Dogs are not born with the knowledge that elimination takes place outside and not in the house. You must first drill it into their minds that outside is where the bathroom is. For at least the first two weeks, you need to prevent your dog from having an accident in the house. Do this by limiting her free time. Keep her in a crate when you cannot supervise her. The crate should be big enough for her to stand up, turn around, and lie flat down in. If it is any bigger than that, she may try to eliminate in the corner of the crate and sleep on the other side. Another option during the day is to keep her on leash and connect it to your belt so she cannot sneak off somewhere and eliminate. You will be able to watch her and take her out when you sense she needs to go. Crate training is the easiest way to housebreak a dog. It goes as follows:
1. Take her out of her crate and right outside. You need to go outside with her and spend 5 to 10 minutes in the yard with her.
a. If she eliminates once, spend 5 more minutes outside to see if she needs to go again. Say “Potty Potty” and praise your dog the second she starts going to the bathroom and give rewards such as a treat, petting/scratching, a game of fetch, or a walk after she’s gone. Naming this will later teach her to eliminate on command. Praising her while she is eliminating teaches her that the act of going to the bathroom in this location is good, and afterwards she will receive a reward.
b. If she does not eliminate, take her back into the house and crate her for 5 to 10 minutes, depending upon the last time she eliminated. Only crate her a short time so she doesn’t have an accident in the crate. Dogs do not want to mess up their sleeping area so if their bladder can hold it, they will not eliminate in the crate. If they are in their crate for too long and cannot hold it anymore, they will eliminate in their crate. This will start to teach them to be messy and with enough repetition they will continue to go to the bathroom in their crate. After she is crated for a short while, take her back outside and repeat the procedure.
2. After she’s gone to the bathroom outside and you are pretty sure her bladder is empty, give her on average around 30 minutes of supervised free time in the house. You must supervise her to prevent any accidents or other unwanted behaviors. If you cannot supervise her, either put her in her crate or leash her and connect her to your belt. After her playtime, take her back outside and repeat Step 1.
TIPS
- Take her out first thing in the morning, after meals, after playtime, after being kenneled, and right before bed.
- Take her water away at least two-hours before her last potty break before bedtime.
- A young puppy may have to be taken out during the night as their bladder is so small, but work towards having them sleep through the night. If the puppy starts whining or crying in the middle of the night to go outside, quickly let her out before the crying escalates. By letting her out right away, you are teaching her to let you know when she has to potty, preventing long bouts of barking and whining, and preventing her from peeing in her kennel. Take her right outside to potty, and right back into the kennel. Do not give attention or allow play. You do not want your puppy to think all she has to do is whine at 4 am and the fun begins.
- If she is barking or whining in her kennel for attention, do not let her out and do not pay any attention to her, as that will reinforce her behavior.
- If you have to leave her home alone during the day, keep her in the kennel, without food and water, and make sure someone comes to take her outside every 3 to 4 hours. Small dogs and puppies’ bladders fill up fast. Set them up for success by taking them out often. If they are left in the crate all day, they will learn to eliminate where they lie and crate training will not work. If no one can come home to potty her, you need to get a pet sitter or a friend to take her out. If this isn’t an option either than you may be too busy to have a puppy right now.
You may think she is spending a lot of time in the crate at first, but it is a necessity to housebreak her. If she has one unsupervised accident in the house, it will reinforce her to have another accident later. If she has accidents in the house that you do not catch, and accidents in the house that you do catch and reprimand her for, she will learn to hide from you to eliminate. You are teaching her that it is okay and a self-rewarding behavior to eliminate in the house when no one’s around, and it’s scary to eliminate in the house when someone is present. Start off on the right foot by not giving her the option to have a full bladder in the house.
Sometimes dogs have so much fun outside that they forget to potty. Once they come back inside they remember they had to go. If she tends to eliminate as soon as you bring her inside, then you have a few options:
- Kennel her immediately after every trip outside, and then take her outside again after 10 minutes or so in the kennel.
- Pay closer attention to her after you bring her in so you can catch her before she has an accident.
- As soon as you bring her in from outside, take her right back outside. This will help set her up for success by not allowing her the option to eliminate as soon as she comes inside.
If after 2 weeks of this schedule she has not had any accidents, you may start to allow her more supervised playtime inside. Start off allowing her to be out 45 minutes, then 60 minutes, then 90 minutes, and so on. Gradually allow her less crate time. You must still supervise her so you can catch her if she has an accident. It should be drilled in her head by now that she eliminates outside and you reward her for it. If you catch her eliminating inside, start yelling “No! No! No!”, clap your hands, stomp your feet, and make any loud scary noises you can so she associates eliminating inside with scary things happening. Quickly take her outside to eliminate. If she does, praise her as you did in Step 1. If she doesn’t go outside, take her inside to her kennel. Clean up her accident when she is in her kennel so she doesn’t see you clean it. If she sees you clean her mess up, she may think it is your job to do that and she will think it is okay to eliminate inside. The key is to associate positive things happening when she eliminates outside, and negative things happening when she eliminates inside. You should be praising more than correcting. If you’re not, than she is being allowed too much freedom. If you keep consistent and firm, she will become housetrained. You just have to adjust your schedule at first.
You also need to teach her a way of telling you she has to go outside. Either make her sit at the door, bark at the door, or ring bells at the door--each and every time she goes outside. She needs to associate her barking or ringing bells with that door opening, her going potty, and then receiving a reward. The reward could be praise, a toy or treat, a walk, or just the relief of an empty bladder. Once you feel your dog is fully housetrained, you do not need to give her a reward after every occurrence. Still praise your puppy whenever she goes potty outside, but treats and walks every time are no longer necessary. However, it doesn’t hurt to randomly reinforce the behavior every now and then.
This training tip provided by:
Odie's Obedience
Sara Bartlett, ABCDT, CPDT
St. Cloud, Minneapolis, and
St. Paul, Minnesota areas
320-259-ODIE
Cell: 320-250-3001
Email: sara@odiesobedience.com
Website: www.odiesobedience.com
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