3 Puppy Potty Training Mistakes You Don’t Want To Make
Potty training your puppy can be difficult! We all want to move through this stage of accidents quickly, because no one wants to clean up messes constantly. Keep in mind that puppies are babies and they don’t have fully developed bladders yet and, unfortunately, some puppies are just messier than others. Don’t get discouraged! In the grand scheme of things, potty training your puppy will happen fairly quickly (especially in comparison to potty training toddlers), and we are here to help! Here are the three most common mistakes we see new owners make when trying to potty train their puppies. So read along… and then don’t do these things! Haha!
UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS
Let’s keep in mind your new puppy is a PUPPY (baby). I know this should seem obvious, but a lot of people think their puppies should be darn near perfect when they bring them home, or that potty training will only take a week, or that their new puppy should be able to hold it in their crate for an entire 8 hours or more while they are at work!! Let’s be real. Your puppy still has a lot to learn, and most of them haven’t even had a start to potty training prior to coming to their new homes.
We need to help them understand pottying in the house isn’t ok and that they need to go to the door, then outside to potty. It will take time for your puppy to develop good bladder control and some puppies will develop bladder control slower than others, so be patient! There are very few puppies we have ever worked with that have been fully potty trained in a week. Typically in 4-8 weeks of bringing your puppy home is when the average puppy really starts to be successful with potty training. You also shouldn’t expect your new puppy to be able to hold it 8 hours in a crate during the day while you are at work. We understand people have jobs and are not always able to get home at lunch to let their puppy out, or have a friend or family member stop by for a mid-day puppy potty break. However, you need to understand that your new puppy isn’t going to be able to hold it all day in a crate at first. It will take time for them to develop that kind of bladder control. So expect to come home to a messy crate for a while. Check out our article here for more tips that can help you be successful crate training your puppy. Also if you have to leave your puppy crated for an extended amount of time try putting a towel in the bottom so if they do have an accident they aren’t laying in it all day. Nature’s Miracle makes a great cleaning product to help with urine crystals!
If you can think positively about teaching, helping, and developing good behaviors it will allow you to stay patient and not get frustrated with the setbacks of the occasional accident. Try not to think in terms of “housebreaking”, “forcing,” or “commanding.” We don’t want the negative association with breaking, forcing, and commanding to interfere with our ability to stay positive and build on our successes of helping our puppy learn how to potty outside.
UNSUPERVISED PLAY
Unsupervised play doesn’t only interfere with potty training, but it can also lead to a lot of bad habits. Your puppy is a baby and you wouldn’t leave your baby (or any baby for that matter) in the other room to play by themselves, there’s no telling what they would get into! Not only could your puppy pee on the floor, which you wouldn’t see happen (and therefore couldn’t make a timely correction), but your puppy could be chewing up your favorite pair of shoes (or the couch)! So when your puppy is out of their crate and playing in the house be present. Interact with them and watch for signs that they may need to potty. Behaviors like sniffing, spinning, circling, agitation, or pacing are good indicators that it is time for a potty break. If you are watching your puppy you will be able to start reading their behaviors and you will be able to anticipate when to take them out to potty before it is too late!
The same can be said for unsupervised outdoor play. If you let your puppy out to potty and they immediately go to the bathroom, but then you leave them out to play and entertain themselves for the next 20 or 30 minutes it's a good bet that within a few minutes of you bringing them back inside they will potty on the floor. Why is that? They were JUST outside! Yes, but when was the last time they pottied? They probably went to the bathroom right when you let them out, but then got so wrapped up and distracted by playing that they didn’t think about pottying again until you brought them back inside. Another reason to avoid outside unsupervised play is that puppies will find ways to entertain themselves that may include digging holes, chewing up sprinklers, or barking at squirrels, birds, or your neighbors animals!
NO ROUTINE
People also struggle with potty training because they don’t have a routine in place to help their puppy be successful. A routine is not the same as a schedule. A schedule doesn’t allow for any flexibility and will ultimately set your puppy up for the potential of failure when life happens. A schedule is too specific and your puppy can become dependent and even demanding of that schedule. For example a schedule would be:
7:00am - wake up and let your puppy out of their crate to go outside to potty
7:15am-8:00am - inside playtime (supervised)
8:00am - training time with breakfast
8:15am - potty break
8:30am-12:30pm - crate time
12:30pm - let your puppy out of their crate to go outside to potty
12:45pm-1:15pm - inside playtime (supervised)
1:15pm - potty break
1:30pm-5:30pm - crate time
5:30pm - let your puppy out of their crate to go outside to potty
5:45pm-6:30pm - outside playtime (supervised)
6:30pm - make sure your puppy potties before coming inside
6:45pm - training time with dinner
7:00pm - potty break
7:15pm-8:00pm - crate time
8:00pm - let your puppy out of their crate to go outside to potty
8:15pm-10:30pm - cuddle on the couch and watch tv
10:30pm - potty break
10:45pm - put your puppy to bed in their crate for the night
The reason why a schedule can set your puppy up for failure is because they become dependent on those potty breaks, and, like clockwork, they will expect an opportunity to go out at that time. However, these schedules don’t allow us to push our puppies to develop just a little bit better bladder control over time, until they can potentially hold it in their crate all day while you are at work. Another reason a schedule like this can set your puppy up for failure is that what if your lunch break gets pushed by an hour, or you have to stop for groceries after work instead of heading straight home, or any other number of things that happen because life isn’t on a set schedule? Well, your puppy is at home waiting to be let out at a specific time and they haven’t been expected to work on developing better bladder control, so you may have a mess waiting for you if you try to adhere to too strict of schedule.
A routine is more flexible. It’s more of an understanding that things happen in an order, but the times change depending on the day. For example:
1st - Mom and Dad wake up and we go outside to potty.
2nd - We come inside and play for a while then have breakfast and learn something new.
3rd - We go back outside to potty then I go back in my crate for a while so Mom and Dad can go to work.
4th - Mom or Dad come home for lunch and let me out of my crate to go outside and potty, then we come back inside and play while they eat lunch.
5th - Before Mom or Dad have to go back to work they let me out to potty and then put me back in my crate for a while.
6th - Mom and Dad come home from work and we go outside to potty and play for a while. They make sure I potty one more time before we go inside for dinner and more training time.
7th - I get a quick potty break after dinner, then spend some time in my crate while Mom and Dad get a few things done around the house and can’t supervise me.
8th - We go outside for a potty break when I come out of my crate, then we hang out on the couch and watch some TV until it’s time to go to bed.
9th - Then it’s one last potty break before bedtime!
Can you see how a routine has just enough structure so your puppy knows what to expect? Every time they come out of their crate they get an opportunity to potty and every time before they go in their crate they get another opportunity to potty. There is still a lot of room for flexibility and challenging your puppy to improve their bladder control and push their limits slowly until they are fully potty trained!
We hope you can learn from these common mistakes to make potty training your new puppy that much easier!
Kat
