Over the years, I have had a lot of clients and friends ask me for help with toilet training their young puppies. It really is something that takes time and patience, but ultimately every puppy gets there in the end. Here are a few of the main tips I pass on to people when contemplating the mission that is potty training.
In order to help maximize the training of your puppy, it is important to understand when a puppy is most likely to urinate (pee) or defecate (poo). Typically, this can be divided into four categories:
1. A puppy usually eliminates (urinates or defecates) soon after it wakes up, since during sleep urine production continues to fill the bladder. It is important to remember that puppies sleep several times a day and so have several waking periods.
2. After eating a meal a puppy is likely to defecate within ten to twenty minutes. This is due to a physiological function called the gastro-colic response which is, in more simple terms, a bodily response produced after eating that causes a dog’s bowels to move leading to defecation. Since young puppies are generally fed at around three to four times daily, they will also need to be taken outside, or to paper (depending on your training method) after being fed.
3. If a puppy has been highly active at one time, it is likely to eliminate soon after.
4. In general puppies usually also eliminate before sleeping each night.
As you can see, there are many times throughout a single day that a puppy may eliminate. It is important to remember that, as well as these general categories, a puppy may eliminate at any time and thus you need to be aware that accidents will happen. They are bound to occur no matter how prepared or organized you are since:
1.) The muscles in a puppy bladder and anal sphincter are still developing resulting in less control
2.) The smaller size of the bladder results in more frequent urination of small volumes.
You can help regulate the elimination process however, with well controlled schedules and a frequent regime of resting, eating and playing. At times when this schedule is changed by other family members having other separate activities with the puppy, her schedule and need to eliminate will change as well. A common mistake made by many owners is to allow free run of the house. Allowing the puppy a free run will interrupt and set the training process back several weeks. This setback happens because the puppy will most likely ‘accidentally’ eliminate in several areas of the house. As a result of the odor and her familiarity of the area, she may remember these areas as being those at which she can go back to in order to eliminate again. Unless these areas are scrubbed and deodorized the problem will worsen.
Giving the puppy full access to your home can also result in her either getting into mischief, hurting herself or both.
Supervision of the puppy must be carried out at all times at this early stage. Not only does this ensure your puppy cannot cause trouble, but it also greatly aids the training process. In circumstances where it is not possible to devote all this time to supervision, crate training could be used and it sounds as though you have been thinking about this. Because a puppy will generally eliminate in an area they have previously urinated or defecated, it is important to remove and neutralize any area that has been affected. This is a very important aspect of house training both puppies and adult dogs.
By making set times during the day when someone in the family is able to feed and then supervise your puppies you will be able to help the puppies in getting to the area you have chosen to train them to eliminate in. In general a puppy should be fed three to four times per day. The day should therefore be arranged such the puppies can be fed on three to four separate occasions with supervision. It also needs to be arranged so that when the puppies awake from sleep, someone is available to take them outside to the toilet.
Whether it’s the middle of the night, early morning or after a day-nap, an awakening puppy needs to be taken outside to urinate and/or defecate. As stated earlier, puppies are generally fed three to four smaller meals per day. Elimination after a period of activity or exercise is also common, so you should wait with them outside and encourage them to urinate/defecate before letting them into the house.
By following the guidelines above, you should have more control over your puppy’s house training problem. Puppies generally do not give you much warning that they need to go out, because they haven’t yet learnt that they HAVE to go out! For this reason following the guidelines above will give you the best idea of when your puppy will most likely be feeling like urinating or defecating. If you catch your pup about to toilet inside, quickly run and pick her up to carry her outside. Sometimes she will end up urinating or defecating in your arms, but this is just something you will have to put up with for the next little while until she is properly trained. If you are too late to pick her up, but she is still in the act or it is definitely only seconds after the event, you can reprimand her with a guttural growl “AAAAH” and a clap of the hands so that she knows what she has done is wrong. Doing so after the event be it more than 10 seconds will be pointless and only confuse your dog as well as potentially giving it a submissive complex later in life.
Also make sure that when you take your puppy outside to toilet you do the following:
1. After mealtimes, waking up and exercise your puppies should be gently picked up and taken outside or preferably lead via a collar and lead outside to your chosen toileting area.
2. While waiting patiently for your puppy to eliminate, use an encouraging, high pitched tone of voice to say the word or phrase you wish to use. Repeat this while you wait. eg. “Toilet!”
3. Continue repeating the word you have chosen until the puppy has finished urinating and defecating before giving plenty of praise and attention. “GOOD GIRL!!, WELL DONE, YOU’RE SO CLEVER!!” – using an excited and happy high pitched voice. This praise needs to occur directly after the puppy has finished in order to be effective. You may then both return inside. Do not play with the puppy until she has eliminated.
When you do find that that she has toileted inside, whether this be urine or feces, NEVER rub her face in it and always be sure to thoroughly clean up the mess with a non ammonia based cleaning product followed by pet odor neutralizer. You should then feed her a few treats on that particular spot so that she associates the spot with eating rather than toileting! This will help avoid her from toileting on the same spot again (dogs generally do this by picking up the scent of their last toilet stop!).
For more information and my full ebook on canine house training, please CLICK HERE
