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.
“Jyro is laid back and loves praise, Ryssa is a princess and she puts off that vibe that she can make it on her own if we just let her.”
That is very interesting. Many people have said that female Shibas are generally more stand-offish than male Shibas so what you say is further support of that theory.
Except my male Shiba is very stand-offish as well – guess you just never can tell with a Shiba. 🙂
Re underground fence – I am not a fan of hidden fences, especially for a Shiba Inu. Firstly, Shibas are very stubborn and often times they are willing to take some physical discomfort/pain if they really want to do something. That is why aversive techniques did not work well on my Shiba. The hidden fence uses the same concept. A Shiba will probably escape from a hidden fence.
Secondly, hidden fences may have unwanted side effects. A Shiba may associate the pain with the people or dogs passing by, or even just with the environment. This may make him become either aggressive or fearful towards those objects. With a Shiba it will probably be the former.
In my opinion they are too risky and not very effective, especially for Shibas.
Re pottying on command –
My Shiba Inu doesn’t potty on command either and is extremely finicky about doing his business, especially pooping. My Siberian does the potty on command but I haven’t been able to train my Shiba to do it. Shibas’ and their stubborness 🙂
My Shiba Inu does like to mark though – so he will very likely pee on spots where there is scent from other dogs. You could try taking them out in the neighborhood instead of the backyard and see how that goes. Just make sure they have all their shots before doing this.
As a short term solution you could also set up some pads in the garage or near the door in case they really need to potty. Most Shibas are very clean though and will try their best to hold it in until you come home.
There are items – Pee Posts – that you can buy that supposedly encourage a dog to pee. It has some scent on it that will make a dog want to mark. I have never tried using these though. My guess would be that they would not be too effective with a Shiba – but you never know 🙂
Hope this helps. Congrats on the new house 🙂
Hello Jyro and Ryssa – love the names! 🙂
Sounds like Jyro is doing excitement urination. What you want to do is to keep greetings as low key as possible.
Tell your visitors “no-talk, no-touch, and no eye-contact” – i.e. just ignore the dogs. The no eye contact is especially important because eye contact is attention to a dog and it will get them excited.
Once Jyro is totally calm, then you can start giving him a little bit of attention – just start with the keys, then voice, then briefly with the touch. But as soon as he gets excited again you want to non-mark (ack-ack) and then ignore.
You can get some friends to help you with training this. Practice the greeting outside so that you don’t have to clean up the mess.
Here is a good link on excitement urination:
http://behavior.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/local-assets/pdfs/Submissive_and_Excitement_Urination_in_Dogs.pdf
Hi, I just wanted to ask you how you trained your dogs not to run out of opened doors, Bear will sit before we go out and he sits before we go back inside but how do i stop him running out the back/front door as sometimes he does before i can get to the door to close it.
Thanks again for all your wonderful tips helping me raise a wonderful good natured Husky……….Bear
Hi Shibashake
Since Bear has been on his new dry food he has been so much better at night, whine for about an hour then i take him out to the toilet just befor i’m ready to go to bed then he is fine sleeps through the night. Hooray!!! I tend to agre with you that Bear was that hungry he just stressed himself out over it, but he is doing well now.
No i havn’t got a crate in the bedroom but have just bought another crate(canvas one) so he can sleep in the bedroom with us, i think he will settle alot better with us.
How is Bear doing with his new food?
GREAT…….GREAT…….GREAT, Bear has no diarrhea, he is more alert and plays more and it’s only his 3rd day on the food so things can only get better…..i hope….fingers crossed lol.
The only thing i wanted to ask was when we took Bear for his walk last night it was really raining hard…but we still enjoyed it……but when we got home and i wiped his paws/coat down i notice his coat had a horrible smell to it, i can’t described the smell only that it was was horrid. Is it something to do with the rain? (his coat doesn’t smell too bad today) he has a shower every 2 weeks, he really enjoys this and looks like a drowned rat bless him. Is this horrid smell something i should be worried about? could it be because he has not been 100% with diet change etc and it coming through his coat? i don’t know what it is………any suggestions!!!
Hi to you and you doggies….so cute
Hi Shibashake,
Does Bear only howl when you are not there with him? or does he also howl when you are there with him?
Bear only howls when i am NOT when i not in the same room as he is, even when my husband and/or daughter are with him he still sometimes cry’s out for short time,
Do you put him in the crate during the day? Does he howl when he is in the crate during the day?
During the day Bear will go into his crate off his own back……he take his favourite Teddy in with him, lays down or has a play but he will NOT fall a sleep in there he comes back out, lays on his cusion then falls a sleep.(The crate door is NOT closed during the day on him just at night, No howling while he is in there during the day.)
The only time Bear whines is at meal times(we have a gate at the kitchen door)he can see me doing his meal and i’m assuming it’s because he getting excited about his food, but this is the only time he whines when i am around, when he is with me there is no whining, no howling no noise just a content little Bear (Only when i am there tho).
How do i go a bout dealing with the separation anxiety? Bear has been the way he is with me since the day i picked him up and bought him home so it not something new, i have tried putting his food in his crate and shutting the door, soon as he finished i opened the door but each day the door stay closed a little longer and this worked, he slept in his crate all night(no howling) until his last bout of diarrhea and he was starved for 36 hrs(as told by the vet) that when it changed, thats when the howling started at night all night. Could it have been because he was so hungry that he howled for attention hoping to get something to eat ?
I Have never opened the crate door when he has whined/howled he has to be quiet then i open the door and mark him *good boy* for being quiet, if he doesn’t stop the i non mark him and move out of site until he is quiet which can take a while, am i doing this all wrong? i do try different methods if one doesn’t work with him which has been working on everything else a part from crate training at night……..nothing working…..
Thanks for your help
Sarah&Bear
P.s. I would ask the training teacher what her thought were but i am going to find another class as this one i was going to was a bit boring there was long pauses in between task and she really doesn’t seem interested in each puppy, she never interacts with any of the puppies only her own, is this how it;s done? am i expecting too much from these classes? i thought they would be different to what they are and all bear is interested in is one of the puppy’s(female) as the task they do he already does(apart from *Down*Command)sometimes without a command he just knows when to sit,stay come etc. What do you think?
Thanks again Shibashake,
Hope you and your dogs are well…….
Hi Shibashake,
Another night of no sleep, Bear howled all night again but i am worried he is stressing himself out even when i came to let him out at 6am i stood there for 5mins until he quietened down but he was like a dog possessed, he was going mad, it was quite frightning as i never have seen him like that, i just don’t understand why bear has changed about the crate, everything is the same, i forgot to mention before that he has had no diarrhea now for 2 days so it’s not because he needs the toilet as i have been taken him out during the night and all he does is a little pee(hardly worth the fuss), so i don’t think all the howling is him to pee. I am really at my witts end with night times with him. Ok …. so what if i keep him out the crate at night for a few days wont it make it harder for me to train him to use the crate at night again? I should say he goes into the crate during the day off his own back and is quite happy so i am really stumped with this, any suggestions as to how i can get some sleep at night ? with the lack of sleep i am loosing my patients which I DO NOT want to happen as bear is my baby but i need to sought something out as we can’t go on like this.
Thanks for your advice a bout trying Orijen, yes you can get it here but not where i live (middle of Knowmans land lol), but as i have started the Annameat Puppy i will see how he gets on with it, i have look at the Orijen and compared them, they are virtually the same with same ingredients and all, thanks again.
I have not given Bear any treats or any other treat for 4/5 days now, i will wait to see how he gets on with his new food before given him anything else.
Yes training is going well and i think i enjoy it more than Bear does lol, although the last couple of days have been a struggle, he not interested in playing, training games nothing, do you think this is because he has had so many probs with diarrhea that it’s draining him? Bear has NOT lost any weight though, but only put on 1k in 17 days, how much weight should he be putting on weekly?
Thanks again for all your help i really appriciate it and i know Bear does aswel.
Thanks……..
Hi me again,
Bear had started puppy classes but had to stop them for a week due to his diarrhea back again……something in the dry food causing this so he is starting a new food today called Annamaet Ultra after being starved for 24 hrs bless him……have you heard of this food ? it from America? So i am hoping that finally once and for all Bear diarrhea will come to an end, fingers crossed hey…
Anyway the problem i have is that Bear is Howling and crying all night…no let up…..from 10pm till 5.30am non stop, i take him out every hour just incase it was because he wanted the toilet….yes he went for a wee every time but my problem is that he poops in his crate inbetween the hourly treks outside, why is this? he had stopped pooping in his crate for 5 nights then started again, i am having to sleep downstairs again…my poor hubby bless him….. but in a seperate room, the howling is so loud that my neighbours are complaining, as you can appriciate he is doing this all night and it is finally getting me down, even tho i do not show it around Bear. I don’t know what to do anymore, i have tried so many things but he still howls all night and poops in his crate….and what a mess….yes the crate had been made smaller just enough for him to turn around in, he still pooped in it and because i made the divider out of wood and covered in material he has trashed it, now he has the whole crate so he can do his buisness at one end, until i can make another divider he’ll have the whole crate, HELP!!!! what else can i do?
Apart from this Bear is doing really well, his obedience is going well, he does as he is told MOST of the time lol we are getting there.
Hope you can help….
Sarahxx
Hiya to you and your 2 loverly doggies……
Hi Shibashake,
Love the new pictures of your two loverly dogs…….so cute together.
Bear is doing better, he now had all his injections but the last one caused him to get diarrhea again bless him, but he is now starting to get over it so should be back on his proper food soon.
I have a question a bout feeding……..as he has been on chicken and rice and nothing else he has been getting his food in his bowl which he eats well, the problem comes when he has finished, you go to remove the bowl and he growls at me then tries to bite me…..he hasn’t succeeded yet…….Bear never used to do this before so i don’t know why he has started now, any ideas as to how i go a bout solving this please? Before long he will succeed in biting me but i want to put a stop to it before that happens.
Bear has his first puppy class tonight so i am hoping we will enjoy it especially Bear, he will love playing with the other puppies……i hope lol.
Thanks for your help and guidance with everything.
Sarah&Bear
xx
Hi
It’s 3.15am here and Bear is in his crate crying etc, he has been poops and wee he just will not settle i really don’t know what to do.
Back garden is fully enclosed with a 6ft fence. I have stareted putting him outside if he misbehaves again after being non-marked.
My husband is fine thanks for asking, he is worried about me with not sleeping etc but he helps on his days off(he’s a night worker)and does as much as he can. The good thing is Bear goes to him know and doesn’t bite him anymore
Rules……Yes we have rules in place no jumping,no getting on furniture ect, no probs with this at the moment as he is non-marked if he breaks these rules.
Food bag/cat basket……..i realised that Bear was trying to hump these things but was non-marked straight away.
I have put Bear back on his chicken and rice diet, i am at the vets on Tuesday for his second lot of vaccinations so will have a word with him if it doesn’t seem to be getting any better.
All in all i think he is trying to push me to my limites, when he’s doing something he shouldn’t be doing he knows he doing wrong as he looks at you first then does the same thing he has been non-marked for.
3.30am…….Bear is still howling in his crate so i am going to take him out to see if he needs the toilet and then ill put him back in his crate and go to bed before i fall down, i forgot what my bed looks and feels like ha ha
Thanks, you are a great help.
Speak soon
Sarah xx