“Dang Fido!” As you feel the warm fresh poo… the warmth rising between your toes. You careen toward the closest place to wash and forget all the wonderful things about your dog.
“What went wrong?” “Why does this dog keep doing this?”
You have given him everything: A nice yard to run in, an entire house to roam, free food and tons of toys! You would think Fido would be thankful.
Well, dogs don’t think the same as humans because of this, Fido does not understand what he has done wrong. Punishing him at this point is pointless and will not aid in training.
So great, we understand the problem… but now what? We need to help the dog understand that poo and pee belong outside.
How do we do this?
Our first step, in any potty issue, is to take our dogs to the veterinarian and ensure it is not a medical issue. Then we move forward. Use a training guide!
Recording your progress and recognizing trends will allow you to see how far you’ve come and set clear expectations for future training.
Better management and supervision of our dogs: Only allow your dog to go as far as you can visually see with 100% supervision.
Put the dog on a leash inside the house and hold onto it, bring the pup into every room with you.
Crate training
Making the crate a positive environment, crate your dog every time you can not 100% hold onto the leash or offer 100% supervision.
Give your dog a treat every time they go into the crate.
The crate size does matter. The dog should be able to stand up fully and turn around in the crate. The rest of the crate should be blocked off (most crates come with dividers).
Never use the crate as punishment. When a dog gets into something or goes out of sight and pees, it is really a lack of supervision by the owner.
What if your dog keeps peeing on the bed in the crate or towel? Just remove it. It soaks up the urine, and is only teaching the dog it is ok to do this. Remove it.
Ignore the crying during crate training COMPLETELY. Only let a dog out of a crate once he/she is calm. For puppies, 5 seconds of calm lets them exit the crate, for older dogs 10 seconds at first, and slowly over time this builds up to calm all the time in the crate.
Puppy Pen
Once a dog has a basic understanding of holding their bladder in the crate, you can introduce a playpen into the home.
This is a good tool to use while you are home and do not have the capability for 100% supervision.
Potty Breaks
Start taking a new dog to the grass (or potty area) every 30 minutes.
A general rule of thumb is that 5-30 minutes after eating, heavy activity, naptime, a dog will also need to go potty.
Humans need to walk into the grass with their dogs to allow their dogs to understand it is ok to sniff and potty on the grass.
Humans can not stand inside from the window watching, they need to walk outside with their dogs and encourage them to stiff to potty.
We like to name this “go potty” so our dogs will eliminate on command.
Say “go potty” while your dog is searching and immediately after they finish the act, we reward and celebrate.
We reward dogs with playtime, affection, treats, and balls being thrown.
We increase the time between potty breaks dependent upon each dog’s needs, age, and size.
Feeding Management
Setting our dogs up for success in dog training is what allows us to have amazing dogs.
Feeding your dog strategically will help in his/her potty training habits.
Feed your dog in the morning, and ensure you have the time to let them potty before going to work, this is also true in the evening before bed.
Here at Happy With Dogs, we feed our dogs in the morning and evening(We maintain your dog’s current diet), letting them out to potty about 30 minutes later.
The evening feeding is done about 3 hours before the late night potty break. We do not allow high activity within 30 minutes before or after eating/drinking to prevent bloat.
Make sure the dog has enough time to process the food and go potty in the evening.
Restrict water within 3 hours of bedtime.
For puppies and dogs that drink water too fast, we take away the water and only offer it supervised within 3 hours of bedtime.
Training plan
Create a training log and or use ours!
Document all food intake and potty breaks.
This will help you detect how often the dog should go out. Diapers: Doggie diapers can be useful on older dog’s or for marking issues.
These diapers are available on Amazon and are washable and reusable.
The dog wears the diaper while inside the house or in the crate, and are taken off to go outside and potty.
Doggie diapers are not used on puppies, or those too innocent to understand or know better.
Finally
During all of our training programs here at Happy With Dogs we offer solutions to common dog issues such as these.
Happy With Dogs is a worldwide recognized training company. We offer boot-camp programs for any dog and any issue.
I hope this can help you prevent that warm gooey feeling of poo between your toes! Each dog is different and not everything works for every dog.
Most importantly before beginning any type of training, have your veterinarian verify there are no medical issues.
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