Potty Training: Keeping patio clean

[Schatzi011]

When I lived indoors, Hercules was really easy to potty train. I just had to put him in the bathtub every other day and he learned to pee/poo in there and not around my house. It took about a week to teach him.

Now he is outdoors and has a huge yard. He has recently begun to pee on our patio about every other day. He used to go in the grass or in the plants, but for the last two weeks he changed it to the patio. I think it has to do with the hot weather and being on the cool concrete. But there is another concrete pad that is just as cool and out of the way, yet he doesn't go on that.

Does anyone know of ways to discourage him from peeing on the patio?

 

[Speedy-1]

I don't know that torts can be "potty trained" . I think the easiest is going to be figuring out about when (what time of day) he does it , and try to have him soaking around that time ! Speedy usually goes between 3 and 4 in the afternoon so I try to have him soaking then . Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't !

 

[Schatzi011]

I know they can definitely be potty trained in the house. Like I said, it took a week, but then he would have no accidents and could roam around without problems. He lived indoors for about 5 years while I was in MN. He had access to my patio in the summer, but in the fall/winter/spring he was indoors and I didn't want him to mess all over my house. I didn't have a huge space, so dedicating a room to him wasn't really an option. With him being potty trained, he had a lot of space because then he could roam anywhere.

I can't exactly do that now though, since he is too heavy for me to lift! Maybe I can give him treats on the other concrete pad so he learns to like the other place better.

 

[Big Charlie]

I'm not sure that was exactly potty trained. Tortoises naturally go when you put them in warm water, so if you soak them they will go, then since they have already gone, they won't go later in your house. That is taking advantage of their natural inclinations, not potty training.

Charlie goes through stages where he messes the patio. The secret is to keep him more interested in other parts of the yard; basically keep him off the patio so when he goes, it will be somewhere else. Where does he spend the night? Charlie has started spending his nights at the far end of the yard so when he goes it is usually on the grass while he is grazing. When he sleeps in his night box on the patio, he is much more likely to make a mess on the patio.

 

[Schatzi011]

Well, I would soak him normally and he would still mess around the house. Then when someone mentioned potty training to me, I took it more seriously. I would then specifically soak him till he went potty, then rinse him and take him out of the bath. The first few days, it took 30 minutes or so for him to go. This time slowly decreased and by the end of a week, he would go potty within a couple minutes of being placed in the water. And, he wouldn't go around the house anymore. To me, I consider that being potty trained (no more accidents around the house!).

Animal training in general is very successful when you use their natural inclinations. For instance, even with dogs, you can quickly teach them to sit by holding a treat above and slightly behind their head. Naturally, they look up, back and sit down. I think using their natural inclinations work best. In the case of Hercules, using his natural inclination (after a year of not doing so), made it so I didn't have to clean up his messes around my house and it only took a week.

Hercules spends the night in his house, which is on the side of our house. It isn't especially close to our patio. He has been sleeping in his house for about 9 months now.