TOILET TRAINING YOUR PUPPY

BEFORE YOU GET STARTED:

Sue Day is a canine behaviourist and one of the areas she works is teaching puppy classes. Each week puppy owners discuss the problems they are having with their puppy. One topic that comes up again and again is ... toilet training!!

It is the one problem that can really frustrate puppy owners.

This website is about potty or toilet training for these people. It is full of tips and ideas about dog training that you will be able to implement throughout the life of your puppy.

Don’t worry if you think your puppy is too old. There is no such thing as not being able to teach old dog new tricks – that’s a myth!!

Training your puppy to go to the toilet can be the most frustrating problem faced by puppy owners. Some puppies instinctively go outside in the garden. Others take months to learn the right place to go. Sometimes it comes down to the personality of your dog or the environment it was raised in. Either way there are some mistakes that people make that can cause anxiety for puppies that makes toilet training more difficult.

Did you know…??

Puppies need to go to the toilet 5 to 10 times a day depending upon their size, breed, age and the amount of water and food they’ve consumed.

It’s all about motivation and how to get your dog to want to be obedient.

NUMBER ONE:

Be consistent. Puppies, and dogs for that matter, don’t understand ‘maybe’ or ‘sometimes’. They can either pee whenever or on whatever they like or they have to go outside to their special area.  This is true for all the things you want to teach your dog.

When your puppy goes to the toilet outside or on a walk, praise him or her. Use treats and your puppy’s favourite toy to reward and encourage this behaviour. In the first two weeks, you HAVE to do this EVERYTIME.

You are teaching your puppy how you want him or her to behave. It will not learn if you reward only sometimes during the teaching period of its training. You have to be consistent and reliable in every aspect of your puppy’s life. This includes feeding times, walks etc. Your puppy is looking to you to be a calm, confident pack leader. You can do this easily by being consistent, fair and reliable.

Don’t get angry if your puppy messes inside, don’t yell or smack your puppy – stay positive; more on this later in the book.

Keep to a routine even on holidays and weekends. Your puppy will soon adjust to your lifestyle but you have to be fair. Puppies wake up early in the morning and need to go regardless of how late you were up the night before!!

Make a plan: a daily schedule. Write it down on a large piece of card or a whiteboard for the whole family to see. List off the times that puppy wakes up, toilet breaks, eats, plays, walks etc. Be specific and give each member of the family time to share with your puppy.

Here is a suggestion:

Our Puppy’s Toilet Schedule:

6 am     Wake up – out to the toilet straight away!!

6.30 amBreakfast time!! (When my tummy’s full, I’ll need to go to the toilet again)

7.00 amPlay outside and go to the toilet again

8.30 amDrive the kids to school

9.30 amMust be rest time

11.00 am    Wake up – out to the toilet straight away!!

12 pm   Lunch time for young puppies

12.30 pm    Out to the toilet straight away!!

1 pm    Walks and play time with lots of opportunities to go to the toilet

2 pm     Rest time

3.30 pmWake up – out to the toilet straight away!!

4 pm     Pick up the kids from school in the car or by walking

4.30 pmPlay time with lots of opportunities to go to the toilet

5 pm     Dinner time

5.30 pm      Out to the toilet straight away!!

6.30 pmWalk or Play time

7.30 pmQuiet time with my family: Maybe watch TV

8.30 pmToilet breaks every 15 mins when the commercials are on

10 pm   Outside to the toilet one last time, then bedtime

If the schedule you design doesn’t work – change it and modify it until it works.

NUMBER TWO:

Prepare your home and garden before your puppy arrives. If you already have your puppy, don’t worry; just go back to the beginning and start again your puppy will adapt. For a full list of ideas of pre puppy preparation at home and in the garden click here.

Puppies develop a preference for going to the toilet on a particular surface. Puppies that have been bred in kennels with concrete floors will prefer to go on concrete. Puppies purchased from pet stores that use newspaper, will prefer to go on that. Regardless, you can train your puppy to go where you want him to go but you need to be aware of what his preference is because you can use this to your advantage when training him to go to the toilet.

Where do you want your puppy to go to the toilet? Have you picked out a spot yet? Do it now. Usually a corner of the garden where there’s sand, dirt, grass or chip bark is best. Choose somewhere away from the children’s play equipment; away from a window or your barbeque area. Also consider your neighbours and don’t choose an area near their kitchen or bedrooms for example, as the smell will travel over the fence!

If you find your puppy is going in an area or on a surface that you don’t like, there are a number of things you can use to deter your puppy from that spot. This might be in the carport, on the veranda or decking. Anything with a citrus base, such as limes, lemons, oranges or citronella, will deter your puppy. Also red pepper sprinkled around the area, will keep your puppy away.

NUMBER THREE:

Start training immediately. When you bring your puppy home, take it out into the backyard and let it sniff around. If you’ve been traveling in the car, it might need to go to the toilet. Give him or her plenty of space and time.

Also take your puppy for a walk before going inside the house. There are many benefits of leash walking explained at Messy Pawz Dog Training that gives your puppy the opportunity to learn the boundaries of his or her territory (your neighbourhood) and begin the important process of marking its way around these boundaries. By taking your puppy outside a lot it will soon learn to go to the toilet a lot outside too.

Puppies are just like any other animal when it comes to learning to go to the toilet. When they are very young they are not conscious that they actually have to go – just like our babies, they go wherever they are standing or sitting. Unlike babies, however, most puppies instinctively won’t go in their beds or where they sleep. This is where crate training is very useful.

Keeping your puppy in a crate will stop him or her from going to the toilet just any where. However, you will have to take your puppy out for regular toilet breaks, it won’t be able to hold on for very long. For more information about crate training click here.

A mistake people make with crate training is buying a crate that’s too big. I know it makes sense to buy a crate that your puppy will fit into when it’s fully grown, but it won’t help if you are going to use it for toilet training.

Your puppy should be able to walk into the crate, turn around and lie down. It should be just big enough for him or her to stretch out.

Put your puppy in the crate for a short while. Then take him or her outside immediately. If you carry your puppy then there is less chance that it will go to the toilet before it gets outside.

Go to the spot where you want your puppy to go. Wait and then praise it for doing its business in this spot. If puppy doesn’t go, then begin to play with your puppy or do some training. Eventually your puppy will go to the toilet. Once it has, take it back inside and put it back in the crate.

Make sure you take your puppy out of the crate as much as possible. You don’t want it learning to go inside its crate. Not only is this very messy but it will mean that you can no longer use the crate to toilet train your puppy.

If you can’t afford a crate you might want to consider tying your puppy on a short leash. By making the area small, you will discourage your puppy from going to the toilet. However, there are some problems with this. Your puppy may become tangled and hurt itself. It also may chew through a cotton or nylon leash.

Clicker training is very easy and extremely effective. All you have to do is make your puppy realise that the ‘click’ means treat and then match it to something the puppy is doing. For a full explanation and tips of dog clickers click here

Between nine and twelve weeks something switches on in your puppy’s head and he becomes aware of the need to go to the toilet. You don’t have to wait until this time to start toilet training. You should start training your puppy as soon as you get him or her home. This way you will establish a set of boundaries for his or her behaviour.

NUMBER FOUR:

Choose what you want your puppy to go on before you bring it home and think about how you are going to dispose of it.

Most people prefer the puppy to go outside in the garden; some people living in flats have to use puppy-pads which are specially designed to attract a puppy to go to the toilet.

Puppy pads work very well because they are specially scented to attract dogs to use them. They are like a nappy that you lie flat. They have a waterproof backing.

If you want to use newspaper to train your puppy spread it around all over the floor to begin with. As the days progress, put the newspaper in a smaller area. As your puppy gets used to using it, you can make the area smaller again.

You can purchase special drops that attract puppies to go to the toilet. These are called ‘house breaking’ drops. You can use these on newspaper and in your garden. The drops contain the same chemical as the puppy pads and will attract your puppy to go where ever you put them.

Take some of the soiled paper (or puppy pads) outside and leave it in the area that you want your puppy to use for his or her toilet. This way, your puppy will be able to make the connection between his toileting and the area where you want him to go.

Bring garden clippings or chip bark inside and leave it on the newspaper or puppy pads. This will help your puppy make an association with the area you want it to outside.

NUMBER FIVE:

Timing is essential in all areas of dog training and doubly so for toilet training.

Puppies need to go to the toilet after they wake up, after they have eaten and when they are playing. You will see your puppy begin to sniff at the ground and turn in circles. This is your cue to get him to where you want him to ‘go’ immediately. Get up early in the morning and take him outside so he learns that this is the first thing he should do and he will also learn to wait for you.

If your puppy is inside, keep your eye on him or her all the time. If he is sleeping or playing near you, he will get up and walk into a different room to go to the toilet. Be prepared and if you see him get up take him outside straight away.

Use television commercial breaks to time when you take your puppy outside. Take him to the right place and leave him for a few minutes. If he doesn’t do anything, don’t fuss or yell, just play with him and go back inside. He will soon learn that being outside is a fun time and become more relaxed. Don’t leave him outside until he goes. This will only increase his anxiety because he will want to be with you.

Watch and learn from your puppy. He or she will tell you with its body language that it wants to go. Look for the tell-tale signs like sniffing the ground, turning around and backing into a particular spot; body arch and holding the tail out straight. Be quick and take your puppy outside straight away. Be careful not to alarm your puppy – if you rush over and yell your loud voice and body language may alarm it and cause stress to your puppy.

This can lead to anxiety related behaviours regarding eliminating like weeing when someone new meets your puppy, holding on too long and being overly shy about going.

When you come home don’t let your puppy inside the house straight away if he or she has been outside. Stay outside with him or her and play or do some training. Your puppy has been relaxing all day and any kind of activity will stimulate it to go. If you bring him or her inside the house straight away, you are not giving your puppy the opportunity to relieve itself outside and you will have another mess to clean up.

NUMBER SIX:

When your puppy has gone to the toilet where you want him to go, make a big fuss of him – use pats, treats, belly rubs, a high pitched 'good dog!' voice – go right over the top. You really need to push home the point that going to the toilet where you want him to go is a very very good thing.

When you take your puppy outside and it doesn’t go to the toilet, play and run it around. This extra activity will stimulate your puppy to go.

Play or feed puppy where it has gone to the toilet inside the house. Puppies don’t like to go where they eat or play. If you’re worried about spreading disease place a sheet of newspaper down over the spot. Your puppy’s sense of smell will allow him or her to smell the area through a single sheet of newspaper.

Don’t feed or give water to your puppy before sleep time. Even though your puppy is tired and will sleep, he or she will wake with a full bladder in the middle of the night. Even if it is sleeping through the night, a full bladder is hard to hold even in the short time it takes for you to get out of bed and take him or her outside.

NUMBER SEVEN:

If you can catch your puppy in the act, quickly pick him up and take him to the spot where you want him to go.

If you can’t catch him in the act, put him outside and clean the mess up. Don’t yell or get angry and especially don’t rub his nose in what he’s done.

He can recognise his own droppings and wee, he knows he did it but he can’t make the association that you are mad because he left it on the lounge room floor. If you get very angry he will only think that you are an irrational creature that can’t be trusted. This may increase his anxiety and he will be more difficult to toilet train. Urinating is a sign of submission in dogs and fearful dogs will often discharge a small amount of urine when they are fearful.

If he feels stressed when you walk into the room, your puppy may urinate on the floor to say to you that he is not a threat. If you get mad and start yelling, it will only make him believe he has to urinate more. It can turn into a vicious cycle so it is best not to yell at all and be patient. And definitely, DO NOT rub your puppy’s nose in the mess for this very reason.

We are asking a lot of these animals. You wouldn’t bring a giraffe or a wombat into your home and not expect it to go to the toilet so you have to be patient with your puppy.

NUMBER EIGHT:

When you find a little mess in your home, you will have to clean it up straight away. The longer it stays on your floor surfaces, the more it will soak in and be extremely difficult to remove.

Most cleaners have ammonia in them and so does urine and feces. After you’ve cleaned up the mess and you think it smells great; your puppy’s sense of smell is so good he may come along, smell the ammonia and go again. Puppies love to go in the same place especially if they can smell where they’ve been before.

When dogs smell each other’s urine or scent markers, they can read lots of information about the dog that left the mark. Things like what gender, age or even what rank the dog has in its pack are detectible through its urine.

When you clean up your puppy’s mess using a normal disinfectant that has many different chemicals you are leaving a page of information for your puppy to read. If it contains ammonia, and most do, you are actually instructing your puppy to go here, please! Even though you can only smell pine fresh or lemon scent, your puppy can smell each ingredient and then make his or her decision about whether this is a good spot to relieve itself of not!

If this is happening in your house, use a cleaning product from your pet store that breaks down enzymes. You may have to soak it in so colour-fast test your carpet or delicate floor coverings first.

There are also some laundry powders that claim to break down enzymes. Look for them and make a solution and keep it handy. Again, colour test your floor coverings before using it. If you have a solution ready, you will be able to clean up the mess much faster. So make a small amount up of water and the laundry powder and leave it in a bucket ready to use as soon as you need it.

A product that breaks down enzymes will break down the urine and feces on a micro level. This will go a long way to discouraging your puppy from going in the same spot because he won’t be able to smell his own ammonia. 

NUMBER NINE:

Take it seriously; puppies make little messes but think of what you’ll have to clean up when your puppy is fully grown. Also, continuous eliminating on your carpets and floor coverings cannot be removed entirely.

If puppy is sick be more patient. A sudden change in diet or eating something yucky found outside will soon give your puppy diarrhea. If this is the case, be patient and stay positive. Your puppy cannot control what comes out the other end so it is a good idea to carefully monitor what he or she eats all the time.

It is important to stay positive. Your puppy will learn to go outside eventually. If you become stressed so will it and this will only delay your puppy’s learning further. Be cool and calm at all times and your puppy will look up to you and want to please you.

Remember: always give your puppy the opportunity to correct his behaviour and do the right thing. It is up to you to teach him what is acceptable and what is not.

NUMBER TEN:

As your puppy is learning to go to the toilet, you can give him or her a ‘go’ command. This type of training is called capturing because you are giving a command while the dog is completing the behaviour.

If you decide to put toileting under command control you will have to begin straight away and be consistent. Always use the same word and always use it just as your puppy is ‘going’. Don’t wait until he or she is nearly finished or is half way through.

Also you might want to use a word other than ‘pee’ or ‘toilet’ because you will want to use this word when you are out in public and you don’t want to look silly. As well, don’t use a word like ‘OK’ because it is used frequently in our speech and you don’t want your puppy ‘going’ at an inappropriate time such as during a conversation in the middle of your in-laws dining room.

Mistakes others make include people believe that female dogs are easier to train than males – this is not true. The gender of your dog has little effect on its ability to learn how to go to the toilet.

Rubbing your puppy’s nose in the mess it’s made will not teach it anything except that you are irrational and cannot be trusted. People who claim to have success doing this have probably done it for the period of time it takes for a puppy to learn to go outside anyway. Some puppies have developed fear associations from this behaviour and associated toilet training difficulties which usually means it takes much longer to train and you can never trust the dog inside entirely.

Diet has an effect on your puppy’s elimination pattern. Supermarket bought dry food is very high in salt which will cause your puppy to drink more and will make its stools sloppy. More drinking will cause your puppy to urinate more.

Canned food has very high water content and the rest is mainly additives and fillers that will pass through your dog’s intestines and, guess what, straight out the other end. If I had a puppy with constipation – then a can of wet food would soon fix it! There is little nutritional value in most canned foods.

Natural food is best like raw food and it’s cheaper. Go to www.barf.com for more details. Lots of raw meat and bones, cooked veggies, yogurt and fish oil are the best for any puppy. There are no extra fillers or additives so there is not much wastage coming out the other end.

Chicken bones are good for your puppy’s teeth as long as they are not cooked. Lamb is high in fat and will give your puppy wind so it might be best avoided. Tongue, Heart (lamb’s or ox), chicken frames, chicken necks and wings, kidney and ox tails all make up my dogs’ diet. I also give them fish in the form of canned tuna or sardines in natural water. This gives them omega 3 and 6 which is essential for healthy skin, teeth, gums and coat.

Natural yogurt is also added to their diets. It has the same advantages for dogs as it does for us and will often help cure bad breath too.

Remember, puppies need to go to the toilet 5 to 10 times a day depending upon their size, breed, age and the amount of water and food they’ve consumed.

So get your puppy outside and walking on leash around the neighbourhood is essential. Lots of fun time outside, no fuss if a mess is made inside will all help you train your puppy quickly and easily.

None of the points in this book will not work on their own. Training your puppy will mean using them in combination and to suit your particular environment.

If you have any questions, please email them to Sue at messy_pawz1@bigpond.com

Yours in Pawz,

Sue Day

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