Potty Training a Puppy or Dog

Every Puppy Can Be Potty Trained

Potty training a puppy or dog is one of the most common concerns for dog owners. Unfortunately, there isn’t a magic scent, a central location, or a visual aid that automatically attracts your dog and gives her the urge to poop or pee.

What you are going to learn here is that through consistency, every dog is potty trainable. We often assume that dogs should ‘just know’ what to do at any given moment. While this is not altogether wrong, a little encouragement plus consistency on our part will really support them in learning all they can.

Humans need good potty training to learn how to do it. It’s just ridiculous to think that we can potty train a dog without similar effort.

Potty training is a process. It takes time, patience and most of all, consistency.

Pick the Potty Training Method that Works for You

Below you will find a method, not unique nor the only way to train, just good common sense and practical way for good potty habits for you and your dog.

This method, although simple and plain to understand, is not always easy. It is just not in most of our nature to do things on such a routine. Things like work, children, and/or social activities always seem to get in the way. This is really not a problem.

Do what works for you; just stick as closely to the routine as possible. The better your routine and the more consistent you are, the quicker you will see results.

If you follow this program, you can have your dog potty trained in a matter of 30 days. That’s right! 30 days! It takes about three weeks to a month to create a new habit in humans, and dogs are no different!

If you extend this routine for 60 to 90 days, you can have your dog going potty on command. Many of my clients have reached this goal, astonished with their own success!

Most of all…BE PATIENT! This is a new member of your family. Take your time, you may not even see results for the first week or two, just keep up the consistency and I promise you will be happy with the results. It works!

Puppy Potty Training Basics – First Things First

Let’s start with a few basic hints to train by. These may not seem important, but if you really pay attention to these five hints, you can speed up the process. Once you have read (and are willing to follow) these basic rules we can get started on the routine.

1. Pay attention to your dog’s health. Make sure your dog is healthy and free of infections, mites, or anything else that may cause her to have to go to the bathroom.

2. Control your dog’s eating habits. Feed your dog an appropriate amount of healthy food at the same time each day. DO NOT over-feed your dog and DO NOT feed table scraps!

3. Keep play time and potty time separate. Do not mix potty time and play time together. Separate the times and locations when you go outside so your dog will not confuse going out to potty with going out to play.

4. You must start on-leash. It is very important that your dog will do her business while you are around. Doing this on-leash sets the stage for you and your dog to create a great owner/dog relationship. (I know some people want their dog to feel like an equal, but this is not what your dog wants.)

5. Choose to use one command only. I use the phrase “Go Potty”. You should choose a command that you say for both poop and pee and ONLY that word or phrase. Some say “Do your Business”, “Hurry Up”, “Get Busy”…whatever, just always say that phrase and nothing else once you start the Potty Routine.

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