Week One

It's been 7 days since we started. So far I think their progress is what I expected. The bathroom is messy but certainly not as stinky since it's being cleaned and the litter changed regularly. Keeping Pepper in his own room proved to be annoying for both of us. He cries nonstop. Since he's doing well on the toilet though, we've been letting him roam free during the day.

Pepper

The first day was a nervous one with Pepper. I knew he was a fast learner, but he would also pee more frequently than Duke. So I was worried all night that he wouldn't be able to wait until the morning. He was the first one to see the new bowl. Pepper jumped down about six times before he checked the litter with his paw and sniffed. Eventually he got it, though! As you can see from the picture, he's still keeping all his paws in the bowl, which will need to change if he's going to progress.

Pepper has not been able to make it very long without an accident though. We found a towel in his room that he was using to relieve himself. I wasn't very upset about that, but when he peed on the small bed we made up for Duke in our room... right in front of us, I was pretty mad. I'm definately going to be taking him to the bathroom more often, whether he's in his room or roaming free just to see if he has to go.

Duke

Our big guy is a little shy on the bowl. At first, I would place him on the bowl and wait. He would just jump off without so much as a sniff. After about 10 tries, trying everything I could to coax him to go (even blocking him from jumping down for a time), I gave up. I figured if he had to go bad enough he would do it. I didn't think that maybe he just didn't want to do it in front of me. My wife was more clever. While I was at work, she put him in the bathroom and closed the door. Of course he didn't go right away, but after about 10 minutes she came back and saw that he had done his business. Good job, Duke!