Puppy potty training is the bane of many new dog parents. That is why there are so many tutorials on how to housetrain a dog, with promises of how it can be simple and effortless.
The fact though, is that potty training requires time, patience, and consistency. How simple or difficult it is, will depend on our dog’s temperament and our own temperament.
Some dog breeds such as the Shiba Inu, are naturally clean and are relatively easy to housebreak. My Shiba was housebroken when we first got him at 10 weeks old.
Shiba Sephy does not even like to eliminate in our backyard. Instead, he prefers to wait until we go for a walk. In contrast, my second dog (a Siberian Husky), was more difficult to housetrain because she did not mind frolicking close to her own waste products.
It took a few weeks to housetrain her.
Puppy potty training also depends a lot on us. If we are naturally calm, consistent, and patient, housebreaking will seem easier and require less work.
Whatever the case, always remember that we can successfully housetrain a physically healthy dog, at whatever age (after the weaning off process), no matter the history.
And that is a potty training fact!
1. Set Up a Schedule
Puppy potty training begins, by setting up a schedule. Initially, we want to bring our dog out often, and reduce the chances of her making mistakes inside the house.
I observe my puppy closely, and try to identify patterns in her potty behavior. For example, she usually has to go when she wakes up, and after a bit of vigorous play. Therefore, I took her out after nap-time and after every 10-15 minutes of play. Different dogs may have different patterns depending on size, temperament, routine, and more.
I stop giving her water about 2-3 hours before sleep time, and take her out right before I crate her for the night. If I need to reward her during that time, I only use moist dog treats such as boiled chicken, so that she does not get thirsty from them.
Fact – Dogs learn through a process called conditioning. They repeat behaviors that get them good results and stop behaviors that get them bad results.
The more we reward a puppy for eliminating outside, the more she will repeat that behavior. When my puppy does her business in the backyard, I mark that behavior (Yes!). Once she finishes, I treat her with something special that she only gets for potty success, and give her some good affection. Then, I reward her more with play-time and her favorite activities.
Similarly, the more a puppy practices eliminating inside, on her own, the more she will go in the house. After all, it is convenient and nobody is teaching her that it is inappropriate behavior.
Therefore, we want to not only maximize the number of successes, but also minimize the number of mistakes. In this way, our puppy will learn that doing her business outside is extremely rewarding and fun. On the other hand, when she does it inside, she consistently gets interrupted and taken outside.
Myth – My dog cannot be housetrained because she comes from a stubborn breed, she is too stupid, she is too dominant, she doesn’t listen to me, she is too old, etc.
Any physically healthy dog can be housetrained. The key to potty training is patience and consistency. Always be around to supervise our puppy when she is inside. If I do not have the time to supervise, then I crate my puppy or put her in a long-term enclosure with puppy pads.
Myth: Screaming and hitting the dog will show her that I am boss and make her stop pottying inside the house.
Screaming and hitting a dog does not work well, and usually makes things worse. How well do you learn when somebody is screaming at you, or hitting you? It is the same way for a dog, especially a puppy.
The fastest way to housebreak our puppy, is to remain calm, and consistently let her know that going inside is inappropriate (Ack, ack), and going outside is appropriate (Yes).
2. Prevent Potty Mistakes
There are three ways to prevent mistakes inside the house:
a) Be there to supervise.
When our puppy shows signs that she has to go potty, take her outside right away. If I do not catch my puppy in time and she starts to do her business, then I interrupt her with a no-mark (Ack, ack) and take her outside.
Myth – I can potty train my puppy by rubbing her nose in it after the fact. She always looks sheepish and puts her head down when I shout at her. She knows she has done something wrong.
Dogs will only learn when we catch them in the act.
If we are not around and our dog makes a mistake, then we have missed a learning opportunity. All we can do is clean up the mess and move on. It is true that a dog may look sheepish when we shout at her after the fact. This is because she knows that we are upset, so she uses submissive gestures (e.g. putting her head down) to try and appease us.
The dog does not know what particular event has caused our anger, but just that we are angry. Shouting and rubbing a dog’s nose in her own waste does not teach her anything. All it does is confuse our dog, as well as create stress and fear. This can make things worse by causing submissive urination.
b) Crate train our dog.
Dogs do not generally like to soil where they sleep. Keeping our puppy in a crate can discourage her from pottying because she does not want to soil her sleeping area.
When I got my first dog, I was a bit concerned about crating him. Here is what the Humane Society of the United States and the American Dog Trainer’s Network have to say about crate training
Myth – A crate will magically keep my dog from pottying for any period of time.
The crate is not some magical cure. A crate discourages a dog from eliminating, but if a dog absolutely has to go, she has to go.
Keeping a puppy for too long in a crate, will force her to potty in the crate, possibly traumatize her, and greatly set back our potty training program.
The maximum crate time is dependent on the age of our puppy.
| Age | Maximum time in crate |
|---|---|
| 8–10 weeks | 30–60 minutes |
| 11–14 weeks | 1–3 hours |
| 15–16 weeks | 3–4 hours |
| 17+ weeks | 4–5 hours |
Maximum crate time from ASPCA Weekend Crate Training.
Note – this is just a general guideline for the maximum crate time. I usually take my puppy outside more frequently than that. I take her out as soon as she wakes up, and right after any heavy activity.
At night, I crate my dogs in the bedroom. Keeping our dogs with us in the bedroom will help with the bonding process, and show them that they are part of the pack.
When puppies are really young, they may not be able to hold their bladder throughout the night. It may be necessary to make an extra trip outside at night, or really early in the morning. Once they get a bit older though, this will no longer be necessary.
Some puppies, e.g. pet store puppies, may already be conditioned to eliminate in their crate, because they are kept in there for overly long periods of time. In such cases, a crate will no longer be a deterrent to potty behavior.
c) Put our dog in a long-term enclosure.
If I will be away for a long period of time, I put my puppy in a long-term enclosure. This can be a secure puppy pen, or a secure and safe room (e.g. kitchen).
Make sure there is nothing dangerous in the enclosure that our puppy can destroy and swallow. Put bedding, a water bowl, some puppy pads, safe chew toys, and safe food toys, in the enclosure. Put the pads in a corner as far away from the bedding as possible.
Instead of puppy pads, we may also use an indoor grass system.
However, some dogs may not like standing on or eliminating on the indoor grass surface. Just using regular sod or grass did not work well for me because of drainage issues. The sod gets smelly very quickly because there isn’t anywhere for the pee to go.
When I tried using sod, I had to change it every other day, or my puppy refused to go onto it. This ended up being a lot more work than just using puppy pads.
Myth – We cannot train a dog to potty outside as well as on puppy pads. She will get confused and not know what to do.
Yes, it is true that if we can be around most of the time to supervise, it is better not to let a puppy do her business in the house at all.
However, if we will be away for long periods of time, if our dog has separation anxiety issues (which may cause her to need to eliminate when we leave), or if there are other medical issues (surgery) that make frequent trips outside unfeasible, then it is perfectly fine to train a dog to both potty on pads, as well as outside.
Reward a puppy for going on his pads, and reward a puppy a lot more for going outside.
3. Clean Away Mistakes Properly
During the housetraining process, there will be some mistakes. When that happens, I calmly no-mark my puppy (Ack, ack) and take her outside. Once we are outside, I praise and reward her if she continues with her business.
Then, I leave my puppy in our fully enclosed and puppy-safe backyard, come in, and clean up the mess. Cleaning up messes in front of a puppy may sometimes cause her to mimic our behavior, and engage in eating her own poop. In her mind, she is only helping to clean out the den.
Use a cleaner that is made especially for pets. A popular pet odor cleaner is Nature’s Miracle.
Do not use ammonia based cleaners as the ammonia odor, which resembles urine, may attract our dog to urinate in the area.
4. Make Sure the Mistakes Are Potty Mistakes
Not all indoor urination is the result of housetraining mistakes. Other reasons for indoor urination include:
- Submissive or excitement urination.
- Medical issues, e.g. urinary tract infection.
- Marking objects or territory.
- Stress or anxiety, which results from being alone or other psychological issues.
Hello Sarah,
Sorry to hear about the troubles. I looked into possible kibble brands, and found that Orijen actually sells in the UK.
http://www.orijenpetfoods.co.uk/acatalog/Grain_Fre
Orijen is a great brand. I have tried it out on both of my dogs and they did really well on it. It has also gotten a lot of good reviews from many other dog owners.
I am guessing that you probably cannot get it at the regular grocery store. The grocery stores here don’t sell the better kibble brands either. I get mine from a local dog food/pet store. The Orijen site has a list of stores where you can get their product from.
http://www.orijenpetfoods.co.uk/acatalog/stockists
There are many crappy brands of dog food from the States so I would not use that as a criteria. Go for Orijen – I think you will be happy with the results. The ingredients in it are top notch.
Let me know if I can be of further help in this.
Hi Sarah, So glad to hear that Bear is doing well. He is such a cutie – gotta love those big ears 😀
“the problem comes when he has finished, you go to remove the bowl and he growls at me then tries to bite me”
Does he try to bite at you when you hand-feed him? If not, then I would hand feed him some of his food every day.
Another thing to try is to just put a bit of his food in the bowl. Wait for him to finish, add a bit more, and repeat. For now, do not try to touch him or pet him while eating. Just use a spoon to let the food drop into the bowl – make sure not to put yourself in biting range.
What you want to do is teach him to associate good things with you being around his food. You may also want to be sitting on a chair so that you are not looming over him. Only add food into his bowl when he is not showing any aggression, otherwise ignore him until he stops, then add food. You could also ask him for commands for each scoop – Sit, scoop; Sit, scoop.
If you have the time, check out my article on food aggression. It has more ways on addressing this issue –
http://www.shibashake.com/dog/stop-food-aggression-stop-resource-guarding
Good luck in doggy class – let me know how it goes! 🙂
Re Rules: If Bear is marking around the house, then it could be a symptom of leadership issues.
Some ways to determine if there are any leadership issues is to look at how Bear is responding to the current house rules and to look at how Bear responds to different people in the household (e.g. your husband). For example, my Shiba was a crazy little thing at first because I didn’t have enough house rules, and did not respond properly to him when he was breaking those house rules. He would also respond much better to my partner because I was not firm or consistent enough with him.
Learning how to communicate with my Shiba was probably the thing that made the most difference. Two very important parts of that communication are consistency and timing. Make sure to always use the same mark and non-mark. Make sure to consistently enforce all house rules. Make sure to reward at the right time, and to take away rewards at the right time. <— not a lecture, more of a bad memory 🙂
I had a difficult time with Shiba, but once I started really focusing on consistency and timing, things really improved for me. Whenever I rewarded him, I would think to myself, is this rewarding him for a good behavior? and whenever I took something away, I would ask myself, did he deserve this, or something else?
Hope this makes sense. 🙂
Hi Sarah,
Re howling in the crate: It is important that you do not let him out while he is whining. In general you want to wait until he stops whining and let him out then. You can also teach him the quiet command, during the day. Ring the doorbell, or do something else that you know will get him to start whining, then say quiet, together with a consistent hand gesture for the command. Wait until he stops whining, and as soon as he does that, mark the behavior, and reward him.
Once you get his diarrhea under control, you probably want to be more strict about his crate practices. If you let him out while he is whining, then you are rewarding his whining behavior, and he will just keep on doing it.
Opps I also want to add that Siberians are very good at escaping – digging under or jumping over fences. So only put Bear in the backyard if it is totally secure with a high fence (at least 6 feet).
In general, it is better to set up a time-out area inside the house. I use my laundry room. Just make sure there is nothing in there that he can destroy.
Sarah, I am so sorry to hear that. *HUGS* I think you need to take some little breaks from Bear. Do you have a fully enclosed backyard? or someone who can dogsit for you for a couple of hours?
When I first got my Shiba Inu I got to burn-out stage too. Having breaks from him really helped me a lot, and ended up helping him too in the end.
Ok, I think we need to fix each of the problems one by one and not try to do too much:
1. Diarrhea – This is the most important one and should be fixed first. Get Bear back on chicken and rice and do not give him anything else. Once the diarrhea stops, get him back on his regular food but do not give him any treats or any additional food. Just keep the diarrhea away for now.
2. Leadership and rules in the house – It sounds like Bear may be marking. It is hard to say given that I am not there to observe, but peeing on his food and the cat basket certainly seems like marking behavior.
My Shiba has done this twice, both times on bedding material, and when he does that, I non-mark him, and he gets banished to the backyard which he really dislikes. He doesn’t get to come in for a good long while.
It is important to have certain rules around the house, and you must make sure that Bear follows those rules. If he does not, non-mark him, and temporarily take away something that he values, e.g. his freedom. When my Shiba misbehaves, he gets put in a time-out area which is boring and he gets absolutely no attention during this time. Don’t make time-outs too long – I start with 1 minute and then extend it as necessary.
Some of my house rules: No getting on furniture, No biting/mouthing on people, No humping, No digging on carpets, No running out doorways.
3. Take some time out for yourself. This is also very important. 😀
Btw how does Bear act towards your husband?
Good to hear from you Sarah. Your poor husband – lol. How is he holding up through all this?
Re sleeping downstairs: Have you switched Bear to a new diet? As soon as you get his diarrhea issues resolved, you probably want to try crating him at night again. If there is absolutely no space in your bedroom, you can try putting the crate outside your bedroom door and just leave the bedroom door open. My dogs really like being in the bedroom with us at night. The bedroom has a lot of people smells and I think it helps to make them feel safe.
Re running around the house: My Siberian loves to hunt so she has a lot of fun hunting for lizards and such in our backyard. Because of her hunting instinct, I also play the flirt-pole with her which she also really enjoys.
Bear is still really young – so the both of you just need to figure out what you like doing together 🙂 You might consider enrolling Bear in a puppy obedience class. That way, you get some obedience training under your belt and Bear gets to drain some of his energy playing with other puppies.
My Siberian also works for all of her food from toys and such so that could be another activity for Bear. Sometimes my Siberian gets a bit lazy and will not work on the food toys, but when she gets hungry enough, she will overcome her laziness 🙂 The Buster Cube and Omega Paw ball are great for dispensing kibble.
Re munching grass: Both my dogs like munching on grass from time to time. Grass eating could also be a result of his disgestive issues.
Re sleeping on bag of food: Hmmm as long as he can’t get at the food himself, I don’t see a problem with it. That is so cute though! Get a picture and post it for me 🙂
Re jumping on food bowl: It is really important to stop him from doing that. When he jumps on you, you want to non-mark him (ack, ack) and turn away from him. Only give him food when he is calm and not jumping.
It would be even better to teach him the “Sit” command and ask him for a “Sit” before giving him any food. Another possibility is to have him wait for you outside the kitchen when you are preparing his food. If he tries to come in, non-mark him, and body block him so that he moves outside again. You will probably have to repeat these things many times initially until he learns what you want him to do.
I don’t give either of my dogs food in a bowl. They usually have to do obedience commands for their food, or I use food for handling and grooming exercises. The rest of it goes into food toys.
Hi Shibashake,
Well i made the area bigger and put down some pads taking your advice and he pooped on the floor(no weeing) and shreded the pads, what a sight to come down to lol, took him out for potty……nothing….let him play for a while before his breakfast and now he’s asleep at my feet and he not had his breakfast yet lol.
When he poops on the floor/crate in the night do i tell him off when i come down or do i ignore him? I am not to sure what to do when this happens.
As for the chicken and rice diet…….i have had Bear nearly 3wks now and he has been on this diet twice(due to having diarhea) so i tend to agree with you that it must be his dry food cause that when it starts, so we will try another….I’ll have that muck dry food i’ll be able to open a shop lol ha.
How often did you take Shania out in the night when she was a pup? If i took Bear out everytime he made a noise i would be constantly outside.
Bear has two Kongs and another on it’s way. I did put treats in them but because of the diarhea i stopped doing it but i still freeze one of them for him, to help sooth his gums, he gets bored with them very quick if i am not in the room with him and this is one of the habbits i am trying to break…. with no luck at the mo.
Thanks for all your advice….some of the brand of food you have listed i haven’t heard off, are they American? I am in England…..
Thanks again
Hi Shibashake, Thankyou for your reply i really do appreciate it, oh and my puppies name is Bear, we named him this as he looks like a little fluffy teddy bear…….small ball of fluff lol.
With regards to his food…….i am not sure of it’s name as i buy it loose but it was recommended by my vet, it’s dry food and contains everything a growing puppy needs, all his vitamins,minerals etc(not a cheap one). I feed him 3 times a day…7am…12noon…5pm and give him 70grammes each time(as recommended by vets), for the past couple of days i have been putting half boiled rice/half dry food as he has some diarrhea. He been poos 3 times today and went bout 5 times yesterday as the diarrhea was worst yesterday than today. I was thinking about trying him on another brand something like Bakers for puppies as this is a well known brand of dry food.
I do try to give Bear lots of excercise but he just lays down after 5 mins, he a bit of a lazy pup, i have tried encouraging him to run and play with his toys which works for bout 5 mins then he lays down eating grass.
When i put Bear in his crate at night he starts crying/howling as soon as i leave the room and continues for about half hour then he’ll quieten down for a little while then it starts again, at this time i take him out to go potty but 8/10 times he just wants to play and does nothing. So when he’s howling/crying i never know whether he wants to go toilet or he just wants me to give in to him. I have tried the pad at one end, his bed at the other and yes he uses the pad to toilet on but because i have left him in there on his own he shreds it and what a mess that is lol.
He hates being anywhere i am not, if i go to the bathroom he cry’s he doesn’t like me leaving him for even a short period of time which i have to do sometimes as i have hospital appointments etc so can not take him with me, what else can i do?
Bear sends you a big sloppy kiss hello……..
Thanks for your help Shibashake…..
……..Sorry he is 12.5wks old………..
From first time Husky owner…….