Each day begins the same for you and your puppy. When the alarm clock goes off, wake up and get your puppy out of the crate and outside to do their business. Keeping the crate in or near your bedroom lets you hear a whimper or a whine if your pup needs to go out during the night or before your alarm sounds. This will prevent them from stopping and peeing on the floor on the way to the door.
Another morning ritual will be breakfast. After you take your puppy out to potty, they will be ready for their first meal of the day. Try to keep this scheduled at the same time each day.
This will aid in regulating elimination, so you can set your watch to potty time. After the meal, only wait between 5 and 30 minutes to take your puppy outside.
The younger the puppy, the sooner they should be brought out after a meal to potty. As the puppy grows older, they will gain bladder control and learn to hold it longer each day.
Most puppies eat three to four meals a day when they are growing, and most puppies will have to poop after meals, so paying attention to this short follow-up period is important. Also, remain watchful when the puppy drinks water.
Treat this just like a meal, and take them out to potty soon afterward. Choosing a puppy food that digests well and avoiding feeding within two hours of bedtime will help. There are many other times that a young puppy will need to go potty, besides the first thing in the morning and after each meal. These instances include periods after naps and playtime.
Naps are mini-versions of the morning routine. Make sure that whenever your puppy is sleeping , you take them outside the moment they wake up. This may slow down the potty training process and should be avoided if possible. Punishment is never an acceptable or successful training methodology. Dogs do not associate these behaviors with doing something wrong. Instead, punishment teaches your puppy to become fearful of their owners or other people who try to punish them.
Remember that potty training takes patience and kindness! Failing to adhere to a consistent potty break and feeding schedule can create confusion for your puppy, and therefore leads to more accidents in the house.
The more frequent trips outside, the better! The more often your puppy is allowed to successfully eliminate outside, the more quickly they will become potty trained! Potty training an adult dog can be very similar to training a puppy, depending on the circumstances. Some adult dogs may have never been taught to go to the bathroom outside, so their muscles will need be trained to hold their excrement.
Generally, a dog is considered potty trained if he has gone one month without any accidents in the house. If it has been over a month and you are still having trouble, you may need to speak to your veterinarian or a trainer for additional advice. Here are some more tips to potty train your adult dog successfully.
As with puppies, potty training an adult dog should begin with developing a schedule that both you and your dog can follow, and feeding two meals daily at around the same time each day. Adult dogs also naturally eliminate shortly after eating, so developing a consistent schedule of eating and potty breaks can avoid confusion and accidents in the house.
For adult dogs entering a new home, it is important to limit the amount of space they have access to while the house-training process is still in progress. This can be accomplished with baby gates or crate training. Each time your dog eliminates outside without accidents in the house , you can gradually increase the amount of space that they have access to.
Crate training is also effective for adult dogs. Like puppies, they do not like to eliminate where they sleep or eat, so they will avoid eliminating in a crate they have come to call home. The crate you use to train your dog should only have enough room for them to stand up, turn around, and lie down. While you are potty training, your dog should be crated during naptime and bedtime, and whenever your dog cannot be directly supervised. Never use the crate as a means of punishment.
It is important to note that adult dogs may take more time to adjust to a crate. If your dog is showing signs of stress or anxiety with crate training, contact your veterinarian for other options. Each time your dog eliminates outside, reward them with verbal praise, treats, or a favorite toy.
Just as with puppies, positive reinforcement will teach your adult dog that they get rewarded for going to the bathroom outside. Give the reward immediately after your dog eliminates outside, so that your dog makes a positive association with that behavior. Just like puppies, adult dogs often sit by the door, whine, wander off, sniff, or make circles when they need to go to the bathroom. During potty training, you should always walk your adult dog on leash to the appropriate elimination area.
This ensures you will be close by to reward their good behavior. After giving a positive reward, remember to play with your dog outside for a few minutes to avoid creating a negative connection between eliminating and returning inside. Never hit your dog with anything or rub their face in their excrement when your dog has an accident—these outdated tactics have been proven ineffective. A properly crate trained puppy will not pee or poop in the crate. Therefore when you go to bed at night you should not have to worry about accidents in the house.
During the day when you need a puppy break you can crate your pup and not worry about accidents during your puppy break. Check out our blog post about how to crate train a puppy for more information on crate training.
I am not an expert of all dog breeds. However, I have worked with many different breeds apprenticing as a trainer at our local doggie daycare. That being said I have worked extensively with Labrador Retrievers and Golden Retrievers and the majority of my experience is based off these two highly trainable breeds. I have talked to many trainers and in general the more trainable breeds tend to learn potty training more quickly. We raise mostly Golden Retrievers and Labrador Retrievers.
In our experience it takes our puppies approximately weeks before they are potty trained. Oh, and if you have any pee or poop questions please feel free to contact me through out contact form or just leave us a comment below.
Check out more of our favorites on our New Puppy Checklist. Colby Morita has been raising and training guide and service dog puppies for over 13 years. Colby has been writing to the PuppyInTraining. I may not always be learning…. At the beginning of the month…. We got him at approximately 4 months old and have had him for one week. Yeah a cat seems nice but some people, including me, prefer dogs, so their comments are meaningless lol.
Dogs may not be as intuitive as cats in knowing where to poop but they can be trained also. And I am happy to do it even when it takes time and effort. I live in Denver and adopted a 7 week puppy about a week ago.
Unfortunately, it is too cold to take him outside to potty. How do I go about potty training him to go outside? When is a dog old enough to handle colder weather? Yes, they do, but you also need to take your dog go out regularly. Then he will have a chance to learn how to adapt to live in different weather. The first time it could be hard but you can take him to go out every day, then the weather is not a big deal anymore.
I got a 12 week pup from the humane society a week ago. We are no where near potty trained. And that could be 5 minutes after the last time she peed. I took her out today, good timing with a pee and a poop. We came back in the house and I thought well it should be about an hour or so until I need to take her out again.
I feel like this is never going to end and she will just keep randomly peeing several times after just literally going out and peeing in the right spot.
Hi Ripley! Our baby seemed like she got the hang but kept having random accidents and was peeing frequently like that. She did have a UTI and we discovered that her anatomy made her prone to them.
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