HOUSETRAINING FOR PUPPIES
WHY HOUSETRAIN YOUR PUPPY?
Everyone appreciates a dog who goes potty outside! Housetraining success is all about keeping a consistent schedule, rewarding your dog for eliminating outdoors, and paying attention to your dog’s body language in order to prevent accidents.
Choose an outdoor spot that you would like to be your puppy’s toilet area. On each potty break, wait with your puppy at the spot until they potty in that area. Praise them, play with them, and give them treats after they do so.
Create a schedule for regular potty breaks, so that they always have plenty of opportunity to potty in their outdoor spot, instead of indoors. Start by taking a potty break once every hour.
Keep track of all accidents, successful potty breaks, and unproductive potty breaks on your schedule so that you can adjust accordingly, and be prepared next time they need to go.
Supervise your puppy closely. Close doors to bedrooms or other parts of the house where you are not able to keep a watchful eye on your puppy. If you have to leave your puppy unattended, place them in a crate or other long term confinement area (see crate training plan).
Watch for signs that your puppy needs to go potty. If you notice your puppy suddenly getting distracted, walking away and sniffing, scratching, circling, arching their tail over their back, lifting their leg, or farting, it may be time for a potty break. Swiftly, but cheerfully, get your dog out to their potty spot, and praise them when they eliminate outdoors.
If they have an accident inside - don’t fret! Calmly clean up the mess using an enzymatic cleaner, designed for doggy accidents. Regular cleaners can leave behind scent markers, which signal to your puppy that this is now a potty spot.
Puppies usually need to go potty shortly after they eat, after any physical activity such as play, and just after they wake up from napping or sleeping. At the end of each activity, take your puppy out to their potty spot.
Put potty on cue. Yes, you can incorporate a cue to let your dog know it’s time to go. You can do so by saying your cue, such as “go potty”, just as your puppy starts to potty. Do this consistently, and your puppy will eventually connect the word with the deed.
There’s an app for that! Try the “Paw Tracks”® app or “DogLog”® app to keep your schedule for you. You can also use a generic “shopping list” type app to create a schedule that can be shared with the whole family. A simple recurring alarm and sheet of paper with dates and times of all potty breaks (both successful and not) also works well.