Potty Training Your New Puppy
No training is more basic for pet owners than that first important lesson: Do it outside!
Teaching your pet to eliminate outside the home, not in it, usually starts between six and eight weeks of age. Dogs as young as four weeks can start house training, but at that age few have the muscular control to succeed.
Like any dog training plan, trainer patience is as important as the dog’s temperament. ‘Sit’, ’stay’ and other behaviors can often be learned in a few days. ‘Potty’ training your puppy sometimes takes weeks – maybe as short as two, often a month or more.
As with other learned behaviors, it helps to notice signs of the desired actions and enforce and direct them with a voice command followed by praise. In this case that technique works even more to the trainer’s advantage, since all dogs will naturally eliminate. The goal is to get them to do it when and where you want!
Watch for circling or squatting, then scoop up the pup, say ‘potty’ and quickly dash outside. The puppy may circle some more, but will often squat quickly. As she starts, say ‘Go potty’ ( or some other unique phrase) in a clear, firm (but not angry) voice. Wait until it’s finished and praise lavishly.
You won’t always be able to catch the puppy about to go, but don’t become angry or impatient when the dog eliminates indoors. It takes some time for the dog to learn to tell you it’s time to ‘go outside’. It also takes time for the muscles needed to control bladder and bowels to develop control.
Usually, puppies will need to eliminate every 2-3 hours. If you haven’t spotted pre-elimination behavior within that time, take the dog outside anyway. Issue the command ‘Go potty’ and wait. At first, usually, the dog will have no clue what you want.
Especially, even when outside, it helps to wait and watch for the desired behavior then issue the command. That helps the dog associate the command with the behavior. If your puppy still has not relieved himself after a few minutes and a few ‘Go potty’ commands, take him back inside for an hour. Of course, if you catch the pre-elimination behavior in less time, go outside again immediately.
Puppies have a surprising capacity to quickly learn what their ‘alpha’ (the leader of the pack) wants. This is almost always accomplished by associating a verbal command with behavior, followed by praise. Punishment is usually counter-productive, and nowhere more so than in waste elimination training. Never rub your pup’s nose in the accident.
Paper and/or crate training is preferred by some. A pup can be trained to potty on a newspaper, or on one of the chemically treated pads designed for the purpose. Some small breeds that live all day in apartments may not need to go outside at all.
The technique has a couple of downsides however. Unlike cats, dogs will hardly go in a perfumed litter box. Newspapers (even with the top layer removed after the dog goes) will eventually create an unpleasant smell in the house.
Also, long before the odor becomes perciptible to humans, dogs can smell their own distinctive aroma. Dogs don’t find the odor unattractive – quite the opposite. So that spot continues to be the problem.
Paper trained dogs will prefer to eliminate indoors. Occasionally they’ll miss the paper by only an inch, creating a mess to clean up.
Once the smell is in the carpet, the dog will continue to seek that spot out as its proper ‘place to go’. This makes training the dog to eliminate outside even more difficult. Best to suffer a few accidents than to create a hard-to-overcome habit.
Patience, praise and consistency are the key elements for successful dog training. Elimination training is the first challenge for you and your dog.
Get more tips and advice on housetraining or dog training at Luvurdog.com/dogtraining
