Structure is your friend in establishing great potty habits with your dog. Setting regular times for food and water will allow you to be better able to predict your dog’s body clock. This includes everything he or she will ingest throughout the day. Treats in between meals can often throw you off. Once you establish your schedule for food and water, you will want to note the time it takes after drinking or eating, for your dog to need to eliminate. You’ll want to keep track of this for a few days, up to a week. It will give you a pretty good heads up on how much time you have before you will need to make sure you get your dog to the designated potty area. If you are attempting to have one designated space for potty, you will leash your dog each time, and lead him out to the spot you have chosen for this purpose.
I would recommend from the beginning, choose a command word for this action. For my dogs, I chose “Potty Outside” as their command for the action I am desiring. I have had clients use “Go PeePee” as well as a number of different things to use for the command word. The specific verbiage does not matter. It only matters that it is a consistent word used by everyone for this action. Consistency will help your dog to learn faster. This will also come in handy if you plan on traveling with your dog or are in a place where their regular potty spot is not accessible. If they understand the command word well, and you give the command in a place they are unfamiliar with, they most likely will understand what you are expecting. I have had clients who called me super concerned that they took their dog on a trip and they have been holding it for several days. These dogs are used to only going potty in their backyard. If they had a solid potty command this may eliminate their confusion entirely about going potty in a place that is unfamiliar to them. Having solid commands is hugely beneficial for so many reasons. They allow us to be able to communicate effectively with our dog who is just learning to understand our language.
As you dog is going potty in the correct place, make sure you let them know how happy you are about it! Over the top praise and affection is where it’s at. Dog’s naturally want to repeat what they are praised for. If they know that something makes you happy, they will strive to repeat this action to trigger further praise and affection from their favorite people. Some people like to treat their dog for potty in the proper place. This is fine, and can be helpful in particularly difficult cases. You want to remember that the moment they receive the treat is the action they will connect to the reason for the treat. For example, if you praise during the act of potty, then run back inside for a treat, your dog will assume the treat is for running back in the house and sitting by the counter where the treats are kept. If you want the connection to be made for the act of potty, you will want to have your treat ready with you and pop it in their mouth as they are finishing up their potty, or even as they are in the act. This will connect the treat to the act of potty in the proper place.
I highly recommend crate training in conjunction with potty training. This is a very valuable tool to not only help you succeed in eliminating accidents, but also a safe place for your dog to be when they can not be supervised. It does not have to be a forever thing, but extremely helpful in the training process.
If your dog does not go potty when it’s time, they go back in the crate for 10 minutes. Repeat the process until they do eliminate. They get rewarded with playtime when they go potty in the proper spot. If they do not go potty, and are allowed to run around, you are setting yourself up for an accident. Make sure they go before they play. Also, take them back out after play as exercise in any form often triggers a potty response.
If an accident happens. it’s ok. We’ll get there! If you catch them in the act, you can interrupt with a loud noise to startle and stop the action. Immediately take your dog out and place them in the proper spot and give the command you have chosen for potty in the hopes they will finish there. This can become a very teachable moment for your dog! If you find the accident after the fact, simply clean it up with a good bio enzymatic cleaner such as Natures Miracle. The bio enzyme is vital. This will break down the smell for your dog’s powerful nose so they are less likely to offend in the same spot. We don’t recommend scolding after the fact for the same reason we give the treat on the spot during the act. Their brain will not necessarily connect the scolding with the accident, but whatever they were doing at the time of the scolding. This can produce much confusion and fear in your dog and is not very helpful in getting your point across. They will absolutely understand you are upset about something, but not necessarily make the connection to exactly what you are upset about.
If you are still having issues in this area, please feel free to reach out for a more custom approach to your specific situation. There are lots of things we can do to help our dogs understand our specific desires in the arena of potty training. I would be happy to help you achieve success! Just remember YOU GOT THIS!!