Potty training your puppy is one the first behaviours you will have to teach, and probably the most important. Listed below are The Three Golden Rules of Potty Training, but no methods will work without patience, consistency, and persistency.
· Right Thing – Understand first and foremost that your puppy needs to go, and frequently, it is not uncommon for a puppy to need to go 6-7 times daily. When your puppy has a mistake in the house, you are to blame yourself. It is your fault for various reasons, perhaps you are giving the puppy too much space, or access to food/water at night. Perhaps you do not take the puppy to the right place frequently enough, or even worse you do not know where you want the puppy to go yourself! If you yell/hit/scare the puppy, it will only begin to hide its habits, and this makes potty training even more difficult. For example you may take your puppy outside only to find it does not want to go, it may be afraid to go in front of you because of past experiences when you punished it. Remember, accidents are your fault, try to find out the reason they are happening.
· Right Place – It is your responsibility to take the puppy to the designated place very frequently, whether it be outside or on potty training pads. It is also important to clean accidents with enzymatic cleaner, if a puppy smells his pee/poo he will be inclined to go in that same location again. When we cannot watch the puppy we should keep it in a crate, or small area. When we are home the puppy should stay very close and be supervised, or be tied around our waist using a leash. Take your puppy to the right place, wait up to 15 minutes, once your puppy goes, reward it with treats/toys/praise, if your puppy does not go, return the puppy to the crate, or tie the puppy around your waist and retry in another 30 minutes or so. Remember to keep the house clean, to bring the puppy to the right place frequently, and to wait patiently when doing so, and to reward the puppy when it goes in the right place.
· Right Time – Keeping a consistent schedule is important in potty training, food and water should not be left in the crate, and should be taken away 2-3 hours prior to bedtime. Food can be offered for up to an hour and then removed until the next scheduled feeding time. Puppies should be fed 3 times daily. It is also important to learn your puppies sign, virtually all puppies show a sign before they eliminate. Common signs include circling, sniffing, whining, leaving the area which you are in, or walking towards the door. Remember to stick to a schedule, remove food/water before bedtime, and to watch for signs.
Tips:
- Once your puppy begins to eliminate at the right place more consistently, you may add a cue word, say the word before your puppy begins to go, no more than once per minute, i.e. “potty time”.
- You can teach your puppy to let you know it has to go by hanging a bell on an accessible doorknob that leads outside. Every time you take your puppy to the right place, gently nudge its head into the bell before opening the door, repeat this consistently until your puppy gets the trick.
