Potty Training – The Most Important Thing to Teach Your Puppy

What’s the most important thing to teach your new puppy?

Potty training!

This is something I have seen too many clients take lightly, thinking their puppy would just mature and figure it out. Most well bred dogs are going to have strong instincts to be clean, but it’s a team effort between the owner and the puppy.

Crossing your fingers and hoping your puppy stops peeing in the house is a recipe to a dog needing to be rehomed due to peeing in the house. Make sure your puppy understands it needs to go outside to pottty!

Very young puppies simply cannot “hold it,” and owners need to be thinking ahead and anticipating  BEFORE their puppy needs to pee.

What triggers the need to pee in a very young puppy?

-Waking up from a nap.

-Playing after rest.

-Greeting a new person.

-Anything exciting happening.

-Drinking water.

-Eating food.

One of the biggest signs a puppy needs to pee is that they suddenly get up and walk away from you, but its not clear where they’re headed. There’s no toy, food, or person in the direction they’re headed, but they look like they’re going somewhere. And why would they leave, you have food and toys and are fun and exciting?

Chances are, they’re looking for where to go potty.

Where should they go? Preferably to a pee pad or newspaper by or just outside your door that leads outside. Pee pads should ONLY be placed by a door, using the newspaper method. Pee pads should NEVER be placed in random places around the home, as it will teach the puppy that it’s ok to potty in random places around the house. ALWAYS place a pee pad near the door and transition it to just outside the door, as the puppy matures.

A feeding tip for potty training:

Feed young puppies wet food, or soak their kibble in warm water before feeding.

Why? If a puppy eats a bowl of dry food, it will become very thirsty after, causing it to later drink too much water, which then makes them need to pee urgently after. If a puppy drinks too much water right before bedtime, it makes accidents overnight far more likely. Feeding wet or moistened food prevents this, and is an easy fix.

The Puppy Potty Cycle:

Nap.

Wake up – pee.

Snack or play – pee.

Repeat.

So yes, basically, if your very young puppy is awake, its probably time to take them outside to pee.

And yes, its like being held hostage by a very adorable little gremlin, who will pee in your house if you get distracted, but very quickly, your puppy will be rushing to the door to be let outside to potty and sleeping through the night.