Housebreaking a puppy requires a combination of routine, management systems, and supervision. The more consistently you follow these guidelines, the quicker your puppy will understand where to appropriately eliminate. At Crimson K9 Northwest Indiana Dog Training, we are very deliberate in our efforts to housebreak a dog. So if you follow these steps, you can housebreak your dog or puppy, as well.
Step 1: Crate train your dog.
Crate training is not just about getting a dog comfortable being in a crate. That’s part of it, but it’s more than that. It involves using it as a tool to teach the dog what behaviors are acceptable inside the house and what behaviors are not acceptable inside the house.
When you crate-train your dog, keep in mind predictability and pattern recognition. Often people will create anxiety in their dogs by placing their dog in the crate only when they leave the house, and if you do that, your dog is going to start to learn and recognize that when you put them in the crate, they’re going to be alone, and can make your dog anxious or stressed.
So crate your dog randomly throughout the day, even when you’re at home, so you don’t create that anxiety. We like to feed our dogs inside their crate, to help them recognize that it’s a place where good things happen.
Next, you want to make sure that the crate is just big enough for the dog to stand up, turn around and lie down. The reason for this is dogs prefer to avoid going to the bathroom where they eat or where they sleep.
It’s important to understand how long your dog can hold his/her bladder. Here is what you need to know: if the puppy is 3 months old, he should be able to hold it for about 3 hours. We normally count the months and then add an hour. So a 3-month-old puppy should be able to hold it for 4 hours. If that’s too confusing, just go off of their age in months.
As you’ve probably already guessed, that means you have to get up at night to let your puppy go out. You want to set your dog up for success. If he starts going in his crate, it may be hard to undo that.
Step 2: Follow an intentional routine:
- Create a food and water schedule for your puppy to establish an elimination pattern. Free feeding and watering make housebreaking more difficult by unpredictable elimination.
- Take your puppy out regularly. He should be let out to eliminate when waking up, after eating or drinking, and after playing.
- At the beginning, be consistent with the location you want your dog to eliminate
- Tell your puppy to “go potty” or whatever command you want to use, while he is eliminating. The “go potty” phrase linked with the action of going to the bathroom will help him understand to eliminate on command later. Praise your puppy when he is done.
- If your pup doesn’t go to the bathroom when you take him/her out, put them back in the crate and try again in 10-20 minutes.
- If your puppy goes to the bathroom outside, like he’s supposed to do, praise him and play with him for a minute or two. Don’t just take him right back inside. Dogs pick up on patterns like that (pattern recognition) and some dogs will wait to go to the bathroom because they want to play first.
Step 3: Supervise your puppy
- Watch your puppy at all times.
- Sometimes we use what’s known as a tethering system. Essentially, you put your dog’s leash on and keep it connected to you or somewhere near you so the puppy can’t wander off and find a place to go in the house. This is temporary until the pup is housetrained.
- Look for your puppy’s elimination signs (sniffing, spinning, squatting, etc.)
- If you catch your puppy in the act, startle him and take him outside immediately and tell him to “go potty”.
- If you cannot watch your puppy closely, put him inside his crate. Most puppies will not eliminate in their crates, provided that the crate is not too large for the puppy.
- If you find an accident, that means you weren’t watching your puppy closely enough. Do NOT rub his nose in the mess as he will not link the act of elimination to the actual mess. He will only see the mess after the fact and become afraid.
- Be sure to clean the area thoroughly with an enzymatic cleaning solution.
Step 4: Troubleshoot mistakes
- Your puppy eliminates in his crate: Make sure that the crate is not too large for the puppy. It should be large enough so that he can turn around, but not so large that he has roaming space.
- When catching the puppy “in the act,” you take him outside and he will not eliminate: Put your puppy back in his crate for a few minutes, then take him outside again and give him the command, “Go potty”. You may need to do this several times until he eliminates. Do NOT let your puppy play before eliminating – use play time as a reward for proper elimination.
- You find a mess on the carpet and your puppy looks as if he did something wrong: At this point, it’s too late to show him where he should eliminate, so clean up the mess with a proper enzymatic solution. If you have scolded your puppy in the past for eliminating in an inappropriate place, he knows that the elimination itself is wrong, but does not know that the ACT of the elimination is the source of your disproval. Start over and keep an eye on your puppy for future “signs”.
- Teaching your dog to go within a boundary: If you want your puppy to go to the bathroom in a certain spot in your yard, you must keep him on a leash and take him to the appropriate area that you want him to eliminate. Give him the command “go potty” and wait until he complies. If he does not eliminate, put him in his crate for a few minutes and try again. Be consistent and wait until he complies every time before removing the leash.