Category Archives: Dog School

Housebreaking & Potty Training for Your Dog
by Ann Gafke’s Teacher’s Pet, 325 E. Dripping Springs Rd, Columbia, MO 65202
Phone: (573) 443-0716 or Email: Contact Us
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No matter what you call it – housebreaking, puppy potty training, toilet training, house training, Number One or Two,  Want to go out – we all want our dogs to learn to pee and poop outside.. We can help.

Your task is to teach your dog where the dog’s toilet is. Simple as that.

If the dog pees or poops in the house, you have not yet taught the dog where the toilet is.  Follow these steps for help with housebreaking. Also, register for training classes with us. How to teach housebreaking and other important lessons is a central part of our curriculum. See Puppy Kindergarten or Level 1 for older dogs.

1. Find a place in your yard that you want to designate as the toilet.
2. Routinely take the dog to that place on the leash and collar. Stand there. Do not interact. The dog can explore to the length of your leash but not farther.
3. When the dog squats to go, praise and bring the dog immediately back inside. When they get inside, you can give them another praise.
4. For housebreaking, I suggest you take them out each hour. If you can, keep a log of what the dog does on those each hour trips out.  In three or four days you will begin to see a pattern of the dog’s peeing and pooping.
5. As part of potty training, when the dog is in the house you must keep the dog with you; the dog is restricted to the room that you are in just then. Keeping the dog with you is part of teaching the dog where you want them to pee and poop. When you are not able to keep the dog with you room to room, put the dog in the crate.
6. A bell or other noise maker is an essential tool in housebreaking. I suggest you get a bell or some other noise maker that you can put near the door . Initially, each time you take the dog out, you raise the dog’s paw to hit the noise maker. It will become the noise the dog makes to tell you they have got to go out, but you need to teach the dog hit the noise maker to go outside to the toilet. If you just let the dog out when the dog rings the bell, the dog will learn that the bell gets them to go outside, not necessarily to toilet. You will not have taught the dog WHERE their toilet is, and the dog will still think that in the house is where.
7. When the dog does ‘make a mistake’ and relieves themselves in the house, you must not call and correct for that. Too late. You will be correcting the dog for coming to you.
8. When you want to take the dog out for a neighborhood walk or out to play, do not ring the bell.  But if the dog rings the bell you must take the dog immediately to the toilet area.
9. I believe it does not take very many days to succeed in potty training  – teaching the dog where you want the dog to pee and poop if you are consistent with this process. See this American Kennel Club article on the importance of creating routine for your puppy.