Journalee asked:

Sometimes my fiancee and I go out of state to visit my family back home and we have had his mother watch out for our new dog enough to let him out to go to the bathroom.
Our cheap drugs dog is 2 years old and he’s house trained but I was wondering if there’s a way to potty train him indoor as well to go in a certain area and if so, how is it done?

Reply:

In some pet stores, you can actually buy Dog Litter. It’s similar to cat litter, only much bigger than thicker, often made from compressed newspaper. You will just have to buy enough in regards to what size dog you have. You can also buy Dog training pads, which I use for my 2 dogs, which I got at Wal-Mart. As for the training, that can be hard, as dogs are hard-wired NOT to go in the house, especially if they’ve been told that going in the house is bad. Try to get a small sample of your dog’s urine, maybe from a grassy area he’s gone, and put it in the litter or on the pad, and don’t show any interest in it. He might feel he’s about to be punished, when technically he didn’t even do anything. Try to encourage him to go where you want, and praise him up if he does. It can be very hard to train a dog to go inside when they’ve been trained NOT to do that, but with patience and kindness, you can train a dog to do just about anything. Secrets to Dog Training, by Dog Trainer Expert, Daniel Stevens. It’s a terrific book on how to train dog.