Potty Train Those Puppies!

Hey, Imgur! It was suggested on another of my posts that I make a puppy potty training tips post. So OP is delivering. I hope some of you guys find this helpful! Just a warning: Potty training takes work and time. These tips are not meant to make things quick or easy, but to get real, lasting results. Be consistent and you'll get there! I'm happy to answer any and all dog training related questions, so don't be scared to message me!

"I bet she can wait 60 more seconds while I finish writing this" "Aaaand she peed" Never wait. If it crosses your mind just take them out. A good estimation for how often they need to go during the day is one hour for every month they are old. However, some dogs need it more often. Really pay attention to their personal needs and try to beat them to it by 10-15 minutes. So if you've got a 3 month old puppy, try to take them out every 2 hours and 45 minutes.

Always take them to a specific spot in the yard. Yes, this does mean you'll have to go out with them on a leash. Yes, even when it's freezing. Dogs have two ways they know where they should go: scent and feel under their feet. I'll come back to the later of those two later, but having a specific spot will allow the puppy to saturate it with their scent and make it more recognizable as the correct place to go. Another thing that can help is leaving their poop in the yard for a few days. As gross as that sounds, it offers the puppy a reference point. I went there before, I should go there again.

Take a treat out with you and reward them immediately after they go. Don't even have them sit first, and definitely don't wait until you're inside. Dogs will connect a reward or a scold with the thing they did immediately before it. So, in order to build a strong connection between the reward and the action of going potty outside, you need to reward immediately when they're finished.

This is super important! if you chose to only do one thing on this list, pick this one. Puppies should not be free fed. If they are having trouble eating all their food at once, try putting it down for 15-20 minutes tops, then taking it away until the next meal. Do this for a few days. If they still haven't learned to eat all at once, try adding a small amount of wet food to their dry food to make it more palatable. Puppies should eat 2-3 meals a day. This will help enormously with potty training because puppies will always have to go roughly 10-15 minutes after they eat. So if you have meals on a schedule, you'll know when they have to go. Two other things that are also marker are playing and sleeping. 10-15 minutes after either of those activities, they will have to go potty again. So when your puppy is done zooming around the house like a little velociraptor, they'll have to pee or poop a few minutes later. Same thing in the morning right after they wake up. Another thing that can help them hold it through the night is putting their water up 2-3 hours before bedtime.

Remember when I said rewards and scolding are only effective immediately after a behavior? Well, that comes into play again here. If you find an accident on the floor and have no idea when it happened, don't bother scolding them. The puppy will not understand what it is being scolded for even if you rub their nose in it. Take a deep breath, clean it up, and watch them more carefully in the future. If you do catch then in the act, scold them verbally. A nice loud, nasally "AH AH" usually does the trick. Then take them outside immediately. You can't just yell at them for something and not show them the correct thing to do. Scold them for the bad, then show them the right thing to do. This goes for all other behaviors as well.

Alright, this sounds weird, but works really well. Sometimes puppies will go out, not do a damn thing, then come in and go on the floor. Usually, when they do this, they try to sneak out of sight or into a different room from you. If you have a puppy that does this, try taking them out, and if they don't go, keep them on a leash next to you for 10-15 minutes before taking them out to try again. Essentially, you make them hold it because they don't want to have an accident in front of you, and the longer they hold it, the more likely they are to go outside when you take them the second time.

Some people hate using crates, but dogs are actually denning animals, so the enclosed space can be quite comforting to them. I won't go into a ton of details on how to get them comfortable with a crate, that's a whole other can of worms. If this post gets enough interest I'll do another one with some more general info like that. However, for potty training purposes, a crate that's too big for your puppy can actually be detrimental. They can potty on one side and sleep on the other. A crate should only be big enough for the puppy to sit, stand, lie down and turn around. If you want to buy a larger crate, make sure it comes with a crate divider so the area the puppy has access to is limited. If the puppy wakes up and makes noise in their crate in the middle of the night, don't be lazy, get up and take them out!

Do this. You will not regret it. Teaching your puppy to ring a bell when they need to go outside is super helpful, especially if they have no specific tell. It's a two week process. Week one: don't hang the bell on the door, but keep it accessible. Every time you take your puppy outside to use the bathroom, ring the bell so they can hear it and then dangle it in front of them and wait until they ring the bell somehow. Then put it back up and take them out like normal, don't forget to give a treat immediately after they potty! Week two: hang the bell on the door. This week you have to take them out every single time you hear the bell ring. they're going to be figuring out what to with it and will sometimes ring it when they just want to play or go for a walk rather than potty. That's fine, just put their leash on and take them to the specific potty spot and reward them if they go. Take them out when they ring the bell even you know they just went. The point of this week is to get them to understand that every time they ring that bell they go to the potty spot in the yard, no exceptions. After about 5-7 days, they will get the idea, and you won't have to use guesswork to know when to take them out!

SO this seems like common sense, but you'd be surprised how many people don't do this. Use a pet specific cleaner when cleaning up their accidents in the house. Non pet specific cleaners, even bleach, won't break down the scents at an enzymatic level, leaving enough smell that your puppy will still think they should go there in the future. Invest in some Nature's Miracle. Trust me, it's the bomb.

Alright, if you've made it this far, congrats! and thanks for sticking with me. Here's my last tip. Don't do puppy pads, no matter how much your local petsmart/petco/generic pet store pushes them. It makes it ten times harder to outside train your puppy if you want to do that eventually. As I said earlier, one of the ways puppies know where to go to the bathroom is by the feel under their feet. If they get used to a smooth pad, the transition to grass will be really difficult. Plus, the puppies usually just eat them, which is actually super bad for them. The only time I would use them is if you are going to regularly be gone for over 8 hours a day, in which case I would recommend against getting a puppy in the first place.

Thanks so much for reading this, guys. I hope you find some helpful things here. If there's enough interest I'll do posts on some other aspects of training as well, I just figured with all those Christmas puppies out there, this might come in handy. As I said up top, feel free to message me any questions you have, also pictures of your pets! Hope everyone is having a great start to 2017!

Front Page edit: Oh wow! This made most viral. Cool! leave me some suggestions in the comments about what you'd like to see in my next training tips post. Also send pets. Please!

Edit 2: I'm getting tons of questions in the comments and through messages. I promise to get to all of you, but I'm out of town this weekend so it might not be until tomorrow or Monday. I'm doing my best! Also I will try to have another training post up in the next 5 days or so.