Puppy and Dog Potty Training

Here’s some puppy and dog potty training tips that I used in the past with great success:

Reward appropriate pottying

When your dog does go where you want him to go – let him know. Give him treats. Praise him! Give him the one-on-one attention that he adores. Throw a ball or frisbee for him. The more you associate proper pottying with good stuff, the faster your dog will develop those great pottying habits.

Cue it!

Yup, believe it or not, you can potty train your dog to go on cue. First, pick the cue you want to use. Some people use separate cues for urinating and defecating. You could say, "Go pee" and "Go poo," or "Number one" and "Number two," or choose something more discrete, like "Hurry up" or "Go now.". It needs to be something you’re comfortable with.

Once you’ve picked your cue, say it every time you go through your dog potty training routine, and when your dog starts to do her business. Do this consistently, and your cue will be able to trigger the behavior. So when you’re in a hurry, and it’s pouring down rain, you’ll have an extra trick up your sleeve to get your dog to finish.

Pick a potty spot

Think about where you want your dog to potty, and focus your dog potty training techniques on getting her to go in that spot. Here are some things to consider as you choose your dog’s potty spot.

You may sometimes want or need to supervise your dog when she relieves herself, so the spot shouldn’t be too far away or difficult to get to.
The spot should be away from places where people need to walk.
Cleaning up after your dog is easier on some surfaces than others. For instance, my dog’s potty spot is under some evergreen trees along the edge of my lawn. Picking up off the layer of dead needles on the ground is really easy!