Penny Potty Problemos

Penny may be a lot of things... but she is not dumb, that's for sure. If you could equate the attention demanded by this little dog it would basically be that of Paris Hilton circa 2004 when she was in her media hype stage. I have tons of toys for her. (I thought about going eco friendly with them early on and that didn't work out so well.) I had to return tons of toys to Petsmart because she has the ferocity of a pit bull so she is basically confined to Kong toys. But back to Paris Hilton, who owned a Chihuahua too FYI (which Penny is part.) She demands attention and tons and tons and tons of it.

This past summer, after 5 months of failed potty training attempts, and my soon to be gone deposit because of my carpet at my apartment, my mother was able to potty train her. Bless her soul, this woman was a God send! She had her going outside on command, and inside on a puppy pad (in case of rain, blizzard, or long library hauls). I keep Penny in the kitchen for part of the day while I am in class, so it was important that I didn't make her suffer so we also trained her on the puppy pad. And it worked! At night she would go on it too, and so long were the days of piddle accidents.

Penny commandeering the bed

I moved back to my lovely apartment and things were great... for about a month. And then it all changed. I got busy and she wasn't having it. She wanted to be snuggled and played with every second of every day. I started to notice that when I took a shower, she had a piddle accident RIGHT NEXT to the puppy pad. And I mean maybe  an inch away. Then if I fell asleep on the couch... another piddle accident RIGHT NEXT to the puppy pad. If I fell asleep with her though in my bed... NO ACCIDENT. She went on the puppy pad. I started to use my sleuthing techniques and with reason, logic, and deduction (and by that I mean my boyfriend figured it out) I realized that she was PIDDLING ON PURPOSE!


That little stinker was doing it on purpose and I was going through mounds of cleaner, paper towels, and puppy pads trying to clean the mess up. So I had to do something because this paper waste was getting out of control and frankly wasn't very green. So in my despair I was checking my email and I got an awesome Groupon for a pet relief station half off.

It isn't real grass, and is probably made of lots of plastic and synthetics, but here is my idea. If I don't have to buy a bunch of chemical carpet cleaner, puppy pads, or paper towels, it has to be better in the long run! Right? Plus since it resembles grass maybe it will work because she will think she is going outside all the time and will like using it because she is already trained to do so. I really hope her pavlov kicks in on this one because it isn't for lack of care that she gets like that. I am pretty sure it is spite. She really is adored and loved. I play with her all day long. As I am writing this to you I am constantly being interjected by a game of fetch with her that frankly she is winning.

So I am starting to realize that there is no cookie cutter way to go green with your pet because they have a personality of their own. I am starting to adapt my ways of thinking about sustainability to work with her personality and her needs to turn her green.

Stay tuned for some posts on eco puppy nutrition.

Friends FUR-ever,

Penny & Stephanie

Running Total
$22 for the relief station + 1 penny from last time=
-$22.01