When I had my first puppy, it never occurred to me that I had to potty train him. I figured if I put a pee tray in her playpen with her, she’ll pee in there naturally and the rest is history. It wasn’t until much later that I realized that she was imposing my thoughts and ideas on him. And as for her, he is only doing what nature has ordered him to do. So I searched online, went to forums and read books about potty training puppies and after experimenting with my dogs, I realized that the secret to successful potty training lies in prevention and have a routine for them.
First of all, decide where we want the dog to relieve himself. Is it in the newspaper or in the grass? The important thing to keep in mind here is to be consistent. If you decide to let the dog relieve himself on the lawn, make sure you return to the same spot each time, and if it’s newspaper, make sure you put the newspaper in the same spot each time.
The next thing to consider is regular feeding. Having a regular meal schedule will allow us to control the dog’s intake. Depending on the dogs I have, they usually relieve themselves between 15 and 60 minutes after eating. Therefore, it is good to take your dog to his designated bathroom area 15 to 60 minutes after a meal. Especially for puppies, because they have poor control over their bladder, they should be taken to their designated bathroom every 60 minutes that they are gone. One point to note here is that the puppy cannot control his bladder properly, he has a tendency to urinate spontaneously when he is excited.
Another method that can be incorporated is box training. Since dogs like to be clean, they will choose not to dirty their personal space if they can help it. As my dogs get older, I gradually lengthen the time I put them in the crate before taking them out to relieve themselves. For reference, I never let my dogs run around the house until they are 80-90% potty trained.
To reinforce the idea of going to the bathroom for my dog, I always use keywords and reward him when he does.
Lastly, I never yell, yell, punish or hit my dogs when an accident occurs as it will create a negative experience for them and maybe even induce submission urination. The way to fix them is to catch them while they’re in the middle of doing it and take them to the designated spot immediately and use your keyword. Dogs live in the now and there really isn’t much you can do if you don’t catch it in action.
