-------------Isky's Quick Guide to Toilet Training Your cats: PART C (FINAL PART) -------------

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As I mentioned before, the success of your toilet training efforts has more to do with your cat and his/her personality and less to do with age. Whisky is the quiet but observant one, and all my friends say that he has a mind of his own. Guinness is the typical naughty, hyperactive, but clingy type. He's also the more dominant of the two. Perhaps that's why he's taken longer... I'm not sure. In the end, I spent almost 2.5 months training the boys. If you exclude the failed Water Approach phase, it would be about 2 months. Is it possible to train a cat in 21 days like the book says? Well, I think Whisky could have done it, but Guinness would need longer (and is still learning). Each cat will be different.

I'm not sure if my approach if the best or fastest approach, but it fits my requirement.. to have as little mess as possible. But I'd offer the following advice and tips for anyone thinking of toilet training your cats.

1. Patience:
You'll need plenty, especially if you are sharing your toilet with your cats like I am.

2. Time i.e. be around as much as possible:
It helps if you are around to catch your cat pooping and peeing, so that you can slowly adjust his position to the correct stance, or stop them from pooping / peeing in other places. For some reason, I always managed to catch and correct Whisky's stance, but I was never around to catch Guinness doing it. Also, being around more often means less chance of accidents happening, which means less stress for owner and cat alike.

3. Keep the rest of the area / house clean:
Now that their poop just falls into the bowl, I have little or no skidmark issues. But during the training phase, Whisky had soft stools, so he would inevitably leave skid marks around the house when they sit down, which of course would tempt guinness to poop at that spot. The cleaner I keep the apartment, the less likely that accidents would happen. I ended up vacuuming and mopping my place twice or even three times a week. I also took a damp cotton ball to their butts to clean up any "kling-ons".

@Luigi, i'm not sure what advice I can give to prevent them from getting the seat itself dirty. The seat will occasionally get dirty with paw prints, but not from urine since they hang over the edge of the seat instead of "levitating"...a concept that some of the ladies might be familiar with :P But I do try to keep the seat as clean as possible, so they don't mistake it as a place to poop or pee (I only had one accident on the seat when Guinness pooped on it)

4. Keep plenty of antibacterial soap and floor cleaner in the toilet:
You'll need it. Tried to look for more environmentally friendly organic cleaner - didn't want to expose the boys to too many chemicals. Settled with an orange / citrus-based cleaner, but still looking for alternatives.

5. More cats MIGHT be more trouble - I'm not sure how hard it is to train more than 2 cats (like Luigi), but training a lot of cats MIGHT be difficult. Guinness didn't learn by watching his brother. In fact, if one cat has an accident.. chances are the other cat will also follow suit and poop / pee in the same place. Still, while it MIGHT be difficult, I wouldn't say it's impossible.

6. You have to know your pets:
The training will have a better chance of success if you know your cat's peculiarities and behavior. I know when Guinness wants to poop or pee, and isn't sure where to go, so all I do is plonk him on the toilet seat and he'll be fine. He is like this at the moment, so I still consider him under probabtion. I know when Whisky wants to pee or poo, but I've accidently close the toilet lid or closed the door, because he'll come find me and "tell me".

Also, despite the fact that Guinness is the main culprit if something goes wrong, I also go very easy on him as he's coming into his maturity (he's starting to hump his brother), and I know that a cat's behavior can go haywire around this time. So, as much as you want the cat to adjust to your requirements, you'll also have to do some adjusting yourself.

7. If it fails, just take a step back and try again. A little perseverance will go a long way.

******* Final Thoughts *******
I haven't had to scoop poop and sweep litter off by bed for weeks. No more smell, no more poop disposal runs in the middle of the night (to avoid the neighbors in the elevator), no more hauling bags of litter. As challenging as it has been for the past 2 months or so... I'd say it's been very worth it.

Hope this helps. Good Luck!