Fresh Patch Customers Are Using Its Real Grass Potty in Conjunction with the Modern Dog Puppy Apartment

The Fresh Patch Company (www.freshpatch.com) reports that many of its customers are using its real-grass dog potty in conjunction with crate training their pups with the Potty Training Puppy Apartment (PTPA) made by the Modern Dog Company. (http://modernpuppies.com/pottytrainingpuppyapartment.aspx). According to Fresh Patch customers, the real grass fits very well within certain sizes of the Puppy Apartment, and it is being used with great success within the Puppy Apartment as an alternative to pee pads. The Fresh Patch Company notes that crate training is one of many approaches for house-training new puppies. It is essentially based on the principles of using a crate to create and confine a dog to its own space (versus the space in the rest of the home), and of separating the dog’s space within the crate into distinct sleeping and bathroom areas. Because a dog will not potty where he or she sleeps, a dog will learn that its bathroom area is the only acceptable place to go potty. Many dog trainers and owners swear by crate training, but some don’t like the confinement aspect. For those dog owners who are trying the Modern Dog Potty Training Apartment, the Fresh Patch Company is glad that its product can be used in the crates instead of pee pads. According to Fresh Patch, pee pads just teach dogs to “go” on synthetic material—a learned behavior that can carry over to rugs and furnishings. In contrast, potties with the smell and texture of real grass reinforce a dog’s instinctive behavior of going on natural grass outside the home. Once a dog makes the association between the real grass in the potty and the real grass outside the home, he or she will know that real grass is the only acceptable place to “go.” The Fresh Patch Company notes that an excellent analysis of the pros and cons of crate training and other training products is offered by Caryl Wolff, certified dog behavior consultant, in her new book, “Puppy Potty Training: The Expert’s Guide to Easy Housetraining FAST.” The digital book was offered for sale on Amazon.com in early September.