puppy nursery so neat and tidy. Even with Bella’s last litter of ten (10) goldendoodle puppies, the nursery was ready for stop-in visits at the drop of a hat.
What’s our secret?
Training zones. Check out our How to potty train puppies at JUST 4 WEEKS OLD! video on YouTube that shows these zones in action.
Teaching puppies their proper zones for sleeping, playing, eating, and pottying serves as a major milestone in successful house training.
Step 1 – Designate the "zones"
Let us save you some time (and mess)!! We start out with trays lined with pads that cover nearly the entire puppy space. They are super absorbent and are easy to change out. Plus, our first puppies made it pretty obvious that newspaper was only good for shredding ... confetti party!!! ... and their beautiful red and apricot coats had so much black smut they could have passed as chimney sweeps!
Trays are the way to go.
Step 2 – Surround the bedding
Soon after the puppies are born, we surround their bedding area with trays. As the puppies get their legs, they waddle (or fall) off their bedding pallet and onto the trays to potty. In case you aren't aware, puppies piddle quite frequently. They prefer to piddle off their bedding, but don’t have enough stamina to make it across the floor.
Step 3 – Seek & Find
Once the puppies start to get the in the swing of using the trays, we reduce the number of trays in the nursery area one tray at a time. The puppies have grown accustomed to the feel of the grates and prefer doing their business in familiar territory. We reduce down to one tray that is still close to the bedding pallet, but yet a few leaps away. This provides room for the rambunctious puppies to bound out of bed without tripping over their potty.
Step 4 – Privacy Corner
Right around six weeks the puppies are so accustomed to the tray pottying that they prefer it in the corner. The larger the playtime area the better! An added bonus is with the trays smooshed in the corner, fewer spills of clean water and food into the trays occur.
The extra time, energy, and resources being invested in zone training our puppies are well worth it. Our goal has always been to breed healthy, happy goldendoodle puppies and help them transition well into their forever families.
By zone training our puppies, we help our clients minimize “accident” frustration and expedite the transition into outdoor potty training; the trays provide a portable option to aid in those efforts.
Our clients boast about the ease of training their pups to use a natural area, or particular corner of the yard. We attribute that success to both the zone training and our amazing clients who understand the importance of devoting time into properly training their goldendoodle pups.
If you have any additional questions about how we raise our puppies, feel free to post a comment below, give us a call, or reach out on our contact page!