The Easiest Way to Potty Train Your Puppy!

Potty training a puppy requires your puppy to learn a number of concepts that they then must string together to be considered potty trained.

First…

Many people think their puppy should be letting them know they have to go outside BEFORE their puppy even has a strong desire TO go outside! Your puppy won’t even begin to try and figure out how to get the door open unless they already have a deep desire to not only get outside to go to the bathroom, but also a strong desire NOT to go inside. You’ll teach ALL the concepts simultaneously, but it can take some puppies quite a few months to really piece it all together.

Second…

Once you get your puppy home, spend the first two weeks taking them out often. You should be highly preemptive here! You are not waiting for your puppy to tell you they have to go out, nor are you waiting for any signs that they have to go to the bathroom. You are getting out the door often; whenever they are out of the crate. These two weeks are all about repetitions. Many (many, MANY) repetitions of getting out the door, to the same spot in the yard, and going to the bathroom—as many times as possible in that spot! For some puppies, this may be every 20-30 minutes when they are not in their crate, for some puppies this may be every 45 minutes, AND for others this may be every hour.

If your puppy is 8 to 10 weeks old, every 15-30 minutes is the norm. Older puppies may be able to go a smidge longer, BUT the name of the game here is repetition and habit formation. This is a very labor intensive two weeks, but stick with it, because all the hard work will pay off down the road!

Third…

The next two weeks, your puppy will have a little bit more muscle control AND you will have a much better idea of how long your puppy can hold it during the day when not in their crate. Now is when you will begin indoor potty-training sessions in addition to the outside repetitions!

Not only do you need to teach your puppy that they need to go to the bathroom outside, but you also need to teach them NOT to go to the bathroom inside.

If you go 90 days without giving your puppy a chance to make a mistake inside, they will definitely know that they have to go to the bathroom outside, but they may not know that they shouldn’t go the bathroom inside, which will be a very disheartening realization after 90 days of strict control!

So, the best way to teach this concept is when you can create real training moments. AND, this particular training is most easily done between 10 and 12 weeks when your puppy is starting to develop some muscular control, but water is running through them pretty quickly.

Follow these FIVE easy steps below to teach your puppy that going in the house, is NOT the best option!

STEP ONE: Take your puppy outside and exercise them. Throw toys so they chase them, practice a bunch of recalls, etc. Encourage them to run and play!
STEP TWO: Once they are warm and thirsty, give them a good, long drink of water. Give them ample opportunity to really drink up.
STEP THREE: Take them inside to an area that is closed off from any carpeting, but still has access to the door they would use to go to the bathroom and just watch them. DO NOT take
your eyes off of them, not even for a second to look at your phone or someone else.
STEP FOUR: The big learning happens here. For puppies between the age of 10-12 weeks old, within 8 to 15 minutes (older puppies may take a little while longer) they will do one of two things: a) they will head to the door because they want to get outside to go to the bathroom OR b) they will start to have an accident inside.

STEP FIVE: Go back inside and repeat. Most young puppies, depending on how much water they drank, will go again within 8-15 minutes. So, in a 30-minute timeframe, you should be able to run at least 2 sessions, potentially 3 for a 10-week-old puppy. What goes in, must come out!

This is how you teach your puppy to NOT go inside your home in a very controlled, intentional, and precise way. You are, of course, teaching multiple concepts here:

“I definitely don’t want you go inside, AND I definitely do want you to go outside.”

Clarity is a beautiful thing! It does not take too many of these sessions for puppies to start putting together these first TWO concepts!

The third concept you are teaching in parallel with the other two concepts discussed above is how to get the door open AND how to get your attention so that you can get the door open for them. Some people like to use a bell for their puppies to jingle to get their attention. These are pretty easy for the puppies to pick up on, but a word of warning: because the bells are so easy to learn, some puppies will start ringing the bells to play with OR just because they want to go outside because they are bored AND while you are in potty training mode, you MUST get up and open the door, so they don’t start thinking that the bells won’t in fact open the door.

The process is amazingly simple.

Every time you go take your puppy outside, ring the bells AND then open the door. Make sure your puppy is looking at the bells, YOU ring them, then open the door, every time. Eventually, your puppy will make the connection and once the desire to go outside to go to the bathroom is strong enough, that is when you will see them do it on their own.

But remember, your puppy will be well on down the road towards becoming potty trained by the time this usually happens! That means I am being very preemptive about getting them outside prior to this happening, and even for quite a while afterwards.

Those of you who have potty trained human children will remember that when the kids are three, even four or five, we are very mindful of asking them quite often if they might need to go!

To teach your puppy to alert you without the bells, prior to opening the door, I do a “little happy dance”. I use an excited voice, dance from foot to foot, AND as soon as the puppy starts dancing with me, I open the door. Each time I wait for a more and more excited response, until finally they will get so excited at the door they will start barking AND you immediately say “yes” and open the door.

As your puppy grows, matures, and develops, this process obviously gets easier and easier. But don’t make the mistake of getting lackadaisical when the puppies just start feeling pretty strong with this skill. It is not uncommon for puppies to start struggling again at 6 or 7 months old because us humans get too complacent too quickly.

Think of your new puppy as a 3-year-old child until they are usually around 9 or 10 months! Have a reasonable expectation on this for your puppy and you will have a very well-trained puppy with excellent potty habits!