Potty Training For Puppies And Older Dogs: Tips And Techniques(An Easy How-To Guide)

Potty Training for Puppies and Dogs  

Potty training for puppies or dogs may seem like a daunting task. It doesn’t have to be. With careful planning, the correct tools and patience, your pup can be pottying like a pro in no time.

Three Objectives of Potty Training for Puppies

Step one of successful potty training for puppies and dogs is clearly identifying the objectives. In the end, your puppy or dog should know:

• Where to go
• How to hold it
• How to signal the need to go

Understanding Bladder Development

Before you get started, it’s important to note that puppies do not gain full bladder control until about six months of age. Expecting a three-month-old puppy to hold it for more than a couple hours at a time is like wishing for snow on a fine summer day in Miami. It’s just not going to happen. If you have a job that keeps you away from home longer than that, you might need to consider hiring a dog walker or asking a friend or relative to stop by.

Pavlov Your Dog: Conditioning

Conditioning, or Pavlovian conditioning, is the linkage of two stimuli to produce a new learned response. In simpler terms, it’s pairing an action (relieving themselves outside) with positive stimuli (praise and reward) to teach the dog to repeat the action in the desired way. The keys to effective conditioning while potty training is consistency, confinement, supervision, and repetition.

Consistency: Make a Schedule and Stick To It

Your pooch may not know how to tell time, but that does not make keeping to a daily schedule any less critical. It’s crucial. Regulate when they eat, drink, sleep and go outside. The program should stay the same day in and day out, only changing as you slowly increase the amount of time the dog stays in confinement.

Confinement

Despite its negative connotation, incarceration during housetraining is necessary. Untrained dogs and puppies should never have free reign of your home. The most common means of confinement—and often most effective in terms of potty training—is a crate. Start slow, confining for progressively longer increments.

Supervision

When out of their crates, dogs should be kept under close observation. Proper control keeps your dog from getting into trouble, helps you recognize your dog’s gotta-go signal, and allows you to intervene if you catch them mid-accident.

Repetition

Not only is it essential to perform the same tasks at the same times each day, but the missions themselves should be enacted the same way each time. Repetition reinforces conditioning. The more you do it, the more the dog gets it.

The Potty Training For Puppies And older Dogs Process

Location, Location, Location

When you bring a new dog home, select one spot, and return to it each time. Dogs will learn to associate that spot with relieving themselves. Another tip is to exit the home from the same door each time.

Verbal Cues

As with obedience training, verbal cues are commands, prompting them to perform specific tasks. Issue the same signals for each step of the potty process. Changing up verbal cues does nothing to reinforce conditioning. After all, you wouldn’t interchange the command “sit” with “put your butt on the ground.”

Praise and Rewards

Dogs respond exceptionally well to verbal recognition and a tasty reward. After your dog gets the deed done, be effusive in your praise, and don’t skimp on the snacks. Dogs are naturally eager to please, and positive reinforcement goes a long way in the potty training process.

Patience Is a Virtue

Potty training takes as long as it takes. Do not make the mistake of declaring mission accomplished too soon and then becoming lax in routine, supervision, or confinement. This type of backsliding is a slippery slope.

Be all Business When it’s Time For Them to Do Their Business
Don’t mix outside business with extreme pleasure. Dogs must understand why they’re going outside. It is not a time to play or go for a stroll. After the deed is done, you can then allow them some time to wander and play. This can be part of their reward for a job well done.

Old Dogs, New Tricks?

Myth: If an older dog wasn’t previously potty trained, it’s too late now.
This is most definitely untrue. Older dogs can be trained. In some cases, an adult dog’s fully developed bladder may even require less time than that of a puppy.

Accidents Happen

Even with the most diligent of trainers, accidents can happen. How you handle an accident is what really matters.

After an Accident

If you don’t discover an accident until the deed is done, your only recourse is to clean the accident thoroughly and chalk it up to experience. Punishment is an absolute no-no. A dog will not understand what the punishment is for. The same goes for rubbing the dog’s nose in the mess. That is not only ineffective, it is also traumatizing.

Proper cleaning cannot be stressed enough. If your dog returns to the scene of the crime, sniffing around or signaling the need to go, cleanup wasn’t enough to remove the scent traces.

During an Accident

If you catch your dog mid-accident, interrupt with a sharp “No!” and immediately head to their potty spot. If your dog uses the potty spot, give praise and reward as usual.

Physical and Behavioral Health

If you think you’re doing everything right but your dog still isn’t getting with the program, make sure there isn’t some physical or behavioral issue. Any of which can impede proper potty training. Visit your vet to rule out any digestive issues, parasites, allergies or other illnesses. A dog behaviorist can help with issues such as separation anxiety, submissive urination or excitement urination.

Apartment-Breaking

Apartment dwellers do have some disadvantages when housetraining, and it is important to be realistic when planning to potty train by identifying disadvantages and finding ways to overcome them. Disadvantages include:

The potty spot is often on communal property. Increased foot traffic and noise may distract or even frighten your dog. This especially true in high-population urban centers.
The potty spot is often much further away. Instead of simply exiting a back door, apartment dwellers might have a 25-floor elevator ride and a dash-down-the-block kind of trek. Stopping an accident in progress and immediately relocating your dog becomes unrealistic.

Despite all that, potty training from an apartment is not impossible. It just takes a little more advanced planning and due diligence. Find the quietest spot within the communal area and decrease the amount of time between potty breaks to avoid accidents.

Potty Training for Puppies – Tools

Crates

A crate should be cozy, but not overly-cramped. Your dog should be able to stand up, turn around and lie down. When selecting a crate for a puppy, it is a good idea to calculate the size of your dog when fully grown. Then purchase a crate with a divider panel that can move as the dog grows. Otherwise, you’ll end up with a collection of successively large crates, like a set of Russian nesting dolls, only much more expensive.

Cleaners

Stain removers not only need to remove the visual stain, but also any scent traces. Otherwise, the dog will go back to that spot and have another accident. Enzymatic cleaners are a good way to go, as they literally digest the stain. Avoid ammonia cleaners which too closely resemble the compounds in urine.

Potty Bell

Over time, recognizing your pup’s gotta-go signal is not difficult, but a potty bell allows them to signal you wherever you are in the house. It hangs from the doorknob or mounts on the door near the floor.

Step 1: Teach your dog to ring the bell on command. Hold up the bell and give a verbal cue, such as “ring the bell” or “touch”, rewarding them with treats when they get the bell to ring. Practice until you’re sure your dog gets the picture.

Step 2: Issue the command. Once the dog rings the bell, open the door to take them out. Repeat this process every time you take your dog outside, but only when it’s time to potty.

They may attempt to ring the bell just to get outside and play. Nip that in the bud right away. Remember, going outside should be all business, and ringing the bell should be all business too. Do not allow them to play after ringing the bell. Take them to their spot and if they eliminate, reward as usual. If not, take them straight inside.

Piddle Pads

Also called puppy pads or pee pads, piddle pads are small absorbent pads used to train your dog to relieve itself in a chosen spot inside the home. While they do teach them to eliminate in a single place, indoor pads are only a temporary solution. Further training may be required when moving a potty spot outdoors. Once accustomed to a pad, some dogs may not understand the switch to grass or dirt.

Potty Box

Somewhat like a litter box, a potty box contains grass and soil. Useful for apartment training, a potty box trains your dog to recognize grass as the desired location. Some find it easier to switch between a potty box and an outdoor locale.

Dog Doors

Myth: I have a dog door; I don’t need to potty train my dog.
Unfortunately, dog doors have very little to do with potty training and its three objectives. The dog will not connect the ability to go outside with actually “going” outside. Instead, your dog may venture out to play and come in to relieve themselves. They also will not learn to hold it or teach them to signal the need to go.

Crate Training Tips

Essentially, a crate appeals to a dog’s instincts. Although domesticated, dogs still possess the instinct to create a den. Also, they dislike eliminating in their den, learning to hold it until released. For these reasons, confining a dog to a crate is by no means cruel—if utilized correctly.
Do NOT:

• Use the crate as punishment. A crate is a den, not the doghouse.
• Bodily force your dog into the crate.
• Confine your dog any longer than necessary.

All of these actions assign negative feelings toward the crate, limiting its effectiveness. A crate is a tool that only works if used correctly. You wouldn’t hammer a nail by holding onto the metal end, would you? That would just make the job longer and harder to accomplish, eventually leading to a hair-pulling level of frustration. That isn’t good for you or your dog.

Introduction to the Crate

Some dogs may have no trouble entering the crate, but others may be hesitant. Go with the Hansel and Gretel method, leading your dog into the crate with a cleverly-placed trail of tasty treats.

Leaving the House

When placing your pup in the crate to leave the house, try not to make too big of production out of it. You’re anxious, the dog is anxious. Crate time should be just a normal part of the day and treating it with emotional outbursts is not a good idea. Place your pup in the crate and leave as quietly as possible.

Whining

Some whining is to be expected. The trick is distinguishing between your dog needs to go out or just wanting to get out. Do not immediately react to whining. Your dog may settle after a few minutes. This often is the canine equivalent of a small child asking, “Can I have a glass of water?” before bed. Stand strong. If after several minutes the whining persists, you can then try and take your dog out. Be all business. Whining should never be rewarded with play time.

Housetraining Regression

Sometimes a previously housetrained dog may begin to backslide. There are several possible reasons for this. A change in environment, diet or some underlying health issue are all common reasons for regression. Health issues can include urinary tract infections, age-related incontinence or spay-related incontinence. See your veterinarian as soon as possible to rule out any health issues.

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