The Worst Times To Take Your Puppy Outside When Potty Training

Housetraining and potty training your puppy is one of the first and most essential skills you will teach your puppy. In all training, it is vital to set your puppy up for success; this includes housetraining and potty training. This article will highlight the worst times to take your puppy outside when potty training and may set your training back.

When Will Your Puppy Need To Go Out

Puppy bodies have not fully matured, so the muscles that control bladder and bowel movements haven’t fully developed. Puppies will not be able to hold in pee and poop for very long.

The optimal times to take your puppy out to eliminate and ensure success are:

• When it wakes up – this includes naps, and before your morning coffee.
• Between 10-20 minutes after eating and drinking.
• After playing (sometimes during playtime).
• If it gets excited.

Having A Routine

By sticking to a routine, your puppy will become less anxious because it knows what’s coming and when.

By providing rest times, meals and exercise you will know when to take your puppy outside, reducing accidents and increasing successful toileting outside. Being proactive in toilet training is your best bet for success.

Setting Your Puppy Up For Success

All training skills are learned easier and quicker if your puppy feels confident. Success breeds confidence which breeds further success. Setting your puppy up to succeed is a win win situation for you and your dog.

By knowing when to take your puppy out to eliminate you will have less accidents inside and your puppy will develop the habit of eliminating outside.

Use Lots Of Praise And Rewards

Puppies will repeat a behaviour or action if it is positive and rewarding. Giving lots of praise and a small tasty reward when it toilets outside will encourage your puppy to repeat toileting outside. The more rewarding it is for your puppy, the more it will repeat it, and the more it repeats it, the quicker it becomes a habit.

When Not To Take Your Puppy Outside

Potty or toilet training your puppy is when you have a verbal cue for your pup to pee or poo. Housetraining or housebreaking is when you teach your puppy to eliminate outside.

If you are potty training your puppy, there is no point taking your puppy outside straight after it has toileted. If you take it out after it has eliminated inside, it won’t be ready to go again. By taking it out and giving the cue, you invalidate the verbal cue. The puppy physically can’t eliminate again so soon, so it won’t learn.

Likewise if you are only housetraining your puppy, taking them outside and expecting them to eliminate is pretty pointless, and you may inadvertently teach them that they will get to go outside AFTER eliminating inside.

Don’t Make A Fuss About Little Accidents

There are a few reasons not to get upset about toileting accidents.

1. The puppy can’t help accidents; it has very little control over its bladder or bowel.
2. Some puppies may take negative attention as attention. This means you inadvertently reinforce toileting inside as the puppy receives your attention when it toilets inside.
3. Shouting, being rough, or hitting the puppy will increase its anxiety levels, causing it to fear you. This can cause more accidents indoors, as an anxious dog may urinate to appease you and show you it’s not a threat.
4. A puppy who is fearful of toileting around you will struggle to toilet outside when you are near them, and they may also hide inside your home to toilet. Making messes tricky to find and causing your home to smell bad.

The best option is to ignore your puppy and quietly clean up the mess. Ensure you thoroughly clean the area with an enzyme cleaner to remove the smell.

Patience And Consistency

Be realistic with your expectations; puppies will have accidents; they can’t help it. But by staying patient and consistent with your routine, praise and rewards will help your puppy learn quickly.

If there are times when you can’t take your puppy out, try to arrange for someone to do it for you at the usual time. Have the backup person stick to your routine as best they can. This will ensure that your puppy will learn quickly.

If your puppy still has accidents a few months into your routine, a vet check-up will rule out any underlying medical conditions that may be causing toileting accidents.

Keep up the routine, praise and rewards and your puppy will be housetrained in no time at all.

You may find these articles helpful:

Take A Crate Break: Help For The Dirty Dog

How To Potty Bell Train Your Puppy