Toilet Training Update

Gizmo has been faithfully using the green seat to do her business for a few months now. We were hoping that she  would be moving on sooner, but we went at her pace. Last weekend we went out and bought a padded toilet seat. The idea was that it would be textured, giving Gizmo a less slippery surface to land on and the illusion of something to bury. I don't know if she bought it.

We installed it on Sunday. She definitely wasn't thrilled with it, but she seemed to have no problems hopping up onto it. The first night, she went #1 with no problems. She was not excited about #2 however. She whined and cried all night and finally in the morning she started digging on the bed. I hurriedly carried her to the bathroom. When I checked the bathroom a couple minutes later, I found that she had pooped on the floor. Ugh.

That night while Michael was on the computer, he didn't notice until it was too late that Gizmo was pooping on the bed. Yuck.

We decided to give her one last chance. She was having zero problems going #1, so we thought she might just need a little more encouragement for the other part. That night I was vigilant about her bathroom activities. She kept me up most of the night worrying that she was going to poop on something else. Finally, I stuck her in the bathroom and closed the door, forcing her in there until she went. And she did!

Gizmo in action.

The next night was much less stressful. She didn't whine and she did her business before we went to bed so I caught it on camera. I've noticed that she places 3 out of 4 feet on the toilet seat. She needs to have all four on the seat before we can remove the tray underneath. We will keep at the way things are now until she is really comfortable, then we will try to remove the tray. This will probably be 4-6 weeks from now.

So, steady progress. Gizmo is not completely litter free but she is getting there. We're hoping that before we leave Korea she will be good to go!