Wildwood White Swiss Shepherds
Tips and Tricks for Quick Potty Training!
Potty training your Wildwood puppy can be fun, easy, and fast! If you are consistent, your puppy can be fully potty trained within the first week you have them home.
A few tips for success:
1. Pick a verbal cue.
Pick a command to tell your puppy to go to the bathroom. I use “go potty!” but you can also use “do your business”, “better hurry”, or anything else you want! You can help them understand this command better by waiting until they actually start going potty before you use the cue the first several times.
2. Use LOTS of praise!
Every time your puppy does the right thing, i.e. going potty outside, give them huge amounts of praise! These pups thrive on pleasing their people and praise is by far the quickest way to get your puppy to do what you want. You can also use a tasty treat with your praise but this is definitely not necessary as long as you lavish them with verbal praise!
3. Learn to recognize your puppy’s cues.
These dogs are very good at communicating. Often times you will notice that when your puppy needs to go to the bathroom, their behavior changes. You will probably notice what seems like a sudden burst of energy and a lot of quick sniffing. If you notice this, immediately take your puppy outside! This is a good cue that they are about to go!
4. Be consistent.
Try to use the same door to take your puppy outside each time they need to go to the bathroom. Also pick a spot in your yard where you would like your puppy to use as their bathroom. Every time your puppy needs to go potty, take them to this same spot. Doing these two things makes it very clear to your pup where they are supposed to go to let you know they need to go out and then where to go potty once they are outside.
5. If you have a doggie door, teach them how to use it!
Use some tasty treats and help teach your pup how to use the door to go outside. You may need to open up the door a bit at first and lure your pup through before they realize they can push through it themselves. Make sure to use this door to take your pup out and pick a spot close to the doggie door for your pup to go potty. This will make training very quick! Make sure to praise them when you see them use the door!
6. Let your puppy walk to go out as much as possible
Try as much as possible to let your puppy walk to and out the door and to the "potty spot" themselves instead of carrying them. Often times carrying your puppy out the door and to the potty spot will slow down their learning. This doesn't let them understand the connection between going to the door and being able to go out. The exception to this is if you catch them having an accident, then you must pick them up
7. Keep a close eye on your puppy after meal times.
As young puppies, they have a very quick digestive tract! Your puppy will need to go outside very soon after eating. This is a good time to keep a very close eye on your puppy to make sure they don’t have an accident. If you don’t feel like you can keep a close enough eye on them, you can also put your puppy in their kennel for around a half hour after they eat. After a this time, take them outside and ask them to go potty. If they don’t have to go, put them back in their kennel and try in another half hour. The kennel is optional of course if you feel you can keep a close enough eye on them.
8. If your puppy does have an accident, clean it up properly.
Dogs have very good senses of smell. Simply wiping up a puppy’s accident is not enough. It is important to buy a special cleaner made for breaking down the enzymes in a dog’s urine. If you don’t use this kind of cleaner, your puppy will still be able to smell the spot where they had the accident and may have an accident in that same spot again.
What to do if you catch your pup mid accident:
If you see your puppy starting to have an accident in the house, quickly go over to your pup, tell them a firm NO, pick them up and take them outside! If you don't pick them up in this situations, they will often just keep going. Once you get outside and your puppy finishes their “potty” outside, make sure to give them huge amounts of praise for going outside.
Things NOT to do:
1. NEVER yell at your puppy.
It is helpful to think of these puppies as if they are small children, first learning about potty training. You wouldn’t yell at your child for accidentally going potty in their diaper. The same applies to your puppy. Yelling at them won’t get your point across in the effective way you want it to. The most that is ever needed is a firm tone of voice telling them “NO” and only if you catch them in the middle of having an accident.
2. NEVER shove your puppy’s nose or face in an accident they had.
Although this used to be thought as an effective training method, there is no evidence that this does anything at all to help your puppy understand that they did something wrong. Your puppy won’t make the connection that pottying in the house is a bad thing unless you catch them mid accident. Dog’s don’t understand corrections to past events like people can.
3. NEVER hit your puppy.
Some people think that hitting your puppy with a rolled up newspaper your simply your hand is an effective training method but in reality it does more harm than good. Hitting your puppy will only make them afraid. You don’t want your puppy to be afraid of going to the bathroom or to be afraid of you.
4. Don't use potty pads or newspaper
I don't recommend using potty pads or newspapers to train your puppy. Doing so gives them the idea that it is sometimes ok to go potty inside the house. When your puppy is older, you do not want them to think this, you want them to know they have to go outside.
If you keep these few tips and tricks in mind, your puppy could be potty trained in no time!
