There are so many wonderful things about having a new puppy in the house. Things like sweet puppy kisses, and fun games of fetch and tug. One of my favorite things is watching our tiny girl, Georgie, curl up in a fluffy ball and settle in for a sweet puppy nap. Ah, she looks like an angel!
But even with all these great things, there are a few less than awesome things about living with a young pup. At the top of that list is potty training. It’s definitely not one of my favorite things about adding a new dog to our family.
As Georgie and I are working together on training, I’ve found these 5 puppy potting training tips to be really helpful:
- It’s so, so important to put your pup on a schedule. If you feed and water at the same time(s) each day, you have some control over when puppy has to potty. Having control allows you to be prepared.
- Don’t leave puppy unsupervised at any time. When she’s not being fed, trained, or spending quality one-on-one time with you, she should be in her puppy pen or crate. A puppy left on her own without constant supervision is only going to get into trouble, and that means potty accidents that Mom will have to clean up later.
- Take puppy outdoors to the designated potty spot on a regular basis. I recommend at least once every 2 hours. Use your chosen command to encourage her to do her business. We say “go potty, Georgie.” I repeat the word “potty” until she does her thing, and then I praise her generously. My hope is that eventually, she will automatically associate the word “potty” with going outside to relieve herself.
- When puppy has an accident indoors – and yes, it will happen! – don’t scold her or rub her nose in it. Let’s be honest: she’s a baby. She only knows what you’ve taught her… or what you haven’t taught her. It’s not her fault that she had a potty accident indoors; it’s your fault.
- And when those accidents happen, be prepared. My number one go-to for cleaning up pet messes is Bounty. Lots and lots of Bounty. As I’ve mentioned before, it’s one of my must-have tools for housecleaning with pets.
And lest we forget, what goes into a puppy must come out.
While I’ve found Bounty to be an irreplaceable tool for potty training puppies, it also comes in handy for cleaning up other pet messes, too. It’s great for use with cats, hamsters and gerbils, and bunnies. Heck, you might even use Bounty with goldfish.
And of course, it’s perfect for cleaning up all those messes made by the 2-legged puppies in your home. Yikes, those are the yuckiest!
I know that one day very soon (fingers crossed), Georgie will be completely potty trained, and indoor potty messes will be a thing of the past. But we’ll still have plenty of Bounty on hand… you know, just in case.
Do you have any tips for successfully (and maybe painlessly) potty training a puppy? We’d love for you to share them in a comment below.
The fine print: we are being compensated by Bounty to tell you about their products. However, The Lazy Pit Bull only promotes products that we love and believe are a great fit for our readers and friends. Bounty is not responsible for the content of this post.
Oh yes, potty training. That was not fun. I did not have patience. Rodney said it best when he said she does not know we are going to take her out. Like, she needs to learn that if she asks us we will take her but she needs to know that. It made me see it better from Miss Cocoa’s eyes!!
I think developing a routine and sticking to it was the most important things for us while training. Puppies (and dogs) really do thrive on a schedule!
We had a different angle! Indoor potty training… for many reasons.
First we travel all over the world with our tiny dog (3.5 pounds). So that means long flights , hotel rooms and time zone changes. Indoor potty training has been the best decision ever. We used the “pup head” system – sort of like an astro turf. We like it because our dog will still go outside (unlike pee pads).
Second reason is that we live on the 9th floor that is a long way down to go pee but THE reason is that we live in a country where temperatures drop to the -40 range int he winter. No fun to go out to “do business” in that!
The biggest key is definitely a scheduled routine – dogs will learn through this approach. It takes vigilance on the part of the human – so there in lies the hardest part, but we can do it!! Great post – I’ll share with my readers!
I’ve found keeping a schedule is a very important part of potty training a puppy. Feed them at the same time, potty at the same time and even naps/time outs at the same time. Most importantly is to understand their signals of needing to go, before it happens! Watch for circling, sniffing, trying to find a spot in the house. Most importably, don’t be upset when accidents happen – because they will happen.
Great tips! I personally used the tethering or “umbilical cord” method to house train Nola, and a mix of potty pads and tethering for Pike. When puppy is always attached to you, it’s much quicker to recognize when they have to potty!
These are fabulous tips! Definitely need tons of paper towels, Bounty is awesome, love their selection of prints.
It’s been years since we have had a puppy, one thing I always did if they had an accident was soak it up with paper towels, and place the soiled paper towel in the yard where I wanted them to go. It always helped to get the message across, works like a charm!