Puppy Potty Training Tricks

Potty training a dog isn't the most difficult task in the world, but it can require an enormous amount of patience. Some dogs are stubborn or just don't seem to catch on, and the process can be frustrating at times. The best time to potty train a dog is when it is still a puppy, and knowing a few tricks of the trade to which many puppies respond quickly can help speed up the process of housebreaking a dog.

  1. Urination Pads

    • While paper-training a puppy, use urination pads rather than regular papers. These pads absorb urine much better than the traditional newspaper would and are widely available in pet stores. Some brands also chemically scent their urination pads so that puppies are attracted to urinate on them.

    Notification

    • Train your dog to ring a bell to announce that it needs to go to the bathroom. To train a puppy to do this, hang a bell on a piece of string attached to the door handle at the level of the dog's nose. Follow your house-training schedule, and give the bell a shake every time you take the dog outside for it to do its business. After about a week, stop ringing the bell--instead, wait until your puppy does it. If it does, give it lots of enthusiastic praise and open the door to let it out. If it doesn't, ring the bell yourself and try making your dog ring the bell another time. With this method, most dogs don't take too long to understand that they need to ring the bell when they need a potty break.

    Treats and Praise

    • Reward your puppy with a tasty treat after it goes to the bathroom in an appropriate area to help it understand that it has done something right. Dogs respond well to positive reinforcement, and once it associates good behavior with receiving a treat, it will more likely repeat the action in the future. Dogs like to make people happy and respond to praise as well as treats. By excessively praising your dog after it has done its business in a designated area, it will eventually understand that you are expressing approval of its good behavior and will repeat the behavior in the future.

    Immediacy

    • Immediacy and directness are very important while training a puppy. While potty training a puppy, you need to give treats and praise immediately after it does it business in the right area so that it knows to associate the rewards with good behavior. Don't wait even a few seconds--that is long enough for a puppy to forget.

    Consistency

    • Dogs have a very short memory, which means once you have planned a training regimen, try not to deviate from it. Don't try to teach your puppy to urinate in one spot, then change your mind and have it urinate in another spot the next day. This will likely confuse your pet, and make it even more difficult for you to potty train it successfully.

    Punishment

    • Sometimes mistakes will happen, and a puppy may relieve itself somewhere you don't want it to. In this case, unless you have directly caught the dog in the act, do not punish it. Punishment for misbehavior that has occurred in the past won't make sense to a dog, and your anger may simply scare your pet. A scared dog may even urinate more out of fear and submission. Simply clean up the mess, making sure to clear away all traces of odor so that the puppy isn't tempted to relieve itself in the same place again. Positive reinforcement during any kind of dog training is always more effective than punishment.