Potty Training Plan For Your Puppy
Tips for successful potty training
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Let's talk potty in your dog training program. Whether a pup or a newly adopted adult dog we want to help them to understand where they need to go to eliminate. We have 5 easy ways to train this:
The rule is after everything we visit the designated potty area.
Examples of after are:
- After eating and drinking (the younger the dog, the smaller the after window, so an 8 week old pup will be within 15 minutes to half and hour).
- Immediately after waking, playing hard and chewing (on a toy or chew stick).
Leash up your dog and take them to the designated potty area. (A gravelled area is great if you can set one up. Easily distinguishable from the rest of the yard for the dog and easy to clean up).
Stand still with your dog and be neutral. If you engage to much or wander to much, especially with a puppy, your dog may become distracted from the job at hand.
Within a few moments your dog should elimate. If they do, take off the leash and have a chase game. While food is a primary reinforcement, in this instance, play may be easier and really enjoyable for you and your dog.
If your dog does not eliminate within a few minutes, go back inside and keep your dog either contained within an exercise pen or right beside you and try again in a few minutes.
When your dog has been successful with eliminating in the designated spot and you have had your play session then certainly free time in the house or a nice walk is just the ticket.
For added information leading to success you can keep a potty journal recording when they eliminate, where and what happened just before they did (were they playing or chewing). In case of accidents, do not punish your dog. This can lead to fear and potentially the dog going potty secretly. Instead clean it up, use it as information for you to do better on the go forward.
Expect Accidents –To reduce accidents you must be actively supervising your puppy or managing their activity through the use of containment.Active supervision means actively engaging and observing your puppy or if you are not able to do this at the moment containing your pup in her exercise pen, crate or tethered to you .
Having said this, we are human and subject to making mistakes, which may result in your puppy having an accident.If you catch the pup mid-accident, simply interrupt her calmly and take her outside.Punishment is not an option, this was a mistake of lack of human supervision and a puppy who had to urinate and didn’t yet understand where to do this.
Too Late – Being human, we make mistakes and perhaps we let our pup of our sight for a moment, only to later find a treasure left on our living room carpet. Again, though punishment is not an option.cThe “business” happened in the past, just because it took you a period of time to “find it” is irrelevant. Anything that you do to punish your pup will not connect the punishment to the “business” on the living room carpet and will only serve to frighten and confuse your pup and probably damage the bond between you and your pup, not to mention create mistrust about you in your pup’s mind.
As well, please remember, if your puppy has an accident in the house, it happened for 2 reasons, your lack of supervision and a puppy who does not yet understand the appropriate place to eliminate.
If you find a treasure, simply clean it up.
Proper Cleanup – There are many products that claim they can properly clean pet urine, however the very best products that I have ever used are vinegar, water and baking soda.For a non-carpet floor just wipe up the urine and then spray a 50/50 mixture on the area and wipe up again.
For cleaning carpet –
- Wick with as many towels as it takes by standing on a towel over the spot until no further moisture comes up
- Soak with 1:1 mixture of vinegar and water and let sit for 5-10 minutes, remember to soak an area wider than the original urine stain as the urine has spread out below the carpet as it absorbed into the padding.
- Wick with as many towels as it takes to get the spot damp-dry
- Sprinkle on baking soda, let dry and vacuum.