Housetraining 101

Whether you have recently acquired a puppy or an adult dog that isn't housetrained, or if something went wrong when you housetrained your existing dog, there are some tried and true methods for housetraining dogs of any age.

If the "soiler" is an adult dog, it's probably a good idea to first see your veterinarian, to rule out any medical conditions that might be causing the house-soiling.

Barring a medical cause, that leaves plain ol' housetraining methods as the solution.

There are a number of housetraining methods.  Some of them old.  Some new.  There are even people who plan to litter box train their small dogs, or use "wee" pads, throughout the dog's life.

While the indoor litter training may seem ideal, especially with the specter of early morning walks or potty trips during inclement weather looming in one's mind, there are a number of drawbacks, as well.

First, dogs aren't able to differentiate very well.  The "wee" pads, in particular, are very fabric-like, and could easily cause the dog to feel it is allowed to "go" on any surface that feels similar.

Then there's just the "yuck" factor.  No matter how often one cleans a litter box or replaces the "wee" pads, an underlying smell of urine and feces is bound to permeate the home.  At the very least, there will be some odour lingering between the time the dog eliminates indoors, and it is cleaned up.  For most, this is not a very pleasant idea.  It also makes travel with the dog somewhat unpredictable.  Teaching a dog that it is okay to eliminate indoors can lead to problems, especially in unfamiliar surroundings.

Of course, there are those dastardly people who have trained their dogs to "go" outside, but allow them to eliminate everywhere...even on the neighbour's property.  Whether the owners clean up after their dogs or not, that's just inconsiderate.  It is also illegal in most regions. For more on dog walking etiquette, click here.

Others leave piles and piles of dog feces in their own yards.  What's up with that?  That's not much better than allowing the dog to soil inside the home.

Since dogs should never be left unsupervised outside the home (or with children), it's a pretty simple matter of picking up the dog's feces while you're outside with it.  There should be no reason for piles and piles of dog feces to build up.  If the owner just can't get around to it, for whatever reason, there are services that will do it, for a fee.  Either way, it is also a public health concern to have a large amount of feces lying around.

Getting back to housetraining, there are a number of methods, with varying degrees of success.  The method that has shown the best success for both puppies and adult dogs who need to be housetrained, is "The Two Hour Method".

Put simply, any un-housetrained dog is taken outdoors for potty breaks, every two hours, morning, noon, and night.  Generally, within a matter of days, the dog learns that it is supposed to "go" only outside.

The premise is, while the dog has no "need" to eliminate inside the home, due to the frequent outdoor trips, the owner is also rewarding the dog when it does "go" outside; thus creating a positive, rewarding experience for eliminating ONLY outside.

If your dog or puppy needs to be housetrained, follow these steps:

• Start now.
• Take the dog outside, on a leash, and keep it walking while you say a word that you'll only use to get the dog to urinate. (Which word is up to you.)
• Keep the dog walking, so it doesn't get distracted by things or smells outdoors; but allow it to stop to urinate.  (Stopping to sniff longer than a second is a no, no.)
• Say the command word, and strongly praise the dog with your voice, while it is urinating.  "Good <command>.  VERY GOOD <COMMAND>!!"  ...and mean it!
• Once the urinating is done, exuberantly praise the dog and pet it.
• Now use a different word, one you will only use for defecation.  But there's a bit of trick to using this one.  In order for the dog to eventually learn an association with this word and defecating, you can only use it if you believe there's a likelihood the dog needs to poop.  For most dogs, that will be after a meal and/or once in the morning and once in the evening.  Since you may feed your dog as little as two meals a day, or as many as 5 or 6, there's a bit of a gray area you'll have to work out yourself.  In any event, use the #2 command (pardon the pun), when you want or need the dog to defecate, and reinforce it by saying it often, while the dog is defecating. 
• When the dog gets in position to defecate, verbally praise the dog, as above, while getting out your poop bag, and catching the poop before it hits the ground.  (It's just a good practice to get into.)
• Once the defecating is complete, exuberantly praise the dog and pet it.
• Once all the eliminating is over with, but ONLY then, move off to play a quick, on-leash game (chew a stick, jump up, etc.).  This secondarily rewards the dog for getting the elimination out of the way first, before play can begin.  (Once the dog is actually housetrained, you can remove the leash, and play a real game, like fetch or frisbee, etc.)
• Then, allow the dog to calm down by letting it sniff the yard for a few minutes.
• Go back inside, and note the time.  Two hours from now, it'll be back outside.

Caution: You never want the dog to see going back inside as a punishment.  Right now, you're working on housetraining.  But once that is accomplished, or if your situation allows right now, you want to make false trips inside, so the dog never knows when it is actually going in, for good.  And/or you want to reward the dog when it comes inside, so it always views that as a positive situation.  (Never use your recall command for anything negative, like ending play and coming inside; to have any undesirable interaction, like taking a pill, etc.) 

When housetraining, you can use the dog's psyche to your advantage, by teaching it that elimination equals praise and fun and an opportunity to relax outdoors.  Once combined with training that rewards the dog for dutifully coming inside when instructed, everything associated with outdoor potty trips will be pleasant.

If you follow the two hour method, the dog should be well on the way to its last indoor accident, within a few days.  Most young puppies are housetrained in less than a week, using this method.  Older, more entrenched house-soilers may require a bit longer.

The most difficult part of this method is finding the time and energy.  Most people work during the day, which is why most puppy buyers coordinate their purchase with their vacation time.

Still, it's one thing to take the dog outside at 10am, noon, 2pm, etc.  It's quite another to have the commitment to take the dog out at midnight, 2am, 4am, and so on.  On the plus side, you're rewarded with a dog that is housetrained much more quickly and reliably than most other methods.  If done properly, you should only be surviving sleep-deprived nights for just a few days.  If the dog is still having trouble after more than a week, something has likely gone wrong.

At some point, you'll have to start allowing the dog more freedom, and stretching the potty breaks out longer.

Once there are no more accidents inside the restricted area (if you're using that as part of your training), you can allow the dog to have free reign of the house; while still keeping up the potty break schedule.

If the dog no longer requires restriction to curb the household accidents, then you can try longer periods between outdoor potty breaks.  Jump to every 4 hours, and see how that goes.  (It will end there, for very young puppies.)  If that's successful, and the dog is old enough, you can jump to every 6 hours.  Then 8.  However, it should always be your goal to provide your dog with as many outdoor potty trips as possible, throughout the day. 

Once a dog is housetrained, it will find the notion of "going" inside to be very stressful.  Please keep this in mind if you're running late one day.  Know that your dutiful dog is probably in a great deal of distress, waiting for you to come home and let her out.  Try not to let it happen too often.

Troubleshooting:

"My dog just soiled inside my home.  What do I do?"

It's spilled milk, essentially.  What's done is done.  Never, ever punish a dog for soiling inside the home.  Doing so will not assist in housetraining.  Most likely, the dog will simply find more out-of-the-way spots to eliminate indoors, or will learn to "pee'n'dash", to avoid immediate punishment.  No matter what, it's a terrible plan to concoct ways to make your dog fearful of you.  It's certainly not conducive to developing a well-trained and obedient dog, in the long run. 

House-soiling, above all things, is not a vindictive act...no matter what some media-types may suggest.  In most cases, it's the owner's failure to take the dog outside often enough, that leads to most indoor accidents. 

If possible, gently remove the dog from the area, then clean up the mess.  All business.  No reward or punishment. 

Preferably, use a cleaning product that neutralizes the odour, or use vinegar.  (If the dog smells even residual urine or feces, it may come to think of that area as its toilet.)

If you believe the dog may still need to "go" right now, feel free to take the dog outside and follow the usual potty break methodology.  It's up to you if you want to re-start the two hour clock, or just consider this incident a "blip" on the timeline.

"The dog is still having accidents inside the home, during the first few days of the two hour method."

If you find that the dog is still having accidents inside, despite having the opportunity to "go" outdoors every two hours, and you've combined that with vehement praise when it does, there could be a couple of things going on.

For starters, it may just be that dog's individual elimination style.  You have to learn your dog's habits, above all else.  Some dogs are, for lack of a better term, "interrupted pee-ers".  They like to urinate in two or more episodes, rather than all at once.  The same can be true for defecating.  If your dog likes to break up its urinating or defecating (or both) into two or more smaller episodes, you need to stay outside long enough to accomplish that.  If you march the dog back inside after it has only urinated half what it wants, you'll almost be guaranteed an indoor accident.

It's also possible that the dog just isn't "getting" the housetraining...yet.  For that, mother nature has helped us by hardwiring the dog in a way that will assist us.

If the dog isn't "getting" the housetraining after a day or two, keep the dog confined to an area just large enough for it to stand, lie down, and turn around, when indoors. (That could be a crate, an ex-pen, or other solution you've devised.)  Any bigger, and the dog can still use one end for napping and the other for elimination.  Only allow it out of that area for supervised in-home play (supervised means you have your two eyeballs on the dog at all times, so you can see what it's doing, and catch it before it makes any moves to eliminate indoors); as well as the outdoor potty breaks, and walks.

Allow just enough room for a water bowl and food dish, as well.  Dogs naturally don't like to soil where they eat and sleep, so they will want to "hold it" as long as they can.  However, young puppies can't hold their bladders for very long. 

*Side note: this is why puppies acquired from pet stores are so notoriously difficult to housetrain.  They've essentially been trained to accept urinating and defecating in their living and eating space, so they may always think that's okay.  There are countless other reasons to avoid purchasing a puppy from a pet store.  Click here for more on where to buy a dog.

By the time a young puppy comes home from a reputable breeder, it should probably be able to hold its bladder for up to 4 hours.  This is why it is vital that new puppy owners plan ahead.  If you work all day, you must come home, or have someone come in, and take the puppy out at least once, during the day.  For older dogs, they are physically capable of holding their bladders much longer (once they're housetrained), but ask yourself, 'Should they have to?'

"The dog is still having accidents inside the home, even though I've been doing the two hour method for a week!"

If you've been doing the two hour method of housetraining for a week, without any sign of improvement, something has gone terribly wrong.  The most likely culprit is a lack of consistency...which is probably understandable with so little sleep!

• Have you really been taking the dog out every two hours?
• Is the dog confined to a small area inside the home, between outdoor trips or when you don't have your two eyes on it, supervising it?
• Are you allowing the dog ample time to finish eliminating as much as it wants, while outdoors?
• Are you verbally praising the dog during the act, then exuberantly praising and petting the dog afterwards?
• Have you been using a cue word (a command) to help teach the dog what you expect of it during those outdoor trips?
• Have you been using a unique word; one that is exclusive to the act of urinating or defecating, so the dog won't become confused?
• Are you keeping it on-leash while on potty trips outside, so it doesn't get distracted from the job of eliminating?
• Have you been punishing the dog for having accidents inside the home?

If you're not following the method consistently, then you're bound to have less than optimal results.  The premise of the method is that it not only ensures the dog never has a need to "go" inside the home, but that it has been given a clear understanding of what is expected, is consistently rewarded for eliminating outdoors, and there is no negative association with outdoor potty breaks.

Remember that older dogs with a history of house-soiling problems may take longer to housetrain.  Consistency in the method, and keeping the dog confined indoors, are your best friends, in that case.  Ignore the accidents, and strongly praise any outdoor elimination.  Stay the course.  It WILL come.

"The dog is not "going" during outdoor trips every two hours."

All training should be made as fun and inviting as possible for the dog.  This is how you get a dog that wants to obey your commands.  If the dog is showing absolutely no signs of wanting to eliminate during one or more of the every-two-hours outdoor trips, it may be that it is already on the path to housetraining. 

When taking the leashed dog out for potty breaks, keep the dog moving forward, so it doesn't get distracted investigating things outside.  Do what you can to keep it focused on the job at hand: eliminating.  As a rule, don't play with the dog until AFTER it has finished eliminating.  This teaches it that the quicker it eliminates, the sooner it can play.

If the dog is showing absolutely no signs it wants to eliminate, then happily coax the dog back inside, and note the time for the next outdoor trip.  Carefully watch the dog, to ensure it doesn't have an accident inside the home, or restrict it to an area just large enough to stand, turn around, and lie down.

"I don't have time to take the dog out every two hours."

If this is the case, it is paramount that you ask a reliable friend or neighbour to help you, or hire a reputable dog walking or pet sitting service, to accomplish this task for you.

Young puppies can't hold their bladders for 8 hours.  No dog should have to, really.  Do you hold your bladder for 8 hours or more? 

If you're only thinking about acquiring a dog at this point, but you plan to leave it alone for 8 hours or more, every day, you might want to reconsider a dog at this stage in your life.  Dogs are pack animals.  It is completely unnatural for them to be alone.  Good dog owners do everything they can to minimize the amount of time their dogs spend alone.  Of course dogs will have to be left alone, inside the home, at times.  That's life.  And dog owners must properly socialize their dogs to be comfortable with this.  Still, if a dog is to be alone for 8 hours, every single day, it's likely another kind of pet would be better suited...such as a cat.  Cat's are solitary, in nature.  While they enjoy the company of their owners, it is not "unnatural" for them to be alone for parts of the day.  There are a number of other domesticated animals that would be better suited to being left alone for long periods.

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