No training is more fundamental for pet owners than that very first important lesson: Do it outside the house!
Teaching your pet to eliminate outside the home, not in it, typically gets under way between six and eight weeks of age. Dogs as young as four weeks have been started on the program, but at that age very few possess the muscular control to succeed.
Just like any puppy training strategy, trainer patience is as crucial as the pup’s personality. ‘Sit’, ‘stay’ and other behaviors can often be learned in a couple of days. ‘Potty’ training typically usually takes weeks – from time to time as short as two, frequently a month or more.
As with other learned behaviors, it helps to observe for signs of the desired behavior and enforce and direct them with a voice command followed by praise. In this scenario that technique works even more towards the trainer’s advantage, since all dogs will naturally eliminate. The secret is to make them do it when and where you would like!
Watch for signs of imminent potty behavior, such as circling or squatting, then pick up the pup, say ‘outside’ and dash outdoors. The puppy may possibly circle some more, but will usually squat instantly. As it begins, say ‘Go potty’ (or some other unique phrase) in a very clear, firm (but not angry) voice. Wait until it is completed and praise the puppy lavishly.
You will not usually be able to catch the puppy about to start, but do not become mad or impatient when the dog eliminates in the house. This will take time for your dog to understand to tell you it is time to ‘go outside’. It also will take time for the muscles needed to manage bladder and bowels to develop.
Young puppies need to eliminate every 2-3 hours, on average. Should you haven’t noticed pre-elimination behavior within that time, take the puppy outdoors anyway. Issue the command ‘Go potty’ and wait. At first, typically, the puppy will have no clue what you would like.
Once again, even when outdoors, it helps to wait and observe for the preferred behavior then issue the command. That helps the puppy link the command with the behavior. If the puppy hasn’t gone soon after several minutes and a couple of ‘Go potty’ commands, take it back inside for an hour. Needless to say, if you spot the pre-elimination conduct in much less time, go outside yet again immediately.
Dogs have a surprising capacity to quickly learn what their ‘alpha’ (the leader of the pack) wishes. This is almost usually accomplished by associating a spoken command with actions, followed by praise. Punishment is typically counter-productive, and nowhere more so than in waste elimination training. By no means rub a dog’s nose in waste.
Paper and/or crate training is preferred by some. A pup may be trained to go on a newspaper, or on one of the chemically treated pads designed for that purpose. Some little breeds that live all day inside the house might not require to go outside at all.
The approach has a couple of downsides however. Unlike cats, dogs will rarely go in a perfumed litter box. Newspapers (even with all the top layer removed following the puppy goes) will eventually develop an unpleasant aroma inside the home.
Also, long before the odor becomes disgusting to people, puppies can smell their own unique aroma. They don’t find it unattractive – quite the opposite. And that’s the difficulty.
Dogs that are paper trained will usually choose to eliminate inside. Sometimes they’ll miss the paper by only an inch, generating a mess to clean up.
Once the odor is in the carpet, the puppy will generally look for that spot out as its appropriate ‘place to go’. This makes training the puppy to potty outdoors much more challenging. Best to suffer a few accidents than to develop a hard-to-overcome habit.
Patience, praise and consistency are the keys to any dog instruction. House training is the first test for you and your dog.
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