Learning how to potty train a puppy is one of the first things you need to begin before your new puppy arrives home.
Watching your little munchkin grow up to be a full-grown dog is one joy you can never exchange for anything. He brings you so much laughter and pleasant surprises in many ways you wouldn’t mind redoing those puppy days.
But, short of getting a diaper for your puppy, there is no foolproof plan to stopping him from soiling your house. Thankfully, you can always get him to learn that he needs to keep his living area free of poop or pee.
This will require quite some investment of your time. This is because little guy does not have the ability to control his bowel movements, just as a child doesn’t. The good news is he can learn where to do his business, and he will always prefer not to soil his own living space.
How To Potty Train a Puppy – Tips and Tricks
Regulate His Eating
Here’s the interesting bit. With all the growing that your pup is going through he is ingesting quite a lot of food at regular intervals. And guess what happens when he eats and drinks. He has to go! And go he will.
Since you don’t want your house starting to smell interesting and having to explain to your guests it is caused by your puppy, you need to start having regular meal times for the little guy.
That does not mean you limit the amount of food he eats. That is a no no. But you keep it to particular periods of time. This will help him start to have regular times of relieving himself as well.
And this in turn helps you learn how to potty train a puppy, by knowing when to take him out to the yard (if you have a yard), or his pen if you do not have access to a yard.
How Often Does He Go?
Your little guy has to go generally after about 45 minutes, but is able to retain longer the older he gets. You can tell how long he can keep number two by the number of months he is. For example, as a rough guide, if he is three months old, it means he can keep it in for about 3 hours.
Usually, every puppy has their own preferred time of going. It might be right after eating, or some time after eating. Monitoring him will let you know what he likes best and help you learn how to potty train a puppy all the better.
But you need to keep a regular time of taking him to his potty zone too. Regular times are in the morning after he wakes, after meals or play and before bed. You should also take him on an hourly interval when he is young increasing that interval slowly as he gets older.
Knowing He Wants to Go
Keeping a close eye on him will help you know when he wants to go. That means following him around or having a closed off zone close to where you are. You could also keep him on a loose leash close to you at all times.
Now, keeping a close eye on him will only help so much. You also need to know how he looks when he needs to go – his body language will often alert you to his need. This will enable you to take him to his designated potty zone.
When you see him circling or sniffing or if he starts to whine or pace, beware, because he will soon let it rip! Now this is your chance to act in time.
There are times your puppy will urinate because of other reasons other than just wanting to go. Learning about them will enable you learn how to potty train a puppy even better.
Other Reasons To Urinate
For example, the little guy might have just gotten the fancy to mark his territory. This happens from the age of 3 months, so do not be alarmed, it’s totally natural for him to do this. All he needs to learn is he cannot mark the den he lives in.
If he pees when left alone in the house, he may also be feeling abandoned. This is often a sign of separation anxiety. If you see your puppy acting nervously or looking upset before you leave him he may be suffering from this.
The little guy could also be suffering from submissive urination. This comes about when he feels threatened for some reason.
You can know if he is feeling like this when he cowers or tucks his tail between his legs. If he also averts his eyes or flattens his ears, he is showing signs of submission and they can be accompanied by urinating as well.
It can also happen if you are punishing him or raising our voice at him. Best if you don’t do either!
Puppy Escort
Having a puppy means you have a full time chaperon job; non-paying of course. This will require you to escort him to his potty area every time you see ripping signs being displayed by your little guy.
Now you will need to act fast because you see, little pooch does not have much control of his bladder or bowel movements. So if you do not get him to the potty zone fast enough, it will happen along the way.
Since you clearly don’t want that you will have to upgrade your escort service to courier and carry that little guy to his spot. And fast!
Nobody said learning how to house train a dog was easy, but it has its perks. Carrying him will happen in his first tender months when he has little to no control of his orifices.
Coming on to the fourth month onwards, a leash should be adequate to get him there. By this time you should have gotten him into a steady pattern and gotten those muscles controlling his release better. He will also have become quite bulky to carry too, so he should carry his own weight around.
A Treat For Pooping?
This will be your friend in teaching Master Pup new skill sets. He needs to learn where he needs to go to the bathroom. For him to do this in a considerate amount of time, he needs to relate getting treats to going potty to a certain place.
That means on your part that you have to maintain a certain location for his bathroom area. This consistency will help him learn faster. Every time he gets to go in the right place, you need to praise him and give him his special treat. He will soon start relating going in this particular place with getting some TLC.
This will be a good reason for him to go while in this particular place and he will start being able to communicate that he wants to go in a better way even as he grows older.
When you get to this stage with your puppy you will have learned the skill-set required on how to potty train a puppy.
Accidents Will Happen
However keen you are, there will always be ‘oops – I did it again’ moments.
Sometimes, when you turn for just a moment and then look back he may be busy sending a signature sprinkle onto your floor board. You must not get upset or angry with him, because it will just scare him and possibly get him to finish his business faster because of fear.
Instead, if you startle him just a little, you may get him to stop.
For example, you can clap twice to get his attention long enough for him to pause mid-stream. When he stops, rush him to his potty place as fast as you can. If he finishes his business there, you will still reward him to show him he has done well.
Now sadly if you catch him doing the number two in the house, it’s impossible to stop him midway.
You just have to let him get to the end and consider that a loss. But never quit because of these accidents, and never punish him for making a mistake. All this is in the process of learning how to potty train a puppy.
In the end, your ultimate lesson is teaching that little guy to respect your living area as his own. And he usually learns this very easily because he likes to have his own space free of excrement.
Understanding that your house is the whole den and needs to stay clean will get him to stop releasing in the house. All this takes time, patience and understanding even as your little pup grows up.
Freddy and I hope we have answered your question ‘how to potty train a puppy?’
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You’ll be so glad you made the effort, and you’ll have a much better friend.
Freddy says ‘Woof!’