How to Potty Train Your Puppy

Carefully watching your puppy aids in most training areas.

Early training involves teaching your puppy right from the start. Delayed training often means stopping unwanted behaviors in addition to teaching new ones. Remembering that potty training failures occur because you made a mistake, not the puppy, helps encourage consistency during training. Putting in the effort to train right from the beginning takes time, but the work develops a dog you can enjoy owning without cleaning up messes.

Things You'll Need

• Treats
• Crate
• Collar
• Leash or line

Instructions

1. Take your puppy to the veterinarian to make certain health issues, including worms, genitalia abnormalities or an urinary tract infection, might make house-training a problem, advises the ASPCA.

2. Select an area for the puppy to use for potty training, avoiding hot surfaces, high grass or muddy areas your puppy may want to avoid.

3. Set a daytime schedule for taking the puppy outside at intervals no longer than one hour for each month of age. Take the puppy outside for scheduled breaks and after it plays, eats and wakes up—even after short naps.

4. Place the puppy in the potty area and give a short command, such as “go potty.” Stay until the puppy eliminates. Do not play with the puppy. Praise the puppy in a happy tone with a short phrase, such as “good potty,” and give it a small treat. Allow additional times for the puppy to potty as young puppies may need to potty several times before finishing, advises University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine. Play with the puppy only after it completes going to potty.

5. Pick up the waste and dispose of it in order to keep the area clean for the puppy and to avoid attracting insects.

6. Put on a collar and leash or line on the puppy to help you watch it in the house. Take the puppy outside immediately if you notice any signs, such as sniffing or squatting, indicating the puppy needs to potty.

7. Place the puppy in a crate or outside any time you cannot actively watch it. Make sure the puppy’s crate allows only enough room for turning around and lying down, in order to prevent the puppy from using one area to potty.

8. Do not give food or water at least two hours prior to bedtime to decrease the need to get up during the night. Keep the puppy crate where you can hear the puppy if it cries, since young puppies may need to go out in the middle of the night. Refuse to play with the puppy at night to avoid training it to get up for play.

Tips & Warnings

• Avoid changing foods during potty training, since diet changes may cause loose stools or diarrhea and create house-training issues.

• Creating a schedule to feed the puppy at the same times each day helps regulate the times the puppy needs to go potty.

• Use a collar and leash to keep the puppy in the area if it tries to leave or play.

• Expect training to continue until the dog reaches approximately six months old or older before learning reliable potty training. Some smaller breeds require longer training periods, according to the Humane Society of the United States.

• Do not punish or yell at your puppy for accidents. Punishment delays training, scares the puppy and may teach it to hide when it needs to potty, warns the ASPCA.

References

• The Humane Society of the United State; Housetraining Puppies; October 2009
• ASPCA: House Training Your Puppy
• University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine: Tips On House Training Puppies --The Dos and Don'ts

Resources

• ASPCA: Teaching Your House Trained Dog to Ask to Go Out
• The Dog Health Guide: Dog Bladder Problems
• VeterinaryPartner.com; Crate Soiling; Kathy Diamond Davis; August 2004
• Tufts University Cumming School of Veterinary Medicine: Preventing Canine Behavior Problems