I think bowel movements for most animals are a conscious, voluntary act that requires musculature that very old specimens sometimes lose.
I imagine that even Amoeba have an instinct to move away from their own excrement and on to greener pastures, so to speak, else they would risk inundating their surroundings with unusable discarded refuse.
Potty training for us is simply developing a connection between societal rules and the instinctive, voluntary act. Same for most domesticated animals who instinctively know when and where to go (once they can self-ambulate), but must be taught our human counter-instinctive rules.
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