How To Potty Train Your Dog

Last Updated on October 3, 2022 by Editorial Team

Potty training is one of the most crucial things you can do with your new dog. Puppies will be content if they understand the road rules regarding where and when to pee and where not to pee.

To help with potty training a puppy, remember that it’s normal for them to see everything as a potty. Regular trips, correct management, adequate monitoring, and positive reinforcement are the keys to teaching your dog where to pee. Potty training is not a time for retribution! Instead, your puppy will benefit from your patience and perseverance as you work together to learn how to do this important job.

Dog Potty Training: How Long Does It Take?

It all depends on your consistency and how long your puppy can contain a bowel movement. It’s more challenging for small-breed pups than for large-breed puppies to hold it. The steps for puppy potty training in seven days are listed below.

It’s perfectly OK if it takes longer with your dog! Especially if your dog has specific medical issues, such as urinary tract infections. You should never force it!

The following items are necessary to potty train a puppy:

A collar or harness;
Tasty small treats;
A 3–4-foot-long non-retractable leash;
A 15-foot leash;
Two litter boxes;
Two frames for storing pads;
Pads;
Cleaning products for pet stains;
Mops and floor cleaners;
And, of course, lots of love!

Preparation and Dog Management

Preparation is key when it comes to potty training your dog. The effectiveness of home training depends on proper management. Keep your puppy under constant control or supervision until they are thoroughly taught home manners.

When it comes to management, there are different options to do it:

Tethered

Tethering the puppy to an item prevents it from wandering too far from its confines. When using the Frisco Tie Out Cable, allow the puppy access to puppy-proofed areas while tethered.

To keep track of the puppy’s behavior modification, tethering them to a human is the best option. Using a Hands-Free Bungee Leash, you can easily keep your puppy close to you. You can ask a behaviorist for advice if you are not sure.

Confined

Use potty pads in a designated area to keep your puppy from urinating on the floor. In addition, the potty pads are essential if the puppy has to wait for a long period between potty breaks.

Small rooms like the kitchen or bathroom may be isolated from the rest of the house with walk-through baby gates. (In the event of an accident, a tile floor is simpler to clean.) You may also use an ex-pen like the Frisco Dog Exercise Pen to create a freestanding confinement area.

Crated

Ensure your puppy is comfortable in the crate before you begin crate training. It should be just big enough for a puppy to turn around and sleep down. Puppies will be able to stretch out but will not be able to pee in one area and then sleep peacefully in another.

Dog crates are helpful for short-term confinement and preventing nocturnal accidents. However, when a puppy is only a few weeks old, it should never be crated for more than a few hours at a time. Your dog may not be able to retain it for a long time.

If they’re crated for long periods, they may begin to defecate in the crate as a last resort. Except at night, limit your dog’s time in the crate to no more than a few hours at a time. Be on the lookout for “I need to pee” barks or whimpers in the middle of the night, so you can give your puppy an overnight potty break whenever required.

Outdoors

Outside potty time is a chance to reward your puppy for going in the proper spot, and the more frequently you reinforce this correct behavior, the more quickly your puppy will learn to go inside.

You must watch the puppy and see whether it has gone potty or continued its bad habits.

Supervision

“Supervised” suggests that someone is watching the puppy. In other words, they aren’t using their cell phone, computer, or watching television.

At all times, the person in charge of the puppy’s care should pay close attention and engage with it. This increases the likelihood that the pet parents will notice if the puppy seems to need to go potty or is beginning to squat.

You may think this is a lot of work, and it is—which is why it is so critical to have proper management in place.

Setting Up Successful Potty Training

The next step in potty training a puppy is establishing a routine to help your dog develop good behaviors.

#1 Make sure to take your puppy for a walk at least once every half hour.

Give your pet a leash. It’s important to teach your puppy to pee on a leash since you’ll most likely want him to go potty on walks.

As a bonus, it stops the puppy from running around and getting distracted by their environment. You can also add clicker training if your dog has substantial energy to spend.

#2 Give the puppy five minutes to pee or defecate.

Stay still in an area where your dog is permitted to relieve itself. The dog needs your undivided attention. Standing still allows you to confine the puppy to a smaller space, where they will become less interested in exploring and more focused on going potty.

Keeping a low profile encourages your dog to concentrate only on the task at hand rather than on how you’re making him feel. Water intake also influences its potty frequency.

#3 Give him an excellent reward and some positive association

Take your time until the dog is done urinating. When it comes to puppies, interrupting them when peeing is not an option. Instead, immediately after the puppy has done business, please give them a pat on the back and reward them with a yummy treat.

If your dog doesn’t pee or defecate within five minutes, nothing is wrong. For a period of 10 to 20 minutes, confine the puppy. Return to Step 1 after 10 or 20 minutes.

#4 After the puppy has gone potty or pooped, let him have some fun time off-leash

If it’s safe to be off-leash (and your puppy enjoys being outside), have fun outside; if not (or your dog doesn’t want to remain outside), have fun inside with supervision. Your puppy learns that peeing/pooping is a reward for doing so by being let go for a walk or running without a leash.

Prevent the common blunder of restricting the puppy right after they’ve gone potty. If a mission goes well, it’s best to immediately return the dog to its confinement area. When this happens, kids may begin to wait longer and longer for the bathroom, which is not what you want.

#5 Repeat the steps

Potty your dog as frequently as possible in a clean, well-ventilated area. Then reward your puppy with goodies, play, and praise to prevent them from straying from the designated potty spot. The sooner your puppy learns this house training process, the more times it will do it properly (and the fewer times it will have an accident).

Additional Advice

While you are home and awake, take your puppy on a leash to a potty spot (either outside or inside). Most pups don’t need more than one or two trips out at night.
Sit perfectly motionless and calmly observe if the puppy has an accident.
Be sure to praise and reward the puppy for peeing or defecating in the yard as quickly as possible. If the puppy doesn’t pee or defecate, it’s best to bring him back inside for 10 to 20 minutes before bringing him back outdoors.
If your dog has just peed or pooped, play with him outside for 15 minutes under supervision (whichever the puppy prefers).
Do this consistently throughout the day.

How to Accelerate the Potty Training

Track The Progress

Create a house training plan or a logbook to keep track of your puppy’s potty habits/bathroom habits so that you can better understand their tendencies.

As a pet owner, you need to know when and where your dog will likely defecate; this knowledge can help you accomplish that. In addition, a behavior consultant will help you determine which locations are off-limits for now and whether or not you can go without a 30-minute potty break from time to time.

Take Your Dog to Potty Regularly

Take your dog to the potty at a moment that they will likely pee or defecate. It’s best to do these things at the following moment:

After eating or after drinking fresh water,
after engaging in rigorous exercise for five to ten minutes,
right after waking up from a nap

Make a Consistent Schedule for Feeding and Potty

Put your dog on a feeding plan to help with potty training. In addition to urinating immediately after a meal, many pups urinate again at a predetermined interval following a meal. By keeping track of your puppy’s feeding and bowel movements, you’ll be able to identify trends.

Use your notes to ensure that your dog always goes to the bathroom after eating at the correct times.

Instead of keeping a bite of puppy food out all the time, use a feeding plan to make sure your puppy gets regular meals at regular times. Setting up a timetable for potty breaks is straightforward with regular meal times. Ask your veterinarian to help you work out a feeding regimen for your puppy’s age, size, etc.

What if my dog defecates in the wrong place?

As soon as you see your puppy having an accident, gently take the dog outside and reward it with praise and a goodie. Avoid yelling or reprimanding others!

According to some professional dog trainers, beating up on your dog isn’t going to help, and neither is forcing his nose into the pee spots.

Dog punishment frequently results in your puppy learning to pee and defecate in places you can’t see. To put it another way, they won’t cease peeing in the home; they’ll simply conceal it before doing so.

This is because puppies frequently take punishment as a warning that they shouldn’t pee in front of you. But unfortunately, they may not have picked up on the subtlety of the punishment’s focus on indoor urination.

Completely Clean Up Any Messes Thoroughly

When your dog smells the stench of previous bathroom mishaps, he knows where the bathroom is. That’s why cleaning protocol is essential here. First, locate the stain and treat it with a pet stain remover to remove the pet odor.

Finally, check the area for odors on your hands and knees. By sniffing around, I’ve uncovered a lot of “missing” pee sites, so you may want to do the same.

Best programs to train your puppy or dog

Brain Games for Dogs: Fun Ways to Build a Strong Bond with Your Dog and Provide It with Vital Mental Stimulation

Buy on Amazon

Prices pulled from the Amazon Product Advertising API on:

Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.