My most popular Puppy Talk Podcast episode has been almost two years ago on How to Potty Training Your Puppy. I continue to receive comments on social media posts and daily emails from local clients of Top Gun Dog Training who are having trouble potty training their puppies.
In my most recent podcast episode, I discuss The Top 3 Reasons Why Potty Training is Failing. Below is a brief overview of these potty training mistakes and how to fix them.
Reason 1:
The puppy has too much freedom in the house. A young puppy should be totally supervised while in the house until they are completely potty trained, meaning they have no accidents in the house for 2 weeks straight. Failure to use a crate or leash in the house to manage the puppy's space means they have more opportunities to have accidents.
Reason 2:
The puppy is not being properly rewarded immediately after going potty outside. You must give a lot of verbal praise and a high-value food reward to the puppy immediately after eliminating outside in the grass. Failure to do this means that the behavior may not become reinforced.
Reason 3:
The puppy is not outside long enough to learn to go in the grass. Some puppies need a lot of walking, sniffing, and observing outside before they eliminate. You might have to stay outside with your new puppy for a long while to allow them time to understand what you want them to do. I suggest giving your puppy up to 15 minutes to go potty, and then if they don't, bring them back inside and put them in the crate for 15 minutes, and then repeat the cycle until they go potty in the grass.
These are tips and suggestions for things to help speed up the process of potty training. Each puppy is different. The environment plays a huge role in the puppy's ability to easily housebreak a puppy.
For more information on potty training, crate training, and obedience training for your puppy, check out my new book The Complete Puppy Training Manual on Amazon.