Intentional Growth Plan For The Dog Handler
How To Potty Train A Puppy in 7 Days
One of the most important things you can train your new puppy is where they go to the bathroom. Knowing the rules of where and when to go potty keeps everyone, two and four-legged, healthier, and happier. First, you must understand that the puppy does not have a potty-training problem. When your puppy feels the urge to urinate or defecate, they will with no problem. From the puppy’s perspective, the whole world is an acceptable potty area. However, your challenge is to teach the puppy an acceptable place to potty. This will most likely be you and the puppy’s first learning experience together, so focus on looking for successes rather than failures. Understand that learning is a process that takes both time and patience and that every handler and dog learns at different rates. The key to teaching your puppy where to take a potty break must be intentional and come from you as the puppy’s new leader. Your new leadership skills will consist of implementing four key skills: regular outings, proper management, behavior protocols, and positive reinforcement. These skills can easily be measured and recorded, which provides valuable information regarding success or failure in teaching your new puppy where and when to take a potty break.
How long it takes to potty train your puppy will depend on how consistent you are and how long your puppy can hold their urine and feces. Typically, smaller breed puppies have a harder time holding their urine and feces than larger breed puppies. Below are the steps to potty train your puppy in seven days. If it takes a little longer with your puppy, it’s OK! Remember, all people and all puppies learn at different rates, so be patient and focus on the successes.
Note: I do not get any compensation nor am I an affiliate for any of the products mentioned in this article. You must research each product and make your own decision if the product is right or wrong for your given circumstances.
Equipment for Potty Training a Puppy
- Collar or Harness
- 6-foot leash
- 15-foot leash
- Two dog litter boxes that hold wee-wee pads
- Tasty small-sized treats
- Carpet cleaner for accidents
- Mops and floor cleaner
- Lots of love!
How to Potty Train a Puppy in 7 Days
Potty training a puppy is all about setting you and your puppy up for success. Proper management and supervision are crucial to successful house training. Until your puppy is fully house trained, make sure your puppy is always either managed or supervised.
Successfully potty training a puppy requires the pairing of good dog behavior management skills with behavior protocols applied by the handler until the puppy is fully house trained. Let’s define what dog behavior management skills and behavior protocols are to have a successful potty-training experience.
Handler dog behavior management – is organizing and controlling situations within the dog’s environment to prevent the dog from engaging in inappropriate behaviors. However, management only stops a behavior from occurring, it does not teach your dog anything.
Handler dog behavior protocols – are suggested steps to train a specific behavior.
Let’s apply some management skills with behavior protocols relating to potty training your puppy by asking a few questions.
Q: What am I organizing and controlling within the puppy’s environment?
A: The puppy’s free movement to randomly go wherever they want.
Q: Wat inappropriate behavior am I trying to prevent?
A: The puppy urinating or defecating in the house.
Q: How can I control the puppy’s free movement within the home?
A: There are several ways to control the free movement of your puppy in the home. The following management systems can be utilized individually or together.
1. Tethering can be used in two ways.
a. The puppy can be tethered to an object with a tie out cable, which creates a boundary for the puppy. However, you must make sure that the puppy can access a pee pad while tethered and yet move away from the pee pad. You don’t want the puppy lying on the pee pad.
b. You can also tether the puppy to yourself with a hands-free leash. This is a great way for the handler to observe the puppy’s behavior and learn the body language associated with the puppy having to go to the bathroom.
2. Confinement in an area with pee pads for the puppy is useful if the puppy must wait a long time in between potty breaks. It is best to set this up on a tiled floor, which makes cleaning up much easier if an accident occurs. Free-standing ex-pens work great for this type of confinement.
3. Crating your puppy is a great way to teach your puppy where and when to go potty. The crate should be just big enough for the puppy to turn around and lie down. The downside to crate training is your puppy will continue to grow for a while and you will need to get larger crates. However, there are crates that have dividers specifically made to allow for growth. The mistake new puppy handlers make is buying a crate that is too big. When the crate is too big the puppy can potty in a corner of the crate and then lie down in another area of the crate.
Important Crate Training Notes:
Young puppies should never be left in the crate for more than a couple of hours at a time. If puppies are crated for too long, they may start to potty in the crate because they just can’t hold it any longer. It is very important to keep crate time to just a couple of hours in the beginning. The handler will need to listen for cues from the puppy's “whines or barks” that they need to go potty. This applies at night as well.
4. Observation is actively watching and interacting with the puppy. When the handler is focused on the puppy, they will notice the puppy’s body language, sniffing & circling, or squatting, which may indicate the puppy might need to go potty. Observation and multitasking are incompatible. Things happen in seconds, and if your focus is on talking or texting on your phone, working on the computer, cooking dinner, …, then you are not focused or observing and interacting with your puppy and this is when accidents happen.
Potty training a puppy is a lot of work, which is why it is vitally important that you have a good management system in place! Potty accidents are going to happen. When an accident happens, the first question to ask is “What did I, the handler not do, or see?” The implementation of the management system and behavior protocols is your responsibility. Remember, puppies already know how to poop and pee. If we want the puppy to potty in a specific place, then it is the handler’s responsibility to become the leader and teach the puppy where to go.
Behavior Protocols for Puppy Potty Training Success
When the handler understands and applies good management and observation skills, then the handler can begin to house train the puppy. The handler is responsible for creating house training success for the puppy. This is accomplished by creating a consistent schedule for the puppy to learn the correct potty habits.
5 Steps to House Training Success
1. Handler, take your puppy outside on-leash at least once every 30 minutes
Very important to have your puppy on a leash when potty training. Being on a leash teaches the puppy to focus on potting rather than investigating all the fun stuff in the environment. It also teaches the puppy how to go potty on a leash when you’re on a walk or traveling with your puppy. The habit the handler is trying to create is, the puppy comes out of the crate and goes outside to a specific area, and goes pee and poop. After peeing and pooping the puppy gets rewarded and then gets to have playtime fun.
2. Handler, stand still and be quiet as you observe the puppy for five minutes to see if the puppy pees and poops.
The handler should take the puppy outside on a leash to a specific spot where it’s ok for the puppy to potty. The handler must be observant, stand still, and be silent. By standing still and keeping quiet the handler will observe how the puppy begins to focus on going potty rather than interacting with the handler.
When the handler observes the puppy peeing or pooping the handler should praise the puppy for doing a good job by saying “Good Potty” “Good Poopy” in a soft whisper happy voice. Then when the puppy is done going potty (pee & poop) reward with some food treats for doing a great job.
3. Handler, as the puppy pees or poops, praise the puppy and offer a treat for going potty within five minutes.
Only after the puppy has finished peeing and pooping should treats be offered to the puppy. The handler should not offer food treats for peeing and then food treats for pooping. The handler should wait to offer treats until they have observed the puppy finishing peeing and pooping.
If the puppy does not pee or poop within five minutes, that’s Ok. The handler should take the puppy back to their confinement area and leave the puppy there for about 10 – 20 minutes. After 10 – 20 minutes the handler should take the puppy back outside on leash and repeat steps 1 – 3.
4. Handler, after the puppy pees and poops, give the puppy some off-leash fun time.
Giving your puppy off-leash fun time after they potty teaches the puppy that peeing and pooping leads to more fun. In a safe area outside let the puppy off-leash for some fun playtime. If outdoors is not a safe area to let the puppy off-leash, then go back indoors under supervision by the handler and let the puppy play off-leash.
Do not make the common mistake of putting the puppy back into their confinement area. This teaches the puppy that going potty ends the fun and interaction with the handler. Puppies are smart, and they may take longer and longer to go pee and poop knowing they will end up in their confinement area after going potty.
5. Handler, repeat steps 1 – 4 throughout the day.
You should note that the word Handler is highlighted in all five steps. This is because the handler is responsible for all outcomes of training the puppy to potty in the appropriate place. The puppy already knows how to pee and poop. They just need to be shown where to go potty by the handler.
“Repetition of the same thought or physical action develops into a habit, which repeated frequently enough, becomes an automatic reflex.”
Norman Vincent Peal
As the handler, give yourself and the puppy several successful opportunities throughout the day by repeating the potty-training process. Utilizing positive reinforcement such as praise treats and play helps the handler and the puppy focus on what successful potty training looks like. The more times the handler and the puppy get the potty training process right, the faster the handler and the puppy will learn the potty process.
Potty Training Cheat Sheet
1. Handler, take your puppy outside on-leash at least once every 30 minutes
2. Handler, stand still and be quiet as you observe the puppy for five minutes to see if the puppy pees and poops.
3. Handler, as the puppy pees or poops, praise the puppy and offer a treat for going potty within five minutes.
4. Handler, after the puppy pees and poops, give the puppy some off-leash fun time.
5. Handler, repeat steps 1 – 4 throughout the day.
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Potty Training Tips
Get your puppy on a feeding schedule. What goes in must come out! Record the time your puppy eats and drinks, and then also record on a chart the time when the puppy goes potty after they have had their meal. Is it 20 minutes, 45 minutes …? You will discover a pattern of how long the puppy will hold their urine and feces after a meal. Every puppy is different, just as every human being is different regarding bathroom times.
Some additional times to take the puppy out to potty would be the following
- After eating
- After drinking
- After 5 – 10 minutes of playtime
- After a nap
With a feeding schedule, the puppy gets their meals at regular times. Fixed mealtimes make potty training much easier for the handler. Knowing the feeding schedule lets the handler schedule potty breaks. Feeding schedules are dependent on the age and size of the puppy. Check with your veterinarian to determine the feeding schedule for your puppy's age and size.
Q. What if my puppy potties inside the home?
A. If the puppy begins to have an accident on the floor, just say Ahh, Ahh, Ahh and quickly but calmly pick up the puppy and take the puppy outside to their potty area, then praise the puppy for finishing and give a treat for going in the right place. Do not yell or punish the puppy by rubbing their nose in the urine. Physical punishment by the handler only teaches the puppy not to go potty in front of the handler, which means the puppy will find a place in the home to go potty where the handler cannot see them go potty. When a puppy potties in the house, it is a handler error, not a puppy error. Puppies know how to pee and poop. It is the handler’s job to teach the puppy where to pee and poop. The handler should review their house-training chart and see what changed in the schedule. Was the puppy allowed to play to long? Was the puppy unsupervised? Did the puppy just wake up from a nap and begin to play? Did the puppy just drink a bunch of water a few minutes ago? Review and record the findings and then make handler adjustments for the next time.
Q. How do you clean up a puppy potty accident in the home
A. It is very important to clean the area where the potty accident occurred. The odor left by past potty accidents are like restroom signs for your dog. If not cleaned properly your dog will return to make another potty deposit. Nature’s Miracle is a great product to clean up potty accidents and can be purchased at most pet stores or ordered online. Make sure you personally sniff the area after you have cleaned up the potty mess. If you can smell any hint of foul odor, your dog will for sure smell it as they have a much better nose than the handler does.
Q. How long before my puppy is fully house trained?
A. That is largely dependent on how consistent and observant the handler is in training the puppy to eliminate outside. Ultimately, the handler is in control of all the resources for the puppy to be successful. This is why I say the results your puppy displays are a mirror of your leadership. If the puppy is performing poorly, then poor leadership/handling is being delivered.
Thanks for taking the time to read this article on potty training your new puppy.
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