How to Potty Train a Puppy A Comprehensive Guide for Success

Teaching a puppy to potty outside is one of the most important things you will ever need to teach them. Especially if you plan on living with them for the long haul!

I know I for one wouldn’t want to live in a home full of dog doo-doo!

All joking aside potty training a puppy is a serious business, so serious in fact that 100s of thousands of puppies are dropped off at the pound because of their owners fail to potty train them.

I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a pretty shitty way to treat something you were supposed to love like your very own child.

Let us jump straight to it, shall we!

How to Potty Train a Puppy Correctly

I will be the first to admit I had no clue how to train my puppy when I first got her.

Mazie was completely out of control and would constantly pee and poop inside the house.

So much in fact that I had to turn to The Online Dog Trainer to learn how to potty train her.

Before I used the program, I was actually contemplating on giving her up.

But I talked myself out of it because I made her a promise the day I brought her home. I said I would always take care of her no matter what and that’s what I did.

I just had to have a little extra help is all!

The tips I will be providing you today are straight from The Online Dog Trainer; I won’t be covering everything I learned out of respect to Doggy Dan and his fantastic program. You will need to check it out for yourself if you want the full inside scoop.

1.      Crate Train

Probably the most important thing on this list is a dog crate; you should pick one up if you have not done so already.

I can't tell you how much my life improved just by utilizing one of these bad boys.

Yeah, I get it, I didn’t want to put Mazi in a dog crate either, I felt like I was punishing her; that is how a lot of people feel at first.

The thing is, its not cruel or punishing at all if you do it correctly. You see dogs in the wild burrow dens to sleep and to give birth and raise their young.

A dog crate was created to mimic a den, so trust me they are completely humane.

Fun fact! Dogs rarely use the bathroom where they sleep! So if you leave for the day, you can place them in the dog crate, and they will most probably not use the bathroom.

Granted, you still need to properly take them outside, which brings me to my next point.

2.      Housetraining Schedule

Yup, you should put your puppy on a potty-training schedule. This doesn’t have to be anything outlandish.

Simply form it around your schedule for the best results, for example.

·         6 am – wake up take the puppy outside to use the bathroom then feed once you bring them inside.

·         6:30 am – take the puppy back outside to use the bathroom.

·         7:30 am – Take puppy outside then crate them and head off to work.

·         Noon – Come home or ask a friend to let your puppy out to use the bathroom

·         5 pm – Come home let the puppy out and feed

·         5:30 pm – Take puppy outside to use the bathroom

·         6:30 pm – Take puppy outside to use the bathroom

·         7:30 pm – Feed puppy

·         8:30 pm – Take puppy outside to use the bathroom

·         9:30 pm – Take puppy outside to use the bathroom

·         10:30 pm – Take puppy outside to use the bathroom then crate them for the night.

Your schedule should mimic something like the one above for the best results. Over time you will need to change things around, but that’s all covered in the program.

3.      Diet Control

Don’t listen to anyone that tells you diet doesn’t matter! Because it does, so many fail here because they are overfeeding their puppy.

I was a bit guilty of this too and is a large reason why Mazie was making so many messes inside the house!

You see, puppies have little bitty stomachs and bladders, it doest take much at all for them to fill up and need to use the bathroom.

The smaller the puppy, the smaller their bladder and stomach are. Which means you need to be taking them out every single time they eat or drink something.

Ideally, about 15 minutes after, for really young puppies, the older they get, the larger their bladders get so they can hold their waste longer.

Also, the type of food you give them matters a lot! Make sure you are actually feeding them high-quality dog food.

4.      Praise

Yup, praise them like a soccer mom on the sidelines cheering on her baby! Praise is an extremely powerful tool if you do it correctly.

Dogs are like children when they do something right; they feel good about themselves if you acknowledged they did a good job.

Take a moment and think about when your kid brought home a painting they did in preschool; it might not have been very good.

But it was amazing to them because you said they did a fantastic job! It encouraged them to keep going and to bring you more and more paintings!

That is what happens with a puppy too; when you praise them, they get that same feeling inside and want more.

They want to please you and to make you proud, so they are going to be more inclined to use the bathroom outside if you praise them after they do so.

Common Puppy Potty Training Questions

·         How long does it take to potty train a puppy?

It varies, it could take your puppy a week, two weeks a month, two months. Potty training a puppy takes time and dedication.

The more time and dedication you put in the faster you will be able to potty train your puppy.

Some puppies learn faster than others just like us humans.

·         What if my puppy starts pottying inside again?

If they start using the bathroom inside the house, then they were never fully housebroken, to begin with.

I highly suggest that you use The Online Dog Trainer to ensure that never happens to you. Plus, you will learn how to fix any other behavioral problem your puppy will grow into along the way.

Final Thoughts

Potty training a puppy can be very hard if you don’t know how to, which is why dog trainers exist!

Just as a word of caution don’t trust any dog trainer you meet, many if not most of them are scammers. They try to teach you anything you could find on the internet, just like Petsmart trainers!

Do your research and pick on that actually knows what they are talking about, like Doggy Dan with The Online Dog Trainer.

The list of tips I gave you came directly from his program, not in the same format or words but the core fundamentals.

If those potty training tips help you out, then the real deal over at the online dog trainer will help you out even more.

I know I would have never been able to potty train Mazie without his program, I can 100% tell you that much.

Mazie and I wish you the best of luck in your Puppy Potty Training Journey!