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.
I have a Shiba Inu male puppy and he peed and pooped in his crate the first week we had him (8 weeks). The Vet told us, when we went for first check-up after the Breeder that if there is TOO MUCH ROOM in the crate, they will treat it as a yard rather than a crate. We put a partition in the crate to make it just big enough for him to stand up, turn around and lie down, and no accidents since. We keep him in crate between potty breaks and feed him in crate so he will like his crate. As he gets older, we will let him out more in between as he is a real chewer–he has lots of chew toys and frozen stuff in the crate, as he is teething.
Hi Emme, Thanks for the really good advice and information. It is awesome that you are not only potty training, but also doing crate exercises during the puppy stage. That is when dogs absorb the most information.
Hugs to your puppy. He is a very lucky Shiba! 😀
well she has been doing great with not pottying in the house but still no luck on the crate. We put her in it at night and when we go to work or go out. We cant leave her loose because she chews on EVERYTHING.
We keep her out in the garage because when we had her in the living room it made the house smell really bad. We have tried the sent removing spray and it didnt seem to phase her.
Its been a while since we have noticed her pee as soon as we put her in and she goes in on her own now. We make sure to have her go potty before we put her in and during the day she is in it for about 4 hours at a time. we dont take her out at night anymore because even when we did she still went in the crate. I think we might try it again and see if it works better now. I think we are going to try and have her in the room with us at night for a week and see if that helps or not.
She really is doing great at in the house. she cries at the door now andwe have learned all her signs. I think we have had only 1 accident and i think it was more to be a brat. I wouldnt share my hot dog with her and i think it made her mad cause she went behind the couch i was sitting on and peed and came right back layed down and gave me a take that look. 🙂 I just hope we can get the kennel down soon. We have to bathe her constantly andf i know its not good for her skin.
Hi Nicole,
Glad to hear that things are going so well.
LOL – such a Shiba move. Shibas are great at finding out what annoys their owners most and then using that as a weapon.
My Shiba did that with leash-biting on me, and then he switched to Shiba screaming on the dog walker. The thing that helped most for Sephy is to show him that when he did that – not only did he not get what he wanted in the first place (e.g. getting to the other dog, going somewhere he couldn’t) but he also lost something else that he valued. In his case, I quickly ended the walk and marched straight home. He stopped his leash-biting thing soon after 😀
I think it is a great idea to teach her to go into the crate herself. Another thing that may help is to do crate training exercises when you are home and don’t have to leave. For example, put her in the crate for a very short time, with a really awesome food toy to work on. Then open the door after a very short while – before she even thinks about peeing. Repeat several times a day. Then you can slowly lengthen the time that she stays in the crate.
This will teach her that going into the crate is a good and positive thing, and does not necessarily mean staying home alone.
Hi Nicole,
You have a very lucky Shiba princess. I guess all Shibas are either Princes or Princesses – lol.
With regards to the crate it could be –
Does she go into the crate by herself and then pees right away? When does she go into the crate?
I had many issues while crate training Sephy because it is so counter-intuitive. Usually I put Sephy in the crate when I need to leave him home alone – and he quickly figured that out. As a result, the crate became an indicator that we were going to leave, which stressed him out.
I later discovered that putting him in the kitchen was better because I spent a lot of time with him in there while cooking, or just hanging out, and he didn’t associate that space with me leaving.
How are things going with the potty training?
after she pees in the crate she usually get put outside till we finish cleaning it out. Then a bath. Sometimes she stays outside for a while and sometimes she gets put right back in the crate after its clean. We keep trying different things. I do have to admit that we arent very consistant with what we do. It seems to be dependant on what we are doing at the moment and what kind of a mood we are in. I know we are doing something wrong were just trying to figure out what to try and stick with.
I do like the thought on the pottying outside. She usually pees and runs right back to the door so we bring her in. now i think we will definatly try doing the play and exploration more and if she doesnt seem intrested in pottying just bring her back in.
thanks for all your help. We are loving the breed. She fits into our family perfectly.
i have a 3 almost 4 month old female shiba pup named jazmine. We have been trying to potty train her for about 2 months now with what seems like no luck. We reward her every time she goes outside but she still seems to love to go in the house. I live in North dakota and when we got her there was a few inches of snow on the ground so i dont think that helped in the beginning. but now the snow is long gone and the same problems are still there. We try and take her out at least once an hour if not more, but sometimes she doesnt go. she is a dog that is easily distracted and i think it causes her to forget she needs to potty. We have gotten the house accidents down for the most part but now the issue is in her crate. There are time when as soon as we put her in there she goes potty, before we even close the door! I swear she does it just to make the point of ok your going to have me in here im going to pee or poop then. I read that they dont usually like to potty where they live but we cant seem to get our to stop. any advise would be greatly appreciated. thank you
nicole
Hi Nicole,
“We have gotten the house accidents down for the most part but now the issue is in her crate.”
Hmmm, there could be several reasons for this –
Let us know how it goes. Shibas are very smart and will learn to use whatever to push the boundaries if they can. 🙂
Congrats on your new pup! They can be holy terrors when they are young but they grow up to be awesome Shibas.
He is a very lucky boy. A very spoiled little boy too. Check out some of his new pictures. I cant believe how quickly he is growing. When do they usually reach their full grown height?
Unfortunately, I do not get to work from home. In my previous advertising position I was on the path to be able to do so however, when I took this new job, it was not an option.
It is amazing what you can do with open source code. I generally work with native source code using HTML, ASP.NET and PHP languages. I haven’t done too much in the way of using a blogging platform. It is very intriguing yet intimidating, can’t wait to learn though!
Hi Colleen,
Thanks so much for sharing what you did with us. That was very helpful and quite amazing.
Reptar is a very lucky boy!
That is very cool! Does this mean you get to work from home most of the time?
Yeah I really got into WordPress about 6 months back and have been having a lot of fun with it since then. Do you usually use a blogging platform? or do you prefer to go HTML native?
It is quite amazing what one can achieve nowadays with all the free PHP and Javascript code out there. Hurray for open-source! 🙂
It took us awhile to determine that he had a change in his diet.
At first we thought it was just an upset stomach because he showed no other signs of illness. He was not lethargic and he was eating and drinking like normal. Once he started having accidents on our bed and purposely going in his crate we took a urine sample to the vet. It came back with no sign of infection. As happy as I was Reptar was OK, it still did not explain the behavior so I could understand it. I did some research on the internet and all pointed to signs of either a UTI or neglect. This boy is hardly neglected and since his urine sample came back with no infection, we were back to square one.
I went over and over his change in diet and environment. Trying to remember if he ate anything on a walk, in the house etc… It took me about 4 days to remember that I went grocery shopping (for Reptar) the day before his first incident. He had started eating some greenies, as well as some sweet potato chew thing. We stopped giving him both when we realized that’s what changed.
We had no choice but to take this day by day. I watched him like a hawk. I am a light sleeper which helped in this situation because when he moves or makes a noise, I wake up. I would get up and let him out a few times every night during the night for about 5-7 days. This may seem like overkill to some but I believe it reinforced him that pottying outside is the right thing to do. He had one accident in the house after taking away the new food items and it took us a few days to get him back to his regular routine.
I made sure I did not stress him out even more. Reptar is very senstive to stressors and reacts negatively. He knew he did wrong and the days I came home and he broke out of his crate, he was traumatized enough. I did not scold him for making a mistake in the house because I was never home to catch him in the act. Also, I did not force him to sleep in his crate, nor on the bed with us. He had to stay in the bedroom but was able to sleep where he felt most comfortable. This may not have been the best situation but being that I am a very light sleeper, even if he rolled over I woke up.
Our biggest concern was that it wasnt medical. once that was ruled out, we went to behavior. We determined what caused the original accident and then the new behaviors that followed. we went back to basics which helped a great deal. Since then, he’s only had once accident in the house. During this time, I’ve formed a tighter closer bond with Reptar too! It’s been quite month- Just in time for level 2 obedience! Wish us luck! We also posted some new pictures too.
Thanks again! Hope this helps.
OH and to answer your question – I’m a Web Programmer. I develop and manage a NY State College website. Those websites you saw were mostly designed by designers and then I programmed them. Fortunately, design goes hand in hand so I guess I’m a designer by trade. 🙂
Awww – that is one super handsome boy! Reptar has awesome coloring and his ears are just too adorable. He definitely deserves lots of ice cubes 🙂
I am happy he is feeling good again and super Kudos to you for getting him there so quickly. When you have some time, maybe you can list out some of the things you did – e.g., identified all recent changes (Greenie) and reverted things back to previous routine, etc.
I think this would be very helpful for everyone.
Btw. are you a web designer? The example sites on your main site look really good. The ice cream one made me want to go out and get some.
Have a good weekend and definitely take more pictures! 😀
Reptar is doing much better! Still no accidents in the house and he seems to be back to normal! 5 days left on his meds. He says thank you for your support!
If that doesn’t work you can see his “thank you” picture here. http://www.colleenrcallahan.com/photos/reptar.jpg