I don’t need to tell you why you don’t want you pup viewing your living area as their own personal toliet. I will tell you is how to get past the gross phase of puppy hood where you are constantly scrubbing at spots that you really hope don’t stain, and the scent of vinegar haunts you in your sleep…in fact if you play your cards right during this phase you won’t need to be scrubbing at spots all that often.

When you first bring a puppy home you should expect to bring the puppy outside at least every hour, often times even more frequently. I know this sounds overwhelming, but the more consistent you can be with having the puppy potty outside the faster you’ll get through this phase. I’ll give you a few guidlines as to when the puppy need to go out, and you’ll learn how to teach the dog that they want to potty outside.

Teaching Your Pup to Want to Potty Outside

You and your puppy are signing up for a life time of wokring together. Potty training is your first oppurtunity to align your goals with thier goals. This goal is to potty outside. You have plenty of reasons you want this, now you need to give your dog reasons to want to potty outside. The easiest way to do this is to also use potty training as a chance to start working with rewards.

The scientific definition of a reward is an event that increases the probability or rate of a behavior when the event is contingent on the behavior. Essentially, if a dog does a behavior and something fun or good happens in response to the behavior they will repeat the behavior. This is where treats, play and praise call come into dog training.

Humans do this too. Think about the results of giving a child what they want when they throw a tanturm, or the far more innocent example children behaving for the reward of a gold star. Praise and treats will be the gold star for your puppy in potty training.

Since rewards motivate our dogs to want to repeat behaviors, in order to get our puppies to want to potty outside all we have to do is reward the act of pottying outside.

This is done by taking your puppy outside to potty frequently, and watching for them to actually potty. You can even cue “Go Potty” by saying those words if you know they are going to do it. The instant they finishing pottying mark “Yes” and give your dog a treat.

If you puppy is not familiar with “Yes” as come get a treat you will want to show them the reward.
You can use kibble, dog treats, or even higher value things like small cubes of cheese as your reward.
You can also praise your dog after you reward them. Throw a mini party the happier your puppy feels about thier reward the more likely they are to feel motivated to potty outside.

When you are consitent in using rewards for potty training you also get the benefit of using a negative re-enforcement when the dog pottys inside.

If the dog potty’s inside they do not get a reward which makes it way less desirable to potty inside.

When to Take the Puppy Out to Potty

There are a number of scenario’s you will want to take the puppy outside.

1. If you think the puppy might need to go out, then take the puppy out. It’s better to go out too often than have the puppy potty inside.

2.Anytime the puppy wakes up from a nap.

3. After the puppy eats. You’ll want to have your puppy on a feeding schedule.

4.If you notice the puppy sniffing the ground looking for a spot to go, then rush outside.

5. Anytime it seems like the puppy hasn’t been out in awhile take the puppy outside.

6.If the puppy goes to the door to be let out, let them out and if they potty throw an extra big mini party, seriously you can praise and coo at them all the way back to the treat jar.

How to Handle Accidents

The first thing to understand is accidents happen. Even to dog trainers, or people who’ve potty trained dozens of dogs.

The second thing to understand is it’s not malicious, or spiteful, or even dumb for a dog to make a mistake and potty inside. It’s just gross.

It’s gross, and it’s annoying to have to clean up, but don’t let yourself get frusterated.

What you can do is say “Nope” and put the dog outside for a minute.

Some dogs can be picked up or startled and stop peeing, others will continue to pee so it’s up to you if you want to try to intterupt it. Just know that you could end up with a stream of pee leading to your door.
“Nope” is a no reward marker it’s part of the vocabulary you will build with this dog. It basically means the dog needs to change thier behavior if they want a reward. When you use “Nope” you want to then show the dog how to get a reward. That’s why you take the dog outside.

A final Note on Potty Training.

Potty training is your introduction to training your dog and aligning your goals with thiers. This is as simple of frequently giving the puppy a chance to potty outside, and then rewarding the puppy for pottying outside.

The more repetitions of potty outside, and get rewarded you can get in, the less accidents you will have to clean up.

I know Potty Training is not fun. You can use it as an oppurtunity to introduce your dog to working with you, and taking your guidance to get a reward, and that concept is going to make all the rest of dog training fun and rewarding to both you and your dog.

Potty Training

by Sabrina | Aug 6, 2020 | Paws and Peace, Training, Training Basics