Labrador retrievers are great companions as they are owner pleasers and very eager to learn with everything that you teach during training sessions. They are also playful and mostly kind especially to the members of your household.
Just like any dog owner, you would like to have your dog potty trained. This will not just help you make maintenance of the waste easier, but also for your dog to be more disciplined and well-trained.
Since Labrador Retriever dogs are smart in general, you can begin potty training him even at a young age. It may take some time and repetition for a successful training routine, but it is very rewarding for both you and your dog.
The Steps On Potty Training A Labrador Retriever Puppy
These methods are the most common but working ways on potty training your Lab pup. In order to prepare for potty training, first you need to determine his potty spots and potential signs and signals for a dump. Make sure that your pup wouldn’t have an accident all along while you are going to observe him for a poop outside.
Once you have noted some of these things, you may now follow these methods in order to get your Labrador puppy successfully potty trained.
1. Eating and potty
You should have established the idea that your Labrador retriever puppy would probably go potty after each of his meals. This is why you have to know the schedule and interval when he would go potty after a meal. Sometimes, puppies tend to go potty after about ten to fifteen minutes after his meal.
Just by knowing this, you will be sure to get your puppy prepared to go potty at around 5 minutes after meal. Get him outside to go potty so he would be able to somehow understand bit by bit that going potty means going outside.
2. Sleeping and potty
Puppies love to play and sleep. Aside from eating, waking up after a long sleep will make him feel like going potty. He might certainly go potty after he wakes up in the morning. Also, you can never be too careful with naps as it could also make him go potty after one.
As you might observe, your Labrador pup may sometimes whine after waking up. This could indicate that he was woken up by the feeling of going potty.
3. Specific potty hours
It is an established idea among dog owners that a pup can wait for up to one hour before going potty for each month of his age in human years. If your Lab pup is three months old, then he could be able to wait for around three hours before going potty.
4. Crate training
Most dog owners also do crate training on their Labrador puppy. If he needs to go potty in the middle of the night, then he will whine. If you know your puppy beforehand especially the sound of his whining signal to go potty, then you will be able to recognize it. You might want to let him go on a trip outside to go potty.
Although this is stressful and difficult for the owner, your dog will be able to learn not to go potty inside the crate. If you and your dog are not able to do crate training, then you might want to let your puppy be kept in a place outside the house where he can go potty and pee. This is to prevent him from peeing and going potty inside.
5. Getting used to the door signal
This is a little bit complicated than the other steps. Every time you see the potty signals that your dog displays, bring him to the front of a certain door. After setting him in the door mat, open the door to let him walk outside on his own to go for a potty.
Apply the specific potty hours and possible schedules to go potty like waking up in the morning to determine when to put him in front of the door. Just make sure that he wants to go potty or pee so that when you open it, he would go outside to go potty.
Repeat these steps as consistent as possible. Once established, your dog will be able to wait for a while in front of the door and you will be able to interpret this as the signal form him that he wants to go potty outside.
6. Establishing a potty place
Establishing a place to go potty is pretty much the conditioning method for most domesticated animals, especially cats. The same method works in dogs too.
First, choose an area where you want your Lab pup to go potty. This will reduce the risk of getting poop on other parts of your yard or garden. If you are guiding your puppy every time he goes poop, always make him come back to that area and coax him by saying words such as “go potty” so as to make him remember those keywords.
Set a schedule for going to that area by implication of the possible potty schedules such as after meals or waking up in the morning. This will make him realize soon that that place is his special place for going potty. If he accidentally pooped on other areas, bring him still to his designated area and make sure to bring him there on time the next instance.
Properly clean up the area that was accidentally pooped on to make sure that there are no residue smells on that area that would make him think that it was his pooping area.
7. Rewarding
Whenever he follows some of these methods or he pooped in the right area, reward your dog. Rewarding will increase the positive association of your dog to proper pooping manners, so it would improve his point of view on correct potty behavior. Do not punish your dog as it is counterproductive and will waste your spent effort and time in training your dog little by little.
8. Practice
Practice these steps bit by bit and continue them even though you have successfully potty trained your puppy. This is to ensure that he has solid potty-training foundation that he will certainly remember even during his adult years.
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