Toilet training your new puppy

If you have a new puppy, then you have a furry friend that will fill your home with delight. Your children have the greatest time possible with their new friend. With the fun comes responsibility, which is toilet training your puppy. This is something you need to do as soon as the pup comes home.

Puppy training is not so difficult. All it requires is a systematic approach and patience. To help you toilet train your new pup, we have some tips for you. Follow the guidelines given below to get your puppy toilet trained and ready to be a part of your home.

Tips to Toilet Train your Puppy

1. When to toilet train?

Don’t waste time trying to toilet train a very young puppy. It will not understand what is happening. A puppy needs to be at least 12 weeks old before you start toilet training. That is when the puppy has control over its bladder and training would be useful.

2. Patience is the key

Getting your child toilet trained takes a long time. You cannot expect a puppy to be faster. It takes many months for your puppy to be fully trained. The first few weeks can be very frustrating and you need to be patient. Getting angry will not help. Have patience and take one step at a time. Your effort will bear fruit when your puppy is fully trained and you don’t have to bother about cleaning up.

3. Identify a designated spot

The first thing you need to do is identify a place for your puppy’s toilet. That should be the place where you take your puppy for toilet training every day. Never change the place later as it could confuse your puppy. Decide the place carefully. Choose a place from where the smell does not spread to your house. When you start taking it to the same place, the smell will stimulate it to urinate/defecate.

4. Timing the training

The puppy needs to urinate first thing in the morning. As soon as it wakes up, take it to the designated place to do its business. Once it has its meal, it is likely to poop after half an hour. That’s when you should take it out. A young puppy may need to be taken to urinate once an hour.

5. Toilet training while walking

Getting your puppy to be toilet trained while going on a walk takes some time. For this, you may need to take it out early morning when it first urinated and then make it urinate outside. This will help it understand that it should urinate or poop when walking.

6. Stay with it

The initial weeks is not going to be easy. Your pup may refuse to be toilet trained. You need to take it to the spot and be there until it finishes its business. Leaving it alone outside will not work. It may make the puppy run around and play instead of doing its business. The puppy should learn that until it urinates / defecates, you are not going to take it anywhere else.

7. Use a crate for puppy toilet training

One of the ways of toilet training a young puppy is to use a crate. The crate should be small and not give space to the puppy to use as a toilet. But there must be sufficient space for turning around and sleeping. Let the puppy be in the crate and take it out for its toilet training. This will make the puppy understand that it will be released from the crate if it pees/poops at the designated place.

8. Use a reward system

A reward system can help your puppy understand quickly what is to be done. When your puppy does its job as instructed, reward it with a treat. You should ensure that the puppy associates the reward with the act of urinating/defecating. This will make it learn fast what to do. You can have a cue word or phrase (‘go potty’) praising the puppy while giving it the award. This cue word can help you with effective toilet training.

9. Never punish the puppy

During the initial stages, accidents can and will happen. It may even happen after some time. Never punish the puppy for an accident. Beating the puppy or doing something cruel like rubbing its nose in the poop are very bad practices. They can make the puppy get scared of you and be counter-productive. Scold the puppy in a loud voice with an angry expression. That will help the puppy understand it has done something wrong.

10. Follow a proper schedule

You need to follow a proper schedule not just for toilet training, but also for feeding. Give the puppy the same food every day. Give the food at the same time. This will help establish a routine to which the puppy gets adjusted. Sudden changes in the routine or altering the diet can alter its toilet habits.

11. Avoid common mistakes

There are some common mistakes pet parents do while toilet training. This can make the toilet training process take more time and be more frustrating.

• Don’t leave the back door open for the puppy to use the toilet. It will just run outside and play. The puppy needs to associate going out with toilet training. Once it is toilet trained, you can then leave it free to go where it wishes.
• A puppy is an animal and not your child. It cannot tell you when it wants to go. Don’t expect this and help it to follow a proper schedule.
• Avoid feeding salty foods as they can make the puppy drink more water. This can lead to accidents.
• A young puppy cannot control itself the entire night, and you cannot keep taking it out in the night. So, you must be prepared for the puppy to pee in its sleeping place for a few weeks.
• Don’t use potty pads. Using such pads will ensure your puppy will never learn.