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House training problems are one of the number one reasons why dogs get turned into shelter and rescue organizations. But
house training does not have to be a difficult and arduous task! We must first remember that puppies do not come to us
knowing the rules of the house. It is our job to teach them in a manner that is fair and consistent.
Most puppies are born with an instinctual urge to potty away from where they eat and sleep. Unfortunately, puppies that are
raised in an unclean environment eventually become used to living this way and can be very hard to house train. Puppies
that come from pet stores, puppy mills, and poor quality breeders are often kept in very unclean and unsanitary conditions.
Please note that house training can be harder for those puppies that have been raised in an unclean environment. It is not
impossible to house train these dogs, but it will take longer and you must remember that it is not their fault. It was simply how
they were raised.
The number one key to successful house training is to set the puppy up for success. We are going to do everything we can
to keep the puppy from having accidents in the house. The use of crates, leashes, and yummy rewards will help
tremendously. Just as we would not spank a baby for messing in his diaper, we are not going to punish the puppy for
messing in the house. We are simply going to teach the puppy the rules of the house in a fair and consistent manner.
CRATES
The first step to house training is the use of a crate. Crates are not punishment for a dog. Dogs are den creatures. If used
in a positive manner, crates become a safe and comfortable place for the puppy. Puppies do not like to soil the place where
they eat or sleep. Using a crate helps your puppy to learn how to “hold it”. ANYTIME THAT YOUR PUPPY IS NOT
DIRECTLY SUPERVISED, HE MUST BE IN HIS CRATE. Not only will this help with house training, but it will also keep him
safe from other dangers such as chewing electric cords or furniture while he is unattended. Your crate needs to be only
large enough for your puppy to be able to lie down and stretch his legs. If the crate is too big, your puppy will simply learn to
potty in one end and sleep in the other.
You can easily teach your puppy that crates are fun. Leave the crate open while the puppy is supervised. Toss a few treats
inside. Your puppy will eventually be curious and check out the crate. At dinner time, place your puppy’s food in the crate
and shut the door leaving your puppy outside. Once your puppy is actively trying to get into the crate to get to the food,
open the door for your pup. Your puppy will run inside and be rewarded with her dinner. You can use KONG toys stuffed
with peanut butter or canned dog food to keep your dog content while in her crate. The KONG should be a special crate
reward, so do not let your puppy have it when she is not in her crate. Soon your dog will run to the crate to get her special
treat! You can also help your puppy adjust to the crate by placing her in it with a tasty treat and then letting her out as soon
as she finishes. Often dogs learn that if they go in the crate, they will be confined for hours. Teach your dog that
sometimes they get to come out after just a few moments. Use a command such as “kennel” or “crate” each time you put
your puppy in the crate.
Keep in mind that puppies learn very quickly. If they cry and you talk to them or let them out of the crate, they learn that the
way to get humans to let them out of the crate is by crying. So be sure to ignore your puppy if she is fussing. Keeping the
crate in the room you are in will often cut down on crying as puppies can get scared being by themselves.
The exception to the crate size rule is if you are working all day and can’t let your puppy out. Unfortunately, most dog
owners have to work and are not home to regularly let their puppy out. Puppies still need to go potty, though, and it is not
fair to ask them to hold it. In this case, using a crate that is just big enough for your puppy is unfair. You puppy will
eventually have to potty and will end up laying in it. You will be frustrated when you have to wash your dog every day and
your puppy will only learn that it is OK to be dirty.
The best thing to do in this instance is find an area where your puppy can be placed while you are gone. A laundry room,
bathroom, or an X pen (sold at most pet stores) in area on a tiled surface can be set up for your puppy. In this area you
should place the puppy’s crate with the door open, some chew toys and a stuffed KONG or two, and a piece of sod on a
cookie sheet or other container or use training pads. The sod is the best choice. It will provide your puppy a place that it
can eliminate away from her play area. It will also help with house training as your puppy will learn that grass is the best
place to potty. Puppies learn to prefer certain substrates to potty on between 8 and 12 weeks of age. It is best to teach
your puppy to potty on grass rather than pads, paper, or just the tile.
An even better alternative is to hire a neighbor or dog walker to let your puppy out during the day. Talk to your veterinarian
to see if they have anyone they recommend to help you with house training.
SUPERVISION
The most important part of house training is supervision! If you cannot be actively watching your puppy, she must be
in her crate. Each time your puppy is left unsupervised and has an accident; it teaches the puppy that it is OK to potty in the
house. Baby gates and other barriers are wonderful tools to help you supervise a puppy. If you are in a room, barricade
the doors so that the puppy must be in that room as well. If you leave the room, take the puppy with you. But remember,
just because she is in the same room with you, doesn't mean that you can relax and not watch her. It is your job to get her
outside before she has the chance to have an accident.
The best way to make sure that you supervise your puppy is to use a leash. Tie a leash around your waist or to a belt-loop
and keep the puppy right with you at all times. This is also a wonderful way to leash-train your dog. Your dog learns to stay
with you and pay attention to what you are doing.
SCHEDULE
Now that we have the crate and the supervision, we need to set up a schedule. Puppies adapt very well to a set schedule.
You will also benefit by learning when your dog typically needs to relieve herself. First thing when you wake up in the
morning, take your puppy out. Your puppy will pee and poop. If your puppy does not do both, place your puppy back in her
crate. Feed your puppy and take her out again. If she still does not potty, place her back in her crate. Take her out again
every 15-30 minutes until she has both urinated and defecated. Eating and drinking stimulate puppies to potty, so be sure
to take her outside after eating even if she had a bowel movement when you took her out first thing in the morning. Young
puppies need to be fed 2-3 times a day depending on their age and size. Allow your puppy no more than 20 minutes to eat.
After 20 minutes, remove the food. Remember that eating stimulates the need to potty, so if you allow your pup to free-feed
(leave food out all day), your puppy will have to poop all day. If your puppy has been sleeping and wakes up, take her out.
Anytime you let your puppy out of her crate, take her out. If your puppy has been playing, take her out. Exercise increases
the need to potty, so remember to take your puppy out more frequently if she has been playing. Last thing before you go to
bed, take her out. Take your puppy out at least once an hour during the day. The idea is to take your puppy out before
she has an accident.
If you take your puppy out and you know that it is time for her to go but she doesn't, place her in her crate and take her out
again in 10-20 minutes. Continue until she potties. Do not allow her to be loose in the house until she potties
outside.
WALKING
How you walk your dog is also very important. Often people will have a fenced back yard and will open the door to the yard
and let the puppy go out on her own to potty. While this is convenient for the owner, it will only cause problems in the long
run. The best way to house train your dog is to walk her on a leash.
Walking your puppy on a leash is good for many reasons.
1) You can take your puppy to a desired spot. When you take your puppy to the same spot every time, she can smell
the area and know that is the right place to go potty. This also helps to teach your puppy to potty away from the house. If
you take your puppy constantly to an area at a far corner of the yard, your puppy will be more likely to continue to use that
area as an adult.
2) You can see her go. Oftentimes, people will let their puppy out the back door to potty and the puppy comes back
inside and potties on the floor. More than likely, the puppy ran outside, started playing or sniffing around, and simply forgot
to potty. When your leash-walk your pup, you can assure that she potties.
3) You can make sure your puppy potties before play. Walk your puppy out to the desired spot. Stand still and act
boring. Once your puppy potties, he can be let off the leash to play. He will soon learn that the reward for pottying is getting
to play. He will be much quicker to potty because he knows that playtime will follow. It is a really good idea to let your puppy
play for a few minutes after pottying. Some puppies learn that if they potty, the fun ends and they have to go back inside.
So take your puppy for a walk after she potties or throw a ball for a few minutes.
4) You are right there to reward your puppy. If your leash-walk your puppy, you can reward your puppy as soon as he
potties. Make a huge deal about it. Give a treat. If you are using clicker training with your puppy, click just as your puppy
finishes and then reward. Let your puppy know that it did a good job! Remember, each time you reinforce a good behavior,
the likelihood that behavior will happen again increases.
5) Use a cue. Each time you take your puppy outside, use a cue while she is looking for a spot. Be careful in choosing
your cue, as you may want to use it in public later. If you say the cue each time you take your puppy out, she will quickly
learn to associate the cue with the action and learn to potty as soon as you give the cue. This is very handy on rainy days
or when you want to go on a road trip.
ACCIDENTS
If your puppy does have an accident in the house, it is important to clean the area thoroughly. Vet clinics and pet stores
have products that will neutralize the odors of pet waste in the carpet. Some household cleaning products will actually
enhance the smell of urine and feces. If your puppy can smell an accident in the carpet, she will think it is OK to go there
since she has gone there before. You can use a black-light to find areas in the carpet that need to be treated with the
neutralizer.
Do not rely on your puppy to tell you she needs to go out. Don’t expect your puppy to go to the door and bark or whine
unless you have specifically taught your puppy to do so. It does not come naturally to most dogs to “tell” you when they
need to go out. That is far too much to ask of a puppy. It is even harder for small lap breeds when the owner carries the
dog outside. The dog has a very hard time associating the door with potty time if they are always carried through the door.
SLEIGH BELLS
It is easy to train a puppy to tell you when it is time to go out. Find a sleigh
bell and some string so you can hang it on the door at nose level for the
puppy, or buy a set of Poochie Bells. Simply touch the bell and make it
jingle each time you take the puppy outside. Eventually, your puppy will
learn that the sound of the bell opens the door. If you ever hear the bell
jingle, immediately let the puppy out. You can also use a clicker to teach
your puppy how to ring the bell and speed up the training process!
PUNISHMENT
Please remember that if your puppy does have an accident, it is just that,
an accident. Your puppy is never going to potty on the floor to spite
you. That is not how dog minds work. Many people feel that if their dog
has pooped on the floor while they were gone for a while that the dog did
it because they were mad at the owner for leaving. You must understand
that dogs don’t put things like that together. They don’t think, “I’m going to
poop right here on the floor because mom left and I am mad about it.” If
you think about it, dogs LIKE poop. They roll in it, they eat it… so why would they leave it there to punish you? It just doesn’
t work that way. The worse thing you can do when you come home to an accident on the floor is to punish the dog. First of
all, the dog has long since forgotten that it has pooped. What you are really punishing the dog for is for greeting you
happily at the door with her tail wagging. If you punish your dog, she will learn to fear you when you come home. This may
in turn cause her to be anxious and because she is anxious, she may poop on the floor. It becomes a vicious cycle.
People often say that they know the dog knows she did wrong because she acted guilty when you got home. They then feel
this is a justifiable reason to punish. Dogs don’t know what guilt is. That is not a doggie kind of trait. They just don’t
understand. What we see as guilt is actually the dog reading our body language when we walk in the door. The owner
comes home, sees or smells poop, and instantly their body language changes. The dog sees this and has been conditioned
by past punishments to learn that when she sees that body language, she gets yelled at, spanked, her nose rubbed in it,
and thrown outside. That is enough to make anyone cower and drop their ears.
“If I bring her back to it and rub her nose in it, won't it remind her of what she has done?” Wrong. Once a dog potties, they
move on to other things and forget they had an accident. If you take your dog back to it, they will not remember the action
that produced the accident. They will simply learn that poop smells bad and that people are mean and unpredictable. She
will learn to avoid you and run from you when you walk towards her. If your puppy has an accident, it means that you have
to pay more attention to your puppy and get her outside before she has another.
Pushing your puppy's nose into poop can have other side effects. Puppies will have to clean the poo off their face. The way
they do this is by licking their face. Puppies can then learn to eat their stool when they find out having it in their mouth
wasn't all that bad. Also, there can be microscopic parasite eggs in the stool. When the puppy licks her face to clean it, she
may ingest these eggs. Then she licks your face. You can get intestinal parasites from your dog this way.
“But what if I catch her in the act? Can I punish her then?” Nope. Punishing your puppy for messing in front of you will only
teach her to not potty in front of you. You will soon have a puppy that goes to other rooms or behind the couch to potty.
The pup is not trying to be sneaky about it. She simply learns that it is not OK to potty in front of humans and will seek out
places where humans are absent to potty. The other side effect of this is that puppies will often learn that it is not safe to
potty in front of humans at any time. So you end up with a puppy that is scared of pottying on a leash or in the yard when
humans are present.
Punishment just does not work to teach a dog to be house trained. It is much easier to set your dog up to succeed and
reward her for going in the right place. Remember that even with a schedule, a crate, supervision, and the best intentions,
accidents do happen. We must remember that these are only puppies trying to learn the rules of our house.
MEDICAL PROBLEMS
If you have done everything you can to set your dog up to succeed and your dog is continuing to have potty problems, your
dog may have a medical problem that needs to be addressed by your vet. Urinary tract infections, bladder/kidney stones,
diabetes, diarrhea, and intestinal parasites are just a few of the problems that could be making house training hard for your
pup.
Some signs of a medical problem may include but are not limited to:
• Excessive thirst
• Straining to urinate or defecate
• Loose stool/diarrhea
• Frequent licking of genitals
• Blood in urine or stool
• Frequent urination
• Urinating multiple times in a short amount of time
• Loss of appetite
• Vomiting
Please take your puppy to the vet if you witness any of these symptoms.
house training does not have to be a difficult and arduous task! We must first remember that puppies do not come to us
knowing the rules of the house. It is our job to teach them in a manner that is fair and consistent.
Most puppies are born with an instinctual urge to potty away from where they eat and sleep. Unfortunately, puppies that are
raised in an unclean environment eventually become used to living this way and can be very hard to house train. Puppies
that come from pet stores, puppy mills, and poor quality breeders are often kept in very unclean and unsanitary conditions.
Please note that house training can be harder for those puppies that have been raised in an unclean environment. It is not
impossible to house train these dogs, but it will take longer and you must remember that it is not their fault. It was simply how
they were raised.
The number one key to successful house training is to set the puppy up for success. We are going to do everything we can
to keep the puppy from having accidents in the house. The use of crates, leashes, and yummy rewards will help
tremendously. Just as we would not spank a baby for messing in his diaper, we are not going to punish the puppy for
messing in the house. We are simply going to teach the puppy the rules of the house in a fair and consistent manner.
CRATES
The first step to house training is the use of a crate. Crates are not punishment for a dog. Dogs are den creatures. If used
in a positive manner, crates become a safe and comfortable place for the puppy. Puppies do not like to soil the place where
they eat or sleep. Using a crate helps your puppy to learn how to “hold it”. ANYTIME THAT YOUR PUPPY IS NOT
DIRECTLY SUPERVISED, HE MUST BE IN HIS CRATE. Not only will this help with house training, but it will also keep him
safe from other dangers such as chewing electric cords or furniture while he is unattended. Your crate needs to be only
large enough for your puppy to be able to lie down and stretch his legs. If the crate is too big, your puppy will simply learn to
potty in one end and sleep in the other.
You can easily teach your puppy that crates are fun. Leave the crate open while the puppy is supervised. Toss a few treats
inside. Your puppy will eventually be curious and check out the crate. At dinner time, place your puppy’s food in the crate
and shut the door leaving your puppy outside. Once your puppy is actively trying to get into the crate to get to the food,
open the door for your pup. Your puppy will run inside and be rewarded with her dinner. You can use KONG toys stuffed
with peanut butter or canned dog food to keep your dog content while in her crate. The KONG should be a special crate
reward, so do not let your puppy have it when she is not in her crate. Soon your dog will run to the crate to get her special
treat! You can also help your puppy adjust to the crate by placing her in it with a tasty treat and then letting her out as soon
as she finishes. Often dogs learn that if they go in the crate, they will be confined for hours. Teach your dog that
sometimes they get to come out after just a few moments. Use a command such as “kennel” or “crate” each time you put
your puppy in the crate.
Keep in mind that puppies learn very quickly. If they cry and you talk to them or let them out of the crate, they learn that the
way to get humans to let them out of the crate is by crying. So be sure to ignore your puppy if she is fussing. Keeping the
crate in the room you are in will often cut down on crying as puppies can get scared being by themselves.
The exception to the crate size rule is if you are working all day and can’t let your puppy out. Unfortunately, most dog
owners have to work and are not home to regularly let their puppy out. Puppies still need to go potty, though, and it is not
fair to ask them to hold it. In this case, using a crate that is just big enough for your puppy is unfair. You puppy will
eventually have to potty and will end up laying in it. You will be frustrated when you have to wash your dog every day and
your puppy will only learn that it is OK to be dirty.
The best thing to do in this instance is find an area where your puppy can be placed while you are gone. A laundry room,
bathroom, or an X pen (sold at most pet stores) in area on a tiled surface can be set up for your puppy. In this area you
should place the puppy’s crate with the door open, some chew toys and a stuffed KONG or two, and a piece of sod on a
cookie sheet or other container or use training pads. The sod is the best choice. It will provide your puppy a place that it
can eliminate away from her play area. It will also help with house training as your puppy will learn that grass is the best
place to potty. Puppies learn to prefer certain substrates to potty on between 8 and 12 weeks of age. It is best to teach
your puppy to potty on grass rather than pads, paper, or just the tile.
An even better alternative is to hire a neighbor or dog walker to let your puppy out during the day. Talk to your veterinarian
to see if they have anyone they recommend to help you with house training.
SUPERVISION
The most important part of house training is supervision! If you cannot be actively watching your puppy, she must be
in her crate. Each time your puppy is left unsupervised and has an accident; it teaches the puppy that it is OK to potty in the
house. Baby gates and other barriers are wonderful tools to help you supervise a puppy. If you are in a room, barricade
the doors so that the puppy must be in that room as well. If you leave the room, take the puppy with you. But remember,
just because she is in the same room with you, doesn't mean that you can relax and not watch her. It is your job to get her
outside before she has the chance to have an accident.
The best way to make sure that you supervise your puppy is to use a leash. Tie a leash around your waist or to a belt-loop
and keep the puppy right with you at all times. This is also a wonderful way to leash-train your dog. Your dog learns to stay
with you and pay attention to what you are doing.
SCHEDULE
Now that we have the crate and the supervision, we need to set up a schedule. Puppies adapt very well to a set schedule.
You will also benefit by learning when your dog typically needs to relieve herself. First thing when you wake up in the
morning, take your puppy out. Your puppy will pee and poop. If your puppy does not do both, place your puppy back in her
crate. Feed your puppy and take her out again. If she still does not potty, place her back in her crate. Take her out again
every 15-30 minutes until she has both urinated and defecated. Eating and drinking stimulate puppies to potty, so be sure
to take her outside after eating even if she had a bowel movement when you took her out first thing in the morning. Young
puppies need to be fed 2-3 times a day depending on their age and size. Allow your puppy no more than 20 minutes to eat.
After 20 minutes, remove the food. Remember that eating stimulates the need to potty, so if you allow your pup to free-feed
(leave food out all day), your puppy will have to poop all day. If your puppy has been sleeping and wakes up, take her out.
Anytime you let your puppy out of her crate, take her out. If your puppy has been playing, take her out. Exercise increases
the need to potty, so remember to take your puppy out more frequently if she has been playing. Last thing before you go to
bed, take her out. Take your puppy out at least once an hour during the day. The idea is to take your puppy out before
she has an accident.
If you take your puppy out and you know that it is time for her to go but she doesn't, place her in her crate and take her out
again in 10-20 minutes. Continue until she potties. Do not allow her to be loose in the house until she potties
outside.
WALKING
How you walk your dog is also very important. Often people will have a fenced back yard and will open the door to the yard
and let the puppy go out on her own to potty. While this is convenient for the owner, it will only cause problems in the long
run. The best way to house train your dog is to walk her on a leash.
Walking your puppy on a leash is good for many reasons.
1) You can take your puppy to a desired spot. When you take your puppy to the same spot every time, she can smell
the area and know that is the right place to go potty. This also helps to teach your puppy to potty away from the house. If
you take your puppy constantly to an area at a far corner of the yard, your puppy will be more likely to continue to use that
area as an adult.
2) You can see her go. Oftentimes, people will let their puppy out the back door to potty and the puppy comes back
inside and potties on the floor. More than likely, the puppy ran outside, started playing or sniffing around, and simply forgot
to potty. When your leash-walk your pup, you can assure that she potties.
3) You can make sure your puppy potties before play. Walk your puppy out to the desired spot. Stand still and act
boring. Once your puppy potties, he can be let off the leash to play. He will soon learn that the reward for pottying is getting
to play. He will be much quicker to potty because he knows that playtime will follow. It is a really good idea to let your puppy
play for a few minutes after pottying. Some puppies learn that if they potty, the fun ends and they have to go back inside.
So take your puppy for a walk after she potties or throw a ball for a few minutes.
4) You are right there to reward your puppy. If your leash-walk your puppy, you can reward your puppy as soon as he
potties. Make a huge deal about it. Give a treat. If you are using clicker training with your puppy, click just as your puppy
finishes and then reward. Let your puppy know that it did a good job! Remember, each time you reinforce a good behavior,
the likelihood that behavior will happen again increases.
5) Use a cue. Each time you take your puppy outside, use a cue while she is looking for a spot. Be careful in choosing
your cue, as you may want to use it in public later. If you say the cue each time you take your puppy out, she will quickly
learn to associate the cue with the action and learn to potty as soon as you give the cue. This is very handy on rainy days
or when you want to go on a road trip.
ACCIDENTS
If your puppy does have an accident in the house, it is important to clean the area thoroughly. Vet clinics and pet stores
have products that will neutralize the odors of pet waste in the carpet. Some household cleaning products will actually
enhance the smell of urine and feces. If your puppy can smell an accident in the carpet, she will think it is OK to go there
since she has gone there before. You can use a black-light to find areas in the carpet that need to be treated with the
neutralizer.
Do not rely on your puppy to tell you she needs to go out. Don’t expect your puppy to go to the door and bark or whine
unless you have specifically taught your puppy to do so. It does not come naturally to most dogs to “tell” you when they
need to go out. That is far too much to ask of a puppy. It is even harder for small lap breeds when the owner carries the
dog outside. The dog has a very hard time associating the door with potty time if they are always carried through the door.
SLEIGH BELLS
It is easy to train a puppy to tell you when it is time to go out. Find a sleigh
bell and some string so you can hang it on the door at nose level for the
puppy, or buy a set of Poochie Bells. Simply touch the bell and make it
jingle each time you take the puppy outside. Eventually, your puppy will
learn that the sound of the bell opens the door. If you ever hear the bell
jingle, immediately let the puppy out. You can also use a clicker to teach
your puppy how to ring the bell and speed up the training process!
PUNISHMENT
Please remember that if your puppy does have an accident, it is just that,
an accident. Your puppy is never going to potty on the floor to spite
you. That is not how dog minds work. Many people feel that if their dog
has pooped on the floor while they were gone for a while that the dog did
it because they were mad at the owner for leaving. You must understand
that dogs don’t put things like that together. They don’t think, “I’m going to
poop right here on the floor because mom left and I am mad about it.” If
you think about it, dogs LIKE poop. They roll in it, they eat it… so why would they leave it there to punish you? It just doesn’
t work that way. The worse thing you can do when you come home to an accident on the floor is to punish the dog. First of
all, the dog has long since forgotten that it has pooped. What you are really punishing the dog for is for greeting you
happily at the door with her tail wagging. If you punish your dog, she will learn to fear you when you come home. This may
in turn cause her to be anxious and because she is anxious, she may poop on the floor. It becomes a vicious cycle.
People often say that they know the dog knows she did wrong because she acted guilty when you got home. They then feel
this is a justifiable reason to punish. Dogs don’t know what guilt is. That is not a doggie kind of trait. They just don’t
understand. What we see as guilt is actually the dog reading our body language when we walk in the door. The owner
comes home, sees or smells poop, and instantly their body language changes. The dog sees this and has been conditioned
by past punishments to learn that when she sees that body language, she gets yelled at, spanked, her nose rubbed in it,
and thrown outside. That is enough to make anyone cower and drop their ears.
“If I bring her back to it and rub her nose in it, won't it remind her of what she has done?” Wrong. Once a dog potties, they
move on to other things and forget they had an accident. If you take your dog back to it, they will not remember the action
that produced the accident. They will simply learn that poop smells bad and that people are mean and unpredictable. She
will learn to avoid you and run from you when you walk towards her. If your puppy has an accident, it means that you have
to pay more attention to your puppy and get her outside before she has another.
Pushing your puppy's nose into poop can have other side effects. Puppies will have to clean the poo off their face. The way
they do this is by licking their face. Puppies can then learn to eat their stool when they find out having it in their mouth
wasn't all that bad. Also, there can be microscopic parasite eggs in the stool. When the puppy licks her face to clean it, she
may ingest these eggs. Then she licks your face. You can get intestinal parasites from your dog this way.
“But what if I catch her in the act? Can I punish her then?” Nope. Punishing your puppy for messing in front of you will only
teach her to not potty in front of you. You will soon have a puppy that goes to other rooms or behind the couch to potty.
The pup is not trying to be sneaky about it. She simply learns that it is not OK to potty in front of humans and will seek out
places where humans are absent to potty. The other side effect of this is that puppies will often learn that it is not safe to
potty in front of humans at any time. So you end up with a puppy that is scared of pottying on a leash or in the yard when
humans are present.
Punishment just does not work to teach a dog to be house trained. It is much easier to set your dog up to succeed and
reward her for going in the right place. Remember that even with a schedule, a crate, supervision, and the best intentions,
accidents do happen. We must remember that these are only puppies trying to learn the rules of our house.
MEDICAL PROBLEMS
If you have done everything you can to set your dog up to succeed and your dog is continuing to have potty problems, your
dog may have a medical problem that needs to be addressed by your vet. Urinary tract infections, bladder/kidney stones,
diabetes, diarrhea, and intestinal parasites are just a few of the problems that could be making house training hard for your
pup.
Some signs of a medical problem may include but are not limited to:
• Excessive thirst
• Straining to urinate or defecate
• Loose stool/diarrhea
• Frequent licking of genitals
• Blood in urine or stool
• Frequent urination
• Urinating multiple times in a short amount of time
• Loss of appetite
• Vomiting
Please take your puppy to the vet if you witness any of these symptoms.
| House Training Your Puppy by Rebecca Lynch, KPA CTP |
