5 Tips To Successfully House Train A Puppy

It’s never too early to start house training a young dog. Learning how to potty train your new puppy is one of the most important first steps to a happy relationship with your new companion. Investing time and energy into potty training early on will help you and your puppy adapt to a new life together and avoid frustration over preventable accidents. Reliable potty training is a skill that pays off over a lifetime and avoids the unnecessary tension and inconvenience that comes with frequent accidents in the house.

If you’re looking for guidance on how to potty train a puppy, here are 5 tips to get you started on the right track:

1. Build a Schedule & Stay Consistent

Structure is one of the most important tools to help your puppy adapt to a new home. Predictable routines fast track adaptation to proper sleep schedules and set clear boundaries for play time, down time, meal time, etc. Establishing a regular potty schedule for your puppy makes it easy to predict when it has to go to the bathroom.

As a general rule, puppies can “hold it” for an hour for every month of age. If your puppy is 3 months old, get in the habit of taking your puppy outside at least every 3 hours. If you are still having accidents, take it out more often until you are having success, then slowly start incrementing the time between potty breaks.

Try to pick an outdoor spot in your yard or near your living area for your puppy to go potty every time. Keep your dog on leash regardless of whether it’s in your yard or in public during bathroom breaks. This will avoid your puppy getting distracted when it’s time to go to the bathroom, as well as establish very clear expectations as to what it is that you want when you take it outside to its designated bathroom area.

2. Regulate Food & Water Intake

Regular meal and water intake schedules make for predictable bathroom breaks. Instead of giving your puppy unlimited free access to food and water, portion out its food into 2-3 meals and offer water throughout the day to avoid excessive drinking. Puppies need about an ounce of water for every pound of water weight, so remember to give your puppy enough water to stay hydrated throughout the day.

Stop all food and water intake at 6 pm to prepare for the night. Even if your puppy is not old enough to sleep through the night, restricting food and water intake at around 6 pm will reduce the number of times that it has to potty during the night. Once your puppy is able to sleep through the night consistently without accidents, you can consider extending food and water consumption until 7 pm, 8 pm, and so on. Eventually, your dog will be able to have meals and water at any time during the day and be able to “hold it” at nighttime.

3. Crate Time & Supervised Outside Time

Crate training has numerous benefits for dogs, and it is one of the most important training tools for any puppy. When introduced properly, your puppy sees the crate as its den and naturally wants to keep his space clean.

Get in the habit of taking your puppy to the bathroom first thing every time it comes out of the crate. If your puppy potties outside, you can spend some time with it outside of its crate. If it doesn’t, simply put it back in its crate, set a timer for 10 minutes, and try again when it goes off. Think of pottying outside as your puppy’s “buy in” for outside play time. Soon enough, your puppy will waste no time and will potty right away when it goes outside.

Remember to supervise your puppy whenever it is outside of the kennel, ideally on a leash. Keep food and water bowls away from your puppy’s reach, as well as anything that you don’t want your puppy getting into. Try to keep track of how much time your puppy has been outside, and take it out to the bathroom as needed. We recommend taking your dog outside to the bathroom right before putting it back in the crate. Read more about crate training here.

4. Ditch the Puppy Pads

While puppy pads may seem like a convenient way to prevent messy accidents, they can set your puppy back in the potty training process. Dogs are creatures of habit, and teaching your puppy to pee on a puppy pad in your living room or kitchen only builds the habit of going to the bathroom in those areas. The more your dog relieves itself at home, the more normal and acceptable it will become. Essentially, puppy pads teach dogs that it’s ok to potty in the house, which can be a tough ritual to break.

It’s better to teach good habits than to settle for convenient ones and try to undo them when they become a problem. Potty training your dog through regular bathroom trips outside yields much better results than unlearning the habits developed with puppy pads.

5. Accidents Will Happen

It’s almost inevitable that your puppy will have an accident. Don’t freak out. It’s perfectly normal, and getting upset at your puppy will only confuse it. Remember that puppies are learning a new skill, not trying to make a mess. Take your puppy out to the bathroom the moment you notice the accident. Once it relieves itself, clean up the accident, and bathe your puppy if necessary. Use ammonia-free products when cleaning up accidents.

Once your puppy has gone out to the bathroom and the accident has been cleaned up, adjust your potty schedule based on what might have caused the accident. There are a number of things that could have gone wrong: maybe your puppy had an upset stomach, maybe it had too much food or water at once, maybe it didn’t go out in time, maybe it didn’t go to the bathroom before spending time with you. Whatever it was, make sure to address it and move on. Stay consistent with your schedule, and adjust your schedule based on your puppy’s needs.

Potty training is time consuming. Depending on your availability, getting help with this process might be the best way to ensure success. Working with a trainer, having a friend let your puppy out throughout the day, or working from home for a few days, if possible, can ease the process. In Denver, Chomps Dog Training’s puppy boot camp covers all of the early stages of training, including potty training, to save you time and the potential frustration that comes with this process. Contact us today if you have any questions about house training your puppy.