Originally, I would have thought this was a really silly question, but then I started to see people who were able to get their cats to use a sort of little feline toilet. That made me look into whether or not you could potty train other animals as well.
As it turns out, most long-time pet owners suggest that potty training prairie dogs is really difficult. They tend to be extremely stubborn and they don’t communicate all that well.
That’s why some owners have solved the issue primarily by providing just a place for them to go whenever they feel like. After all, most prairie dogs don’t really know how to give you a little message that they need to go outside the same way that canines can.
However, there do seem to be multiple credible reports of people who have their p-dogs genuinely potty trained or at least housebroken. Much of it has to do with how these animals behave in the wild.
So can they be trained? Yes, to a limited extent prairie dogs can be trained to use a litter box or preferably a litter area most of the time.
How Do Prairie Dogs Manage their Urine and Feces in the Wild?
If you ever get the chance to watch a prairie dog colony from a safe vantage point, then you’ll probably notice that they sort of set aside a latrine area the way that you’d think soldiers would. Honestly, I was completely stunned the first time that I ever saw this!
Don’t let anyone tell you that prairie dogs are anything but brilliant animals, because this is their way of ensuring that they don’t poison their food supply. Wild prairie dogs won’t ever go on grass that they’d prefer to chow down on later.
Pet owners can actually take advantage of this behavior! Make sure that you position your p-dog’s food far away from the area that you’d like him or her to go in.
Chances are that your prairie dog won’t ever want to go near the place that they’d eat, so this can help to reinforce the idea that you need them to go in a certain location. Those who actually want to try and get their p-dogs to go in a human toilet will want to locate their meals and possibly even their play area apart from the bathroom.
That being said, you’ll want to make sure that your pet can still see the bathroom really well. Some prairie dogs aren’t going to want to go if they can’t figure out the best way to get back there while others won’t bother going up or down stairs.
Granted, some people feel that you shouldn’t really have your prairie dogs climbing or descending stairs too often anyway. It’s one of those things that you’ll have to decide for yourself depending on the type of personality your own prairie dog has
Do Prairie Dogs Stink?
While they might not smell all that great in the wild, your domestic prairie dog shouldn’t stink. If he or she does, then you might need to bathe them.
You might find that your prairie dog doesn’t like taking a bath, so you may want to try giving them a dry bath by sprinkling some baking soda on their coat and then brushing it out. This is a trick that’s long been popular with more conventional dog owners.
Make sure to put your prairie dog’s food away from any area that you don’t want stunk up, so that he or she isn’t tempted to squat down there! Since prairie dogs won’t relieve themselves near their own food supply, they normally won’t stink up their enclosures if they’re being fed there.
You may have come across some prairie dog colonies in zoos that certainly do have a foul odor. I had to ask where this came from.
It turns out that since the enclosures they have in these settings are so large, they’ll end up going somewhere inside of it because they feel like they have more than enough room. This shouldn’t normally happen if you have a single domestic one in your home.
I have seen some pretty weird stories about what happens when someone tries to keep more than one prairie dog but doesn’t dedicate enough time to bonding with all of them, so you’ll probably want to restrict yourself to a reasonable number if you’re trying to avoid spiteful smelly messes!
How to Litter Train a Pet Prairie Dog in 10 Steps
Perhaps a much more reasonable solution would be to litter train your prairie dog the same way that a cat owner does it. Try these steps:
- Find a box that’s the right size for your prairie dog, or you’ll never be able to coax them to go.
- Position more than one around your house in areas away from your prairie dog’s food supply.
- Let your prairie dogs be when they’re trying to use the box.
- Show your animal the location of each one.
- Run your fingers through the litter if they don’t seem very interested in it.
- Try placing your prairie dog in the box after meals or drinks until they can use it on their own.
- Reward your prairie dog whenever he or she uses the box right.
- Scoop the boxes to make sure that they’re always clean enough for your animals to use it.
- Change the type of litter if your p-dogs have found it objectionable.
- Evaluate the position of each box to make sure your animals can find them if training seems to have ground to a halt.
It seems like most pet owners have been able to train their prairie dogs to use litter boxes in only a slightly greater amount of time than they would have been able to train a cat.
In a worst case scenario, you might want to set up a full environment for your prairie dog the way that Cody Raygoza did in this video:
If you do so, then make sure that you clean it regularly so your prairie dogs will still use the right area to relieve themselves.