The Ins and Outs of Successfully Potty-Training your Puppy
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Hey there, fellow dog parents! Let's talk about a topic that's probably brought its fair share of frustration and mess into your life: potty training. Whether you're a first-time pup owner or a seasoned pro, getting your furry friend to do their business where they're supposed to can be a bit of a challenge. But fear not! With a little know-how and a whole lot of patience, you can conquer potty training like a pro.
Let’s start with what NOT to do
Now, before we dive in, let's get the elephant in the room out of the way: there is no room for scolding, or punishments of any kind in potty training. That approach will only backfire on you - leading to a longer-than-average time to get potty trained, or a dog that hides their accidents from you out of fear. Instead, successful potty training is all about understanding your dog's natural instincts and leveraging them to teach your puppy where and when it's appropriate to do their business.
But here's the kicker: consistency is key. That means sticking to a regular schedule for feeding, potty breaks, and outdoor walks. It might sound like a lot of work, but trust me, it'll pay off in the long run. Oh, and don't forget the power of positive reinforcement! Shower your pup with praise and treats when they do their business in the right spot, and watch as they start to catch on.
In the next few sections, we'll break down some practical tips and tricks for setting up a successful potty training routine, tackling common challenges, and dealing with those inevitable accidents.
The Beginning
Let’s start at the beginning – when you first bring home your puppy. The important thing to remember when potty training is that you really want to avoid any accidents in and around your house. This is not always possible of course, no matter how “on top” of it you are. So, we have to have a strategy in place. Here is where having a pen from day 1 is super important.
The set-up should be something like this: a pen with a corner for the pee pads, and the other corner for a bed. Ideally, if your pen is big enough, you can put a crate with an open door in the corner with a bed in it – just don’t close the door at any point until you are ready to formally start crate training. Now this kind of set-up works because dogs are den animals who learn to keep their beds mess free from their mothers. This means that your puppy won’t pee/poop in the bed and if there are any accidents, they will happen on the pee pads.
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Now the pee pads don’t give you an out: they are for emergencies. It’s up to you to have a good routine in place from day 1 consisting of naps, toilet breaks, training/play, and feeding time.
During toilet breaks, you want to carry your puppy to the designated pee area multiple times a day (and once or twice at night until they start being able to holding their bladder). This designated area can be your backyard or a grass stand-in for apartments. Just remember that until your puppy is fully vaccinated, they should not be in grass that other dogs have access to.
The Middle
Okay, so once you have a good routine going, you will find that your puppy starts to predict when toilet breaks are coming up. They should start to hold their bladders more and more and start to sleep through the night without need a toilet break. BUT, there’s an important note for me to add here. Remember how I said you really want to prevent your puppy from having accidents in the house? This is because 1) when they pee/poop in the house, the smell lingers even if we can’t smell it, so you have to use a good enzymatic cleaner to clean otherwise your puppy could be attracted to that spot over and over (like this one: https://amzn.to/3Ujn7rA).
And 2) If they don’t have a habit of going in the house, they will become potty-trained much quicker.
So one way to avoid house accidents is to never let your puppy have unsupervised time around the house until they are fully potty trained. This means that every time they have access to the house is RIGHT AFTER they have peed/pooped in the designated area AND are being directly watched/interacted with by you. Easy peasy.
The End
So now let’s assume that your puppy is really used to their routine and they are having fewer accidents on the puppy pads. As this starts to happen, you start to slowly make the pen smaller and smaller until you can take away the puppy pads altogether and you’re only left with the bed. If you go the crate route (which I really recommend), then you should be well into your crate training journey by now. As you reduce the space for the puppy pads, your puppy will be increasingly more comfortable just using their crate to sleep and going to the designated area to pee/poop.
And Voila! You have a potty-trained puppy! Okay, so it’s not that easy…but it is doable with a little patience and consistency. So keep at it, and just know, that your puppy is doing the best they know how in their new home and all they need is a little guidance and a lot of love.
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