There’s no denying that having a dog is a surefire way to put more love into your life. However, that loving feeling is sometimes hard to summon when you come home to an apartment that’s got urine puddles here and there. This is why potty training is something that you need to address early on.
It’s part of a standard housebreaking training for dogs, and the earlier you begin the firmer it will be ingrained in your dog’s mind. When you go about it the right way, you can say goodbye to the hassle of having to clean up and air-out a stinky home and you’ll no longer be embarrassed about guests being appalled by the smell of dog pee in your home!
No Time Like the Present
Again, the best time to teach your dog how to pee is when it is just a puppy. However, there will be some cases wherein that won’t happen, such as when you get your dog when he’s already a few years old or you simply weren’t around during his younger years.
The good news about potty training is that each dog – no matter how old – is still trainable. This is true even if you’ve tried some other method in the past and failed – all you need are the right tips that will steer you closer to your goal of getting your dog potty trained – sans the need for a dog trainer or spending a couple hundred dollars for a couple of sessions that don’t give any real and lasting results.
Here are some basic tips that will help you get started with basic potty training. If you follow these tips to the letter, you just might even surprise yourself by being able to potty train your dog in as short as seven days!
It’s All About House Training Basics
For the following tips, you’ll be glad to know that everything is simple, doable and requires zero fancy gadgets or overly complicated cues.
1. Focus on building a positive relationship.
Just like with any training subject, your pet will be in the best frame of mind to heed your call and understand what it is that you want it to learn if it views your relationship as a positive one.
Such an approach will make your pet feel comfortable and more open to following your command because it trusts you to provide for its needs. When a dog feels this way about its owner, potty training will already be off to a good start!
2. Do away with old-school techniques.
You may be aware of a certain practice that instructs you to swat a puppy on the very first day it comes home and urinates in a place where it’s not supposed to. If you think doing so will help him automatically understand that it shouldn’t pee in that place, you have another think coming.
You need to remember that when you transition a puppy from its old environment to its new one, it has no idea of the new environment’s rules. Swatting it on the very first day will not help make it understand what is off limits and what areas are permissible to pee in and will just have it develop feelings of fear and anxiety – which will make potty training more challenging.
3. Be gentle in orienting the dog about the house.
Know that it will take time for a new puppy to realize that certain things are done in certain areas of the home – sleeping, playing, eating, lounging, and yes even peeing.
Take it around and expose it to the different activities you do in the home so it gradually develops the association of “Hey, this place (kitchen) is where I get served my food – and this area right here (patch of lawn in the backyard) is where my master takes me when I want to relieve myself.”
4. Work out a strict, potty training schedule – and stick to it.
Potty training is easier to achieve when you create a regular schedule and see it through to completion. It also helps set the puppy for the new routine of learning something important, because it will see that you are determined to get it to master this important habit when you prioritize it above everything else. Potty training practice should be done every day, several times a day, for several weeks.
5. Potty train your dog in every single room of your home.
After orienting your dog about the different activities you do in each part of the home, you need to do another round and make it aware that these rooms are off limits to peeing. Spend a good amount of time with your dog in each room – enough time for you to witness it sniffing around, which is an indication that it is looking for an area to pee.
When this happens, quickly yet gently pick it up and tell it “No” in a firm voice, without shouting. From here, lead your puppy to the kitchen where his newspapers are (if this is an okay place for him to pee in) or lead him outside where he can relieve himself. Timing is of the essence here, because you want to prevent the pee instinct until you take him to the place where he is supposed to do it.
6. “No” space and “Yes” space training should happen several dozen times.
Dogs may often take quite a while to understand which space is ok to pee in and which is not, which is something that every dog owner should be okay with. The challenge becomes compounded when there are several rooms or areas to master, but trust that it will eventually understand it if it has had lots of practice to learn.
Still, it is important to set yourself up for some “failure moments” and refrain yourself from punishing it when it happens.
7. Be aware of sudden pee triggers.
Dogs who seem like they’re on their way to being potty trained and then end up having a potty accident usually do so because there is something that scared them or made them anxious. Usually the culprit is a loud noise like a thunderstorm, or it has gotten into a pretty frightful altercation with some other person or animal.
Another reason may be because it actually has a medical condition that you have yet to address. Bear in mind that dogs are also prone to urinary tract infections like humans, which can result in bladder problems. The sooner you identify these pee triggers, the faster you can work on addressing them.
8. Try to keep things as routine as possible.
A dog’s self-confidence can also stem from knowing that it’s got its routine down pat, so any sort of drastic change can completely upset its balance. It can be a relative visiting you for a couple of days, some home remodeling projects, or emotional distress that you or any other family member unknowingly feeds off to the dog.
These things can upset your dog and cause it to be quite lax when it comes to house training, so you need to make sure that you provide for its needs and respond to its concerns when this happens!
These tips will surely help make potty training success come sooner than you expected!
Frustrated with your Dog Peeing on the Carpet? CLICK HERE to find out how to Quickly get him FULLY Potty Trained!
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