It's always been a nice trick popular among cat owners sick of cleaning the litter box, or who just want to show off to their friends. There are many devices out on the market for easing a cat into the habit, but I've seen no such thing for dogs. So what am I talking about?

Training an animal to urinate or defecate in a toilet.

I have extensively searched the internet for tips or even a simple place to start, but the internet is too clogged with articles about housebreaking or "potty/toilet training" a dog for me to find anything related to the actual subject.

My beautiful adopted Border Collie mix is coming home this Monday, and it struck me as a neat trick that may be good to have in my arsenal. She is my family's first dog and while I am squeamish around doggy poo-poo, I have no intention of using the trick of toilet-training as a replacement for good old plastic bags! This may be convenient for the whole family, however, and seems like a good way to prevent accidents around the house (although I also have every intention of letting the dog out at the proper time, and don't want to use the toilet as a shortcut out of laziness).

Does anyone know how I can get started with training my pup to relieve herself in a toilet? Are there any internet resources I may be unable to find on the subject?

For the record, my sweet little girl is around four months old and was adopted from a no-kill animal shelter. :) She was new to the shelter so we do not know if she is already housebroken, though given her extremely polite nature I find it hard to believe that she has not had any prior training. Thank you very much for your answers--they will make my girl's new family very happy!

I think, based on how dogs urinate and defecate, that would be fairly difficult to train..

Shreve Stockton, of dailycoyote.net fame, who was handed a tiny orphaned coyote pup and raised him to be a magnificent animal, says she has trained Charlie the Coyote to pee over a bathtub or shower drain during frigid Wyoming winter nights or in emergencies. Since dogs don't have the leaping ability and flexibility that cats do and can't easily jump up on a toilet seat, probably more reasonable thing for you to do would be to train him to use a litter box.

In any event, the dog needs the exercise and social activity of walking, so that would be first on my list in getting him to relieve himself.

P.S. Most cats don't have to be "trained" to use a litter box. Mother cats teach their babies how to dig holes and do their business. Only if a kitten is orphaned or taken away from Mom much too young would it have to be shown by a human how to use a litter box.

I don't know. Females, maybe. Maybe, with a custom made "seat".

Yeah, or an extra tall dog. Like a great dane. Hey! Maybe I should try to teach zoe!

I had thought of the challenges a dog might face balancing on a toilet, which certainly seems unpleasant. I mainly asked because I was sure that I'd heard stories of many toilet-trained dogs.

However, training a dog to do their business (or at least urinate, for a drain) on a grounded surface does seem more realistic. I wonder if perhaps we used a special seat... it sure would be a neat trick, but the extra stress on the dog is surely unnecessary given how often she'd likely use it.

From http://dailycoyotefaq.blogspot.com/ (before she started dailycoyote.net --

Is Charlie housebroken?

Oh yes. When he was a tiny puppy, I thought, "a few messes here and there on my plywood floor aren't that big a deal..." Then he grew and so did the puddles. I trained him to use the cat box to pee in if he was inside, like in the middle of the night, and he does everything else outside. He scratches at the door when he needs to go out.

When we are at houses that actually have indoor plumbing, I show Charlie the shower or bathtub upon arrival and when he needs to go, he saunters into the bathroom, hops in the tub, and pees down the drain. Then I turn on the water to flush it. It's a handy trick, and really, how cool is it to say, "A coyote peed in my shower!"