How to potty train your puppy

House training a puppy or adult dog, is about building good habits. Many people think house training is about teaching the dog what is right and what is wrong, but that is not how dogs learn. Dogs only have two goals, to find pleasure and avoid pain.

You can leave the door open as long as you like, if there is a nice carpet to pee on that is closer the puppy will go there.  If you punish the puppy, you are not teaching them that this is wrong, you are teaching them that peeing in front of you is unsafe. But they didn’t get punished for the pee behind the couch (because it took you a while to notice). So the puppy learns to pee there because it appears to be safe. 

There are 2 important rules when it comes to house training a puppy or any dog.

Rule 1: Prevent accidents

1. Control the environment: use a crate, an indoor play pen aka as X-pen, and baby gates to manage your dog’s environment. management has many advantages. And if you think that – oh no, I am not going to do THAT to my puppy I want them to have freedom. Then you want to remember this the next time you step into a puddle or  smelly land mine. You chose to give your puppy the freedom to do do that, so the reis no need to get upset. More reasons why management and crates are a great idea here.
2. Check the puppies bedding: pick up your puppy’s bedding  at least twice every day. If you find that the puppy had an accident in there, then reduce the bedding. If your puppy has a fluffy bed, replace that with a towel. If the puppy has and accident on only a towel then remove the towel and go to no bedding for a while. The bedding absorbs the pee, so the puppy feels still dry, so they don’t bother to hold it.
3. Watch your puppy very closely: learn the little tell tale signs, when they are about to go to the toilet. You want to become an expert at seeing when your puppy is about to pee or poop. So that you can then quickly take them outside. Watch closely – Does he sniff a certain way? Does he always turn a circle in the same direction? How does he hold his tail?  write down what you notice – that helps you notice it quicker next time. Also these signs might change from week to week, so keep a close eye.

Rule 2: Follow a schedule

1. Write it down. The easiest way is to create a schedule based on your puppies mealtimes. Make sure you write the schedule  down and you include  when the puppy needs to go out and who will take the puppy putside. Make sure that everyone in the family knows. Yo need to take your puppy to potty very frequently – every 2 hours or even more; every time they wake up from a nap, after a training or play session and  after they had a meal. If you don’t know how to get started you can download my sample schedule or read what a typical day looks like for for Susan Garrett’s own puppies  for some inspiration.
2. Leash up. Always use a leash, when you take your puppy out. You can say, ok let’s go potty or something but when you are outside in the potty area you want to be very quiet. Don’t chat to your puppy, just wait for them to pee or poop, ideally in the same spot each time. The leash is important, because you don’t want to let let them run around and play, sniff or get otherwise distracted.  Puppies can get excited about anything and then they forget that they need to go to the toilet. And then the first thing they do when  back inside is they pee. Your puppy doesn’t do that to upset you. They just didn’t get a chance while they were outside, because they were too busy to sniff and poke around. And now that they are back inside they suddenly feel that they need to go. When you take them outside to potty, you want them to do nothing else. Once they have peed, you can praise them quietly and let them sniff and do their thing a little longer. Some puppies do a second pee. So don’t rush them back inside too early.
3. Time it. If after 3 minutes nothing happens, bring your puppy back inside, but put them in their crate don’t let them roam around the house and pee inside. When you next open the crate to let the puppy out, take them outside first.  You want to establish, that a potty break means, we go outside to potty, nothing else. Your puppy will soon get the idea and potty breaks will be quick.

What about accidents?
Try not to have any accidents. But let’s be realistic. Accidents do happen. It is not a big deal. When an accident happens – please don’t scold your puppy! There is no point. All you will teach them is that it is safer to potty in secret. Just follow these steps, and if your puppy does have an accident, it is likely that you left out one of these steps and it is not the puppy’s fault. Just make a note of it, clean it up and move on.

Remember that you are not alone. I am here to help you: find out about my puppy training services or just give me a call 0818008264