Housetraining, toilet or potty training your puppy is one of the top priority teaching skills for your puppy. Potty training doesn’t have to be daunting. You can make potty training fun for you and your pup. This article gives tips on ways to make potty training fun for you and your pup.
It’s All About Attitude
The majority of dogs have a naturally positive attitude. They don’t need a reason or context to celebrate and be happy. If you don’t believe me, test it for yourself: start laughing and bouncing around. I can pretty much guarantee your puppy will rush towards you, bouncing and tail wagging, joining in with your happiness.
If you let it, this natural exuberance and willingness to play is contagious. It’s also a great training tool and can positively reinforce any behaviour you want to become a habit, including potty training.
By turning training into games, you and your puppy will have fun. It’s all about staying positive, celebrating every success, and praising good efforts, even if your puppy doesn’t get it right.
Use The Basic Principles
The steps for potty training remain the same:
- Allow your puppy to explore the designated toilet area.
- Lots of praise and a reward for toileting outside.
- Quietly clean up any accidents inside without making a fuss.
Make It More Appealing For Your Puppy
However, you can introduce a short game as an added reward for toileting outside – this makes it more rewarding for your puppy, who will want to repeat toileting outside, as it receives praise, a reward and a game!
You can also introduce praise and rewards when your puppy gives you a clue that it wants to go outside to eliminate. This further encourages your puppy that heading outside to toilet is the best thing ever.
Consider Potty Bell Training
This is a great way to housetrain your puppy and teach it to let you know it needs to go outside. Your puppy will find it fun, and it’s a great way to reduce accidents in the home.
The basic steps are:
- Hang the bells on or near the door before letting your puppy out in the morning.
- Introduce the bells to your pup without shaking them at the dog.
- Allow your dog to sniff/lick the bells, and if your puppy is interested, say, ‘Good puppy!’ and take the puppy out to the toilet/walk.
- If your puppy shows no interest, add a little smear of peanut butter or cream cheese to the bell, and when it shows an interest, say, ‘Good puppy! Then, take the puppy outside to the toilet.
- After toileting, move the bells out of the way of the puppy – as it will want to lick the bells to remove any treat residue.
- Wait a bit before making the bells accessible to your puppy again – you only want your dog to touch them when they need to go outside to potty. If necessary, smear a little more peanut butter on the bell (this is usually necessary if your pup is avoiding the bells).
- Listen for your pup going to the bells to sniff/lick/nose the bells.
- Guide your dog to touch the bells with their nose so that they ring, praise them, and take them outside.
Your puppy will enjoy the training as it stimulates the brain and is rewarding. Success also breeds confidence, which in turn breeds more success. Having taught your puppy a beneficial skill, you will also feel a sense of accomplishment and achievement.
Rewards Don’t Always Have To Be Food
Many people believe that only food is used in positive reinforcement training. Nothing could be further from the truth. Any activity your dog finds enjoyable can be used in positive reinforcement training. Reward any desired behaviour with the activity your puppy enjoys.
Food is usually a big winner at the beginning of training because dogs enjoy food immensely. However, you can mix and match rewards to embed the behaviour when your puppy is getting the hang of the behaviour.
Calmly wait until your puppy has eliminated outside, then lots of praise and begin a game. You can play a game of tug, or fetch, even letting your puppy explore its environment for a few minutes. Each of these are rewarding activities for your puppy, and having a short play session with your puppy will be fun for you, too.
Enjoy training your new puppy. You may find these articles helpful:
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