Potty Training

House training your puppy requires a lot of patience, attention and consistency on your part. You can house train your puppy to go only where you want.

Buy a Crate with a Divider - Puppies will always try their best to keep their den clean and will avoid peeing or pooping where they have to sleep. The crate is the puppy's den.  It's a safe and comfortable place to sleep and relax. The crate is NOT to be used as a punishment area for making a mistake.  Buy a crate large enough for when your puppy is full grown. Get a crate divider to make the area available to your puppy smaller when young, so there isn't enough room to pee on one side and sleep on the other. As the puppy grows, move the divider to provide more room. This way you don’t have to spend money on a larger crate later on.

Pick Your Spot – Choose a place where you want your puppy to go. I suggest choosing a spot in your backyard that is easy to access and clean. Some owners make a square area that is filled with gravel and take their puppy to that area until it knows to do so on it's own. Others are fine with the whole back yard or select an object to train the dog on like a Pee Post.

The Scent - Puppies like to pee where they or others have peed before. Use this to your advantage. Buy a pheromone product such as the Go Here Aid which contains those scents that dogs like to pee at, and use that on the spot that you have picked for your puppy.

When Your Puppy will Pee - Very early on, when the puppy goes will not be up to you. A puppy's bladder is tiny and until the age of 4-5 months it can't hold much for long. Up until 4-5 months of age, a puppy needs to go to the bathroom about every 2 hours on average. No amount of scolding or information provided here is going to change the size of your puppy's bladder.

To minimize accidents and speed the housetraining process, take your puppy out often and at regular times. Decide when you will feed your puppy each day, play with it, take it out and let it sleep in its crate. Do so at the same time each day so the puppy adapts to the schedule. As your puppy grows, it will be able to go for longer periods without peeing and you can adjust accordingly. Your goal is to condition your puppy to go when you want it to.

  

Attention and Consistency – Early on, watch your puppy every moment that it is out of its crate and provide as few opportunities to make mistakes as possible. If you see any hint that your puppy might need to go, even if it is not on the schedule, quickly take it outside to the spot. When it goes correctly, praise it him, but be sure not to turn potty time into play time.

If you do take your eyes off your puppy and he makes a mistake, DO NOT scold him. It was your mistake! Simply place your puppy in its crate and quietly clean up the mess.

For mistakes you absolutely have to get rid of the odour when cleaning so that your dog can't smell his old bathroom and do it again in that spot. Use Nok Out or vinegar to neutralize any urine or odour on flat surfaces.

Take a look at this video for some additional tips and tricks.

 

Follow these simple steps and I’m sure that you will have a well trained puppy!