Potty Training A Puppy: The Basics You Need To Know

Are you potty training a puppy? The method is not hard to understand, but your patience will be needed! There are just four steps. The puppy needs to be with you. You need to take him to his pottying location at certain times. You need to clean up any accidents in a matter-of-fact way. Repeat these steps a lot and pretty soon, you'll be living with a potty trained puppy!

I'll discuss these four points:

1. Keeping your puppy with you as much of the time as possible gives you the best chance of catching him just before he starts to pee or poop. Even if you catch him in the act, it helps the potty training -- just say NO and take him to where you want him to do his stuff.

You can keep the puppy very close to you by connecting his leash to your belt. So then if you go somewhere, he does too! You may not get as much done on other projects as you are used to, but you and the puppy will be bonding.

Whatever ways you devise to make it work for you, do keep your puppy close at hand as much as possible. Consider crate training for when you need to be away. This article doesn't get into crate training -- it's a big topic in itself -- but there are some pages on it at my website on dog training.

2. When you are potty training a puppy, you are helping him to understand that when he feels an urge to urinate or defecate, he should go to his specially designated place for these activities. How will he learn this? By your taking him there:

*** Each time he awakens, whatever time of day. Since puppies nap a lot, there will be a lot of awakenings!

*** Every time he eats or takes a big drink.

This means a lot of trips for you and the puppy over the course of a day. Also take him out shortly before you go to bed at night.

A word about his pottying spot: If you have a fenced yard, that is great and you can even take him to a particular part of it if you wish. If you will be walking him on leash in your neighborhood, take a plastic bag or two for cleanup. You can also train him to use papers or even a litter box indoors, and this can be the best choice if you live in a high-rise apartment, for example.

3. Calmly clean up anyplace that his urine has soaked or that he has left a pile. Yelling at him does not help, because he really will not understand why you are upset. If it helps you, as it sometimes has helped me, you can remind yourself that this process should last a lot less time than if you were potty training a little human!

4. Repetition is a very important part of the potty training process, as dogs learn that way. So keep on doing each step, as often as you can.

So these are the essential points in potty training a puppy. Best wishes to you and your puppy!