Elimination “potty” Training
“Potty Training = Elimination Communication”
Dogs are clean animals by nature. Sure, they roll in the occasional duck poop or eat through the trash sometimes but they don’t like to defecate where they sleep or eat. Puppies learn from their mothers where to do their business to keep the ‘den’ clean. So elimination training is essentially simple if you have the proper foundation to start with i.e., puppy who was trained to go on pee pads in their ‘den’ will be much harder to train than one who was given the option to go outside.
You can see this happening in babies as well. Babies do not want to soil their diapers. If you have children, have you noticed how often the baby eliminates the moment you take the diaper off or right after you put a clean one on? What if you were to bring the baby to the toilet in this time and give them the chance to potty there instead? You’d be surprised how many babies will take this opportunity to keep themselves clean. This is the basis to Elimination Communication.
Puppies are the same way. If you give them the opportunity to potty outside instead of their pen or crate, most of the time they will take it. Figure out their preferred elimination times by keeping track of it in the first week. Then start to offer these opportunities to eliminate outside ON A LEASH. Please get them used to going on a leash to save yourself the headache of fixing this when they’re older. Be sure to look for their “I need to go” signals such as sniffing the ground, circling a spot or walking towards a door.
During a “potty-tunity”:
walk them outside on a leash in the designated area, rain or shine. Give them about 10 minutes to eliminate.
If they do not go, bring them back inside on the leash and keep them close to you.
Take them out again in 10 minutes to try again.
Repeat until the deed is done.
Reward them with a “good potty”, a smile and a treat right after they do their business. Don’t wait until coming inside, treat immediately after they eliminate to secure the positive behavior.
Tips: Don’t punish an accident in the house; that was YOUR FAULT for not reading their signals or sticking to the schedule. Bring them back outside to finish and clean up quietly. Give them extra time to sniff around after finishing their deed outside. Take up their water an hour before bedtime to reduce nightly waking.
