Before the age of 8.5 weeks, puppies don’t have much in the way of ability to hold on when they need to toilet. Once they reach this age, we can begin to teach them to toilet outside. The key to a good toilet training program is prevention. Puppies need to be taken outside to toilet very frequently, at a minimum every two hours during the day. They’re more likely to go after a play session, and after eating or drinking so need to be taken out at those times as well.
When your puppy is inside, they need to be managed in a way that prevents them from having accidents. Any accident inside is a result of insufficient supervision. In order to foster direct supervision, you can keep your puppy attached to you via a 2 metre lead. This will make you hyper aware of what your puppy is doing and much more likely to notice when they need to go outside.
You can let the puppy off-lead to play and romp, but when you do this it needs to be under direct supervision. The moment you take your eyes off your puppy, they will have an accident. When you don’t have your puppy on lead or under direct supervision, They can either be resting in the crate or a crate with a playpen attached with a toilet substrate for them to go on. They will not want to go in their bedding so will automatically choose the substrate as the only other option.
Many people reach for puppy pads as a suitable substrate, but puppies pay more attention to *what* they’re peeing on rather than *where* they’re peeing. This means that if we teach them to go on a soft surface like a puppy pad, they’ll be more likely to choose other soft surfaces to go on as well such as bedding and carpet. Instead, try using some fake grass with a pee pad underneath, or even just a litter tray.
Troubleshooting: Sometimes if you take them outside and they play, then you bring them inside and the play session is over, this is a cue for them to go. In order to prevent this, take them out on a lead or into a small pen outside, and ignore them. Once the puppy is bored they’ll be more likely to toilet, at which point you can play and throw a party!
What if my puppy has an accident?
Don’t stress! We can’t all be right 100% of the time. Just interrupt them and take them straight outside. We don’t want to scare or punish a puppy for having accidents, or we risk teaching them not to toilet when we’re nearby which makes toilet training a lot more difficult. Make sure to clean up any accidents with an enzyme based urine cleaner. Regular cleaners will stop us being able to smell it, but puppies have more powerful noses than we do, and will return to an area if it smells like they’ve urinated there before.
For a full guide to toilet training, you can download this free chapter from Sophia Yin’s, Perfect Puppy in 7 Days.