Paper Training

For anyone who's never had a puppy, paper training is house training for lazy people who don't plan ahead. Puppies pee a lot, like every 30 minutes or so. Since no one actually has the time (or energy) to take their puppy out that often all of the time, paper trainers put down newsprint or some other type of pad and let the puppy pee on that. When the puppy has gotten older and pees less often, they then try to transition the puppy to peeing outside. This generally involves a lot of yelling, stained carpets, and upset, confused puppies.

There is, however, a wonderful built in puppy mechanism that these people are ignoring. Puppies, like all mammals, have a biological aversion to soiling their dens. And that is where crate training comes in. Crate trainers, rather than encourage the puppy to pee somewhere that will eventually be off limits--completely confusing the puppy later and creating more work for themselves--instead encourage the puppy to pee outside, the end goal. Between outside visits is where the crate comes in. Although many people have a negative reaction to crates or cages, most puppies love them. Dogs are den animals and when you throw a blanket over a crate it magically becomes a den--just like when you throw a blanket over two chairs they magically become a fort.

Crate trained puppies will automatically start practicing holding their urine longer and longer right away because they have the motivation of not soiling their den. They'll signal their owner to go out very clearly from early on--by barking, pawing at the door, or, as in the case of my late girl Harriet, ringing a bell. The puppy is technically house-trained within weeks, in other words, they will let you know that they have to go out and as long as you let them out in a reasonable amount of time, will not pee in the house. As they get older the amount of time between breaks increases as does the amount of time they can wait to be let out. The transition to adulthood is smooth and painless.

Now, here's my real point . . .

These practices apply to all mammals, not just puppies, and babies are mammals, too.

Paper training your baby--putting them in a diaper all day and encouraging them to pee in it--is lazy and sets you up for more work down the road. Peeing in your pants is not appropriate. Why teach your child to do it? They're just going to be confused a couple (or three or four) years later when you suddenly change the rules on them. Why not train your baby to use the potty right from birth?

You'll discover three things right away. First, your baby can hear and see what's around them from the day they are born. They are aware of their environment and react to it. They are not just little lumps. I held my baby naked in my arms and when she peed on me I made a little psss-psss sound, kind of like when you call a cat. Later, when I held her over a potty and made that sound again, she peed. That's all it took. By the time she was two weeks old all I had to do was hold her over the potty and she would pee.

And that's number two. Your baby has amazing awareness and control of their body from the day they're born. They know when they're peeing and they can pee at will. If your newborn pees or poops every time you take off their diaper, it isn't because "the air" is hitting them. It's because they realize that they can go at that moment and won't have to sit in it.

And that's number three. Your baby does not want to sit in their own mess. Like all mammals he or she is desperately looking for an alternative and they are crying when they can't find one. Although some babies cry for no apparent reason, most babies are crying because they're hungry, tired, or have to potty. When my daughter is hungry, I feed her. When she's tired, I rock her. When she has to potty, I potty her.

Augusta is seven months old and we've been practicing infant potty training, or Elimination Communication (EC) since she was born. She poops in her diaper maybe a couple of times a month. More than half of her pees go in the potty. Soon she'll be mobile and won't have to depend on her sleep-deprived and distracted mommy to get to the potty and I think she'll be a very, very happy baby. :-)