FreaPoodle

Potty Training

Potty training requires positive repetition and avoiding accidents is necessary.

Why is it hard to potty train a puppy? Because they eliminate 17 times a day.
Why is it hard to potty train an adult dog? Because they don’t eliminate 17 times a day.

First answer some basic questions:

Where and on what do you want your dog to potty?
* Inside or outside?
* Grass or paper or litter box?

Once you have decided there are 2 parts. You having some control and your dog having its needs met.

Part One: Potty on command

Objective - teach the dog to squat instantly on command where ever you are, so you don’t have to do a 15 minute walk in the hurricane when it comes.

Why - even though you may generally have the dog go in a litter box, sometimes you will travel.

Steps:
1 - Get a nice sized crate for your puppy/dog

2 - Count how long it takes from drinking or eating until they urinate or defecate.

3 - Put the puppy in the crate for feeding and drinking and then take them out about a minute or two before they have gotta go.

4 - Take them to where they should “potty” wait for up to 5 minutes. If they don’t go put them back in the crate for 2 minutes and try again until you succeed. NOTE - don’t let them get used to waiting a long time to go so as to force you to take a long walk in the hurricane. Don’t take them inside immediately after potty or they will figure it out. Potty is the beginning of fun, not the end. NOTE 2 - you have to wait longer for the # 2 and once they get the picture they will usually give you a #1 instantly and then pace about a bit go get the #2 going.

4 - Reward them - “jackpot” the potty incident - Big treats, favorite treats reserved just for this blessed event - big hugs AND introduce the word “POTTY” yes potty good potty etc. They must really believe you have a deep and peculiar love for their potty events. Know what they love and give it to them. Coco loved chicken, Mia loved hot dogs, Nicky loved long sniffing games, Vy loved tug of war, and Larena loved the rubberized garden glove. If you don’t feel like an idiot while celebrating, you haven’t given enough.

5 - Repeat often for weeks until they squat on command. (Note: Vy was very clever and learned to squat without delivering anything. Make sure something actually comes out. If they squat and give you nothing, say “Oh oh” with a shrug and continue to wait.)

6 - Move the place around so that it is the command and not the place. Then when you are on the road you can stop quickly and give the command. My dream is to be able to stop by the side of the road, walk the dogs over to the anointed place and have all 5 squat instantly on command. - Not there yet but someday….

Once you have done this successfully once, you only have to repeat the performance 100 times a week for 4 weeks.

Part II - Give the dog a little control:

Question: do you want to have a doggie door or do you want to bring the dog outside?

If you have a doggie door you have to teach the puppy how to use it.
If you don’t want to have a doggie door and you want the dog to go outside, then you have to help the dog learn how to tell you when it has gotta go.

A. Doggie door option.
Steps:
1. Block the door open and give the puppy a treat through the hole.
2. Once the puppy is used to being rewarded for going through the hole, partially close the door so the puppy has to push just a little. Again reward.
3. Progressively close the door more and more until the puppy is coming through the closed doggie door. Call the puppy to come inside and reward. Call the puppy to come outside and reward.

B. Take the dog out option. This is harder!

Rule number one: Pay attention to your dog so that you can be consistent - inconsistency is bad, consistency is good.
Rule number two: Give the dog a signal that you are always willing to pay attention to.
Rule number three: It’s never completely safe. Don’t make the little guys wait too long.

Don’t bring a dog into your home unless you can begin potty training immediately. Each time they potty in the wrong place the bad habit is harder to break. Keep at the training until there have been no accidents for 4 weeks.

Show the puppy where you want him or her to go - outside or inside (on paper or in a litter box).
Note: If inside don’t use towels as the dog may think that a carpet is a towel.

Keep the puppy close to you with a lead around your waist or confine the puppy to an easy to clean area. An 8 week old puppy needs to potty 17 times a day. If you see your puppy looking for a place to potty, pick the puppy up and bring it to the anointed place. Reward the puppy and say potty as the butt hits the ground. With a 10 week old puppy you should be having these urgent visits to the potty places every 2 hours and by 12 weeks you may be up to every 3 hours. Yes - you have to get up in the middle of the night to take the puppy to its potty place, inside or outside.

Clean up after the puppy and use cleaning solutions. Note - even if you clean up the area the puppy will be able to smell that this is a good place to go but it is worse if you don’t clean it so well you mother would let you eat off the spot.

Puppies will need to potty when they wake up, a little while after eating, after exercise, and before going to bed. Therefore they potty train quickly if you spend a lot of time monitoring them.

Accidents

Greeting accidents: Puppies may urinate when they are excited to see you and if they are frightened. In dog world this is a polite thing to do - meaning “hi I’m little, please don’t bite me!” Ignore this. Give them an incompatible task like sit or lie down. Train this and reward it. They will eventually figure out that the task is for you the equivalent of polite behavior. They really really want you to love them!

Ooops Accidents: If you punish them for accidents they may decide it is not safe to potty around you and you will have a very hard time rewarding the proper behavior. If you pay any attention to it at all, they will decide it is a good way to get attention and you are doomed.

Teach your puppy how to tell you it has gotta go. Pick a behavior and always reward the behavior by taking the puppy to the potty place. You can pick what ever signal you want, as long as you are willing to live with the issue it creates.

Bark (may lead to extra trips if puppy barks at cars)
Sit and look at you (you have to really pay attention)
Sit by the door (you have to really pay attention)
Sit and shake like it is cold (you have to really pay attention)
Scratch the door (may wreck your door)
Bells hanging from the door knob (a pain at night)
Paw at you (may get mud on you)
Others include whining, standing up or dancing in a circle (you are teaching puppy to beg)
My favorite is the bells hanging on the door - I’m a little too spacey for the sitting ones.

For each signal it is the same thing. Train through consistency. The bell is easy for me because it is on the door and it rings when I take them outside. I ring it and then get the puppy every time. When the puppy is playing by the door and bumps the bell, I take the puppy outside. It usually takes about 10 accidental ringings to make the connection and 15 ringings when puppy is trying out this trick to see if I’m consistent. “Oh look, I can make Mom take me out by ringing a bell.” Then stick to it and the puppy will feel confident that you will come. Then come but slow it down but in incrementally. Add ½ a minute or so every time until you can say “I’m coming” and the puppy will wait. Then you won’t have to jump out of the bath tub and run outside in your towel.

Always respond to the signal, even if you know he ran into the bell accidentally. If your dog gives you the signal and you don’t respond all the work will be wasted. Your dog must believe that you have a knee jerk reaction to go outside and that you will expect a blessed event when the bell tolls.
Older dogs

First: If your older dog has potty issues check with the vet - there may be something wrong.

Old dogs don’t have trouble learning - we just have to make sure they get lots of positive repetitions. Then you have to create the multiple repetitions that a puppy gets from its frequent urination. Get liquid and food into your dog in large doses so that they have gotta go! 1 - I used chicken soup with my Coco. She had to drink the liquid to get to the chicken. NOTE: make the soup yourself by cooking a piece of meat she likes in water - don’t use a canned soup with salt and msg in it or she will get sick.

If they hold it while outside make them race around with a good game of ball until the pressure builds up. This also makes them thirsty and they will drink a lot of water and you will have a second shot at rewarding a good potty soon.

NOTE: Check with a vet before using this suggestion - if your dog tends to get “bloat” don’t let her drink lots of water all at once.