How to Teach Your Dog to Go Pee and Poop in One Spot

How to Teach Your Dog to Go Pee and Poop in One Spot

Potty training is a critical milestone in a pet parent’s journey. It applies equally whether you welcome a new puppy into your home or address behavioral issues in an older canine companion. A well-trained dog contributes to a harmonious household and fosters a strong bond between you and your pet.

Whether you live in an apartment building with dog potty rules or are trying to save your roses from your dog’s “water,” it’s nice to have a dog that will pee in one spot reliably.

The Teaching a dog of any age to go potty outside seems like a daunting task for first-time dog owners … or anyone that’s adding a new four-legged friend to their family. And although it may seem natural to us humans that dogs use the outside as a bathroom, it’s not coded in doggie DNA to seek out only your grass, and not a rug, to do their business. Dogs need to be taught—with patience, understanding, and an enormous amount of positive reinforcement—to go outside.

Four Laws of Teaching a Potty Spot

There are four main rules for teaching a dog to pee in one spot that you’ll have to follow:

1. No More Unsupervised Potty Breaks. The first – and most important – rule of teaching your dog to pee in one spot is that you’ve got to supervise. You can’t just let your dog out into the backyard without management!
2. Go On-Leash to the Potty Spot.For each pottying occasion, you’ll need to take your dog on-leash to the designated potty spot. This will allow you to lead your dog to the correct area. If your dog is running around free, you can’t control where she ultimately relieves herself.
3. No Freedom Until You’re Empty.Hang out in the “potty area” until your dog pees or poos. You can reward your dog for peeing with freedom (and a treat, see #4).

Many dogs don’t automatically pee right away when you let them outside unless it’s been a long time! Your best strategy is to simply go to the potty spot and wait.

Don’t prompt your dog, try to play with her, or talk to her at all. If she doesn’t go after a minute or two, go back inside and try again later.

If your dog isn’t potty trained yet, it’s best to return your dog to the crate between potty breaks. For already potty trained dogs, you can simply return back inside and wait a little while before going outside again.

4. Reward When She Pees. If your dog pees in the correct spot, give her a treat and reward her by letting her off-leash or setting out on your walk. It’s important to save the fun walk or playtime for afteryour dog pees in her spot.

For some dogs, this is all you have you do. They quickly learn that if they don’t pee where you take them, they can’t go for the rest of their walk, get a treat, or otherwise have much fun.But it can be a pain to just stand there waiting for your dog to go pee. That’s where a potty command comes in handy.

 4 Tips to Help Teach Your Dog to Go Potty Outside

Before you get started, ensure your yard or designated outdoor potty area is dog-friendly and any spaces in your home your canine student will relax in are dog-proofed and suited to their individual needs.

1. Use a Bell

I am a huge fan of bell training for potty purposes. Essentially, you teach your dog to ring a bell (attached to a strip or string near the door) whenever she needs to go outside to potty. I have found great success over the years and continue to use “potty bells” for any new puppy I bring home. The bell can quickly become a clear way for your dog to tell you they need a potty break.

Training a dog to use a bell is simple with these three steps:

Step 1: Teach your dog to “nose target” the bell to make it jingle. Hold the bells close to your dog’s nose and let them investigate. If they sniff, touch, or boop the bell, mark and reinforce with a favorite treat. Repeat. After several repetitions, move the bell further away so that your dog must take a few steps towards it to touch it.

Step 2: Once your doggo is touching the bells to get a tasty treat, hang the bells on the doorknob of each door they might use to go outside. Encourage them to touch the bell as it hangs from the doorknob and when they do, mark and reinforce!

Step 3: Now they need to understand that the bell ringing means the door opens to go outside. The moment your pup touches the bell, open the door, take him outside and give him a treat. If he potties, give him another treat and then immediately go back inside. Repeat this each time you want your pup to go outside, but be sure you are not waiting for him to ring the bell until he is so full he might have an accident while he waits for the door to open.

2. Get the Timing Right

Understanding when a dog, especially a young puppy, will need to use the bathroom is crucial to successful potty training and will help create a potty-time schedule. Knowing when they might need to go helps you avoid accidents. Look for behaviors like sniffing the ground, pacing, whining or whimpering, jumping up on you or following you, becoming more mouthy during play, moving away from you, or quickly running towards another space. These can be indicators a dog needs to pee or poop. There are also times before and after daily events your dog must be let outside.

Dogs need to go outside AFTER these key moments:

• After naps or sleeping for any period of time longer than 15 minutes
• After eating
• After drinking
• After a play session
• After a training session
• After a stressful or scary event

Dogs need to go potty BEFORE these key moments:

• Before going to bed at night (no more than 10 minutes before bedtime!)
• Before being crated or kenneled
• Before a training session or puppy class
• Before friends or family come over for a visit
• Before going inside the vet office

3. Remain Positive

When dogs are just learning to pee or poop outside you need to constantly provide treats and praise and should never use punishment. Avoid scolding or harsh corrections when your dog has an accident, otherwise you only increase the likelihood they will get better at hiding where they potty inside instead of getting better at peeing outside. Plus, whenever you get upset with your canine you only break the bond you are trying to build with them. Focus on teaching them what to do instead of what not to do.

Give them a tasty treat and praise when they go to the door to let you know they need outside. Each time they use their potty pad, give lots of good praise, and every time they successfully go potty outside give them a favorite goodie. Make sure you reinforce them for making the choice to go potty outdoors consistently, especially during the first few months of training.

Remember your dog is learning and you are living with a totally different species that doesn’t innately understand their toilet should be your grass. It is your job to know when they might need to use the green facilities and it is not your dog’s job to teach you. Be patient and keep the whole process laid-back and full of positive reinforcement opportunities.

4. Clean, Clean, Clean

Accidents happen and they are no big deal! Your floor will survive and your dog can learn with patience and understanding that there are better spots for their pee. Just make sure to thoroughly clean accident spots and keep your pup’s space clean and tidy and free from any item that might be soiled. Remove pee pads as soon as they have been used more than once, and launder any bed or stuffed animals that might have been accidentally soaked.

Teaching Your Dog to Go Potty on Command

The easiest way to ensure that your dog pees in one spot is to teach her to pee on cue.

You can establish the cue by rewarding your dog with a treat right after she pees for a few days. While you do this, pay close attention to what she does right before she pees.

Dog generally starts sniffing, then slows down and raises his tail just before he raises his leg. Your dog will have her own little routine!

Once you know your dog’s routine and your dog knows that you’ll pay her for her pee, you can start to say the cue right before your dog starts to pee. When I was teaching my dog, I started saying, “Go potty!” right as he lifted his tail (the last step before he lifts his leg).

As soon as he peed, he got a treat. We repeated that for a few weeks, and now I’m able to say “Go potty!” to encourage him to lift his leg and empty himself. This is a real lifesaver on long car rides and whenever I need my dog to pee and poop quickly – for whatever reason!

Many people make the mistake of getting too excited during this process. They prance, squeal, plead, and generally try to convince their dog to pee.

Being exciting is generally a bad idea when potty training a dog, because you’re more likely to distract your dog into playtime than convince her to pee. Instead, try to be very boring and matter-of-fact (at least until after your dog pees).

Common Problems With Teaching a Dog to Pee in One Spot

Of course, things often sound easier than they actually are. You might get lucky with smooth sailing from here on out, but you might not.

Here are a few solutions to the most common hiccups in this training plan:

 Marking. Male dogs generally dribble pee at strategic locations around their turf. Generally, this is considered to be more of a community newsletter than a possessive “This is Mine” declaration. Some trainers call it “pee-mail.” If marking around your yard is an issue, a belly band can help reduce marking.

You can certainly teach male dogs to pee on cue, but they often still attempt to mark with small amounts of urine elsewhere. Luckily, a few drops of urine is much less likely to cause discoloration than a full bladder!

 Going Elsewhere. If your dog is consistently peeing in a non-designated potty spot, you need to go back to the drawing board. Don’t scold, hit, or spook your dog. Just clean it up and try again next time. Keep your dog on leash and reward her heavily when she goes pee in the right spot. Some owners have had success with poop training sprays to help get your dog to go in the correct spot, but for the most part, these sprays aren’t very effective.

 Not Peeing at All. Some dogs don’t seem comfortable peeing on a leash or with an audience. Or maybe your dog just doesn’t have to go right now (or doesn’t like your spot). But you’re late for work already! Rather than getting frustrated, simply walk your dog around a bit in the designated area. Ignore her other than trying to keep her moving a bit. If your dog’s leash is the issue, you might need to get a long leash and deal with that problem first.

How does toilet training start for a puppy?

• When a puppy is 2-3 weeks old, it is their mother who is the first one to toilet train them. She will nudge them off the surface they eat and sleep on when the puppy wishes to relieve themselves.
• If a puppy who has been exposed to this process enters your home, they quickly learn what’s called as surface discrimination. This means that your puppy knows to not relieve themselves on the same surface they eat or sleep on. You can use this to your advantage when you start your toilet training!

5 steps to teaching your dog to pee on command

Getting potty on command is pretty easy. Your dog already does the behavior you’re looking for (peeing and pooping), so all you need to do is grab some treats and capture it! Capturing is all about pinpointing the exact moment your dog does what you want it to do. It’s like taking a photo of that moment. (Because you’ve always wanted many photos of your dog pooping).

1. Pick the word you’re going to use that will mean “go pee” to your dog. You could use the classic “go potty”, the police dog cue “empty”, or “abracadabra!” It doesn’t matter what you say, as long as you say it consistently.
2. Figure out out when your dog most predictably goes to the bathroom. The three big pee motivators are: waking up, playing, and drinking. What goes in must come out, and, by setting a schedule for your dog you can predict when he/she will need to go outside. Knowing that your dog needs to go to the bathroom is key in capturing the behavior.
3. When your dog needs to eliminate, leash him/her up and relocate to your designated potty spot. This could be a corner of your back yard, the tree in front of your building, or the curb.  If you have any fear that your dog might go before you get to the curb or wherever, pick him up and carry him there (if you can — if you have a Great Pyrenees, this will not be possible!).
4. Wait for your dog to go. Give him no attention as you pace quietly back and forth by the pee spot. When he squats or lifts his leg wait, for him to finish. As he’s finishing happily say your cue word “GO POTTY!” When he is done, give a marker (a verbal “Yes!” or the click of a clicker), then lavish him with  praise and something really yummy.
5. After a week or two give the cue “go potty!” just before the pee happens but still wait to “Yes” or click until after he’s completely finished. (Otherwise, your marker might distract him from finishing his business midway.)

One big tip: While you’re teaching this behavior, don’t accidentally punish the “go potty” by returning inside immediately after your dog eliminates. Give lots of praise, toss the ball once or twice, or walk your dog down to the corner and back to let him sniff his favorite spots for 30 to 60 seconds.

Once your dog has mastered the behavior,  start to vary your rewards. Only reward the quickest pees or the times when you tell him to go when his bladder is empty but he squats and squeezes a few drops out anyway. Every potty should earn praise, but the best ones should earn a ball toss or a special treat.

7 simple tips to toilet train a puppy at home 

1. HAVE A DESIGNATED SPOT

Before you bring your puppy home, choose a designated spot you wish for them to be their permanent relieving spot. This spot can be a backyard or a balcony with all your training essentials around such as puppy pee pads, a loo box and an odour destroyer.

2. START OFF RIGHT

Once you bring your puppy or even an adult dog home for the first time, it is important to expose them to the spot immediately. Do not let them relieve themselves anywhere but the designated spot. If you get the first or second exposure correct, the rest of your training becomes easier!

3. MAKE A NOTE OF THEIR SCHEDULE

Your puppy is likely to relieve themselves at three specific timings:

1. Right before or after eating (with 5 meals a day)
2. Right after a nap (with 5 naps a day)
3. After playtime is over (almost 10 times a day)

This makes it easier for you to predict when your puppy might wish to use the loo. Once you have the schedule ready, be ready to take your puppy to their spot.

4. REDIRECT THEM TO THE SPOT 

Just like human children, your puppy will need your help and patience when they’re relieving themselves. Make sure you take your puppy to the pee pads at the designated spot at the right time. 

Remember: Your puppy is at a tender age when they might feel scared being alone. Hence, be present with them when they’re doing their business. 

5. BE PATIENT & UNDERSTANDING

Just like human children, your puppy will take their time to learn something new. Hence it is fully natural for them to pee in different areas around the house. Here are some do’s and don’ts:

The Dos

• Be kind, and understanding so your puppy doesn’t lose their trust in you.
• If you catch your dog doing their business in the wrong spot, simply discourage the behaviour and take them to the correct spot.
• Create an indoor toilet spot for your puppy as taking them outside may not be convenient at all times. Keep yourself in check by asking, ‘Did I fail to take my puppy to the right spot?” These questions will only help you keep yourself in check.

The Don’ts 

• Do not scold your puppy when they fail to get their behaviour right as it will only make them associate you as someone negative.
• They will eventually start to hide themselves when they do their business and stop relieving themselves in front of you, even when you take them for their walks once they grow up.

6. HOW TO CLEAN UP AFTER

• Use a puppy pee pador a newspaper to clean up the mess. Take this wrapped up pee pad and keep it in your designated spot. When your puppy smells their urine at a particular spot, they’ll want to do their business there. This is how we can use the mess to our advantage!
• Avoid using strong smelling chemicals like ammonia or alcohol-based cleanerssince they would simply conceal the smell of urine with a much stronger smell. Your puppy will find this smell alien and would want to cover it up by urinating at the same place. These could also cause skin irritations if your dog rolls around on the floor.
• Recommends using a soapy solution made from human clothing detergent.Put the solution on top of the pee-pad when you’re cleaning the mess. Let it sit undisturbed for 10 minutes before cleaning it off. Do not use anything else once the area is clean.

 Tip: Why use your own detergent? Your puppy will find familiarity with the detergent’s smell as they would associate it with you! Hence, they would not wish to pee at the same spot.

7. LASTLY, CONSISTENCY IS KEY

Remember to keep guiding your puppy to the designated spot according to their peeing schedule. If you wish to see improvement in just seven days, be disciplined in maintaining your puppy’s daily eating, sleeping and playing routine. This will ensure that their peeing routine is consistent as well!

Things You Definitely Need When You’re Teaching Your Dog to Pee Outside

To make your potty training journey a little easier, stock up on these essential items.

Pee Pads

Disposable pee pads are a great tool to use when teaching a new pup, or adult dog that needs to re-learn potty training, to go to the bathroom in a designated area. But, I often hear dog parents expressing concern over letting their new puppy or rescue use potty pads. They worry their dog will rely on them and generalize the behavior of peeing on the pads to other areas around the home. Thankfully, this is just a myth. Puppies, and any dog learning where to potty, can easily transition from pee pads to the outdoors. Besides, the pads are for temporary use or to help prevent accidents on your flooring. If you are paying close attention to the potty needs of your dog, and get them outside in time, you will find pee pads are just a stand-in for emergencies until a dog becomes totally potty trained.

Carpet Cleaners

The smell of doggie accidents is no treat for anyone, including your pup, and lingering odors can even entice your dog to use that same spot as a bathroom again. You need to make sure that any soiled areas are thoroughly cleaned. Avoid using any product that contains ammonia. Although it is a common ingredient in many cleaning products it also happens to be a chemical in urine, and so it only increases the likelihood your dog will urinate in that same spot again.

It is best to use an enzymatic pet stain and odor remover to clean up your furry pal’s urine. These cleansers break down the bacteria in the urine and help eliminate the scent, which is crucial to reducing your dog’s desire to re-use the same spot for his potty business.

Baby Gates

When your dog needs to rest, or you are not sure if they are “empty” and could have to potty while you make dinner, use baby gates to safely confine them to a space. Block off the entrance to a bedroom with a walk through gate or make a dog-friendly pen in your living room. This way your canine doesn’t have free access to your home, decreasing the chances he will take advantage of your lack of attention and use the carpet in your office as a toilet.

Kennel or Crate

Your dog’s crate or kennel makes a good resting place after play sessions or while you do chores around the house and can’t fully supervise your fur baby. They also work well to help a new pup relax between potty training breaks, especially if they didn’t eliminate when you thought they probably should. Place them in a room where you can still easily see your dog so you can be sure to let them outside to try and potty if you hear them moving about or starting to whimper. Just make sure your dog’s crate is the perfect size for them and they are fully comfortable with crate training before you require them to hang out in there for any period of time.

Potty Bells

Potty bells hung from your door can make potty training a breeze. You will likely want to purchase a set for any door your dog will use to go outside. Make sure they are low enough that your dog can easily reach them for loud rings you can easily hear.

Treats

To encourage a young pup or your new rescue baby to continue to go outside and potty, give them a great reinforcer right when they start to go. As they begin to tinkle say “good potty,” and as soon as they finish, offer a delicious treat. This makes the whole experience a positive reinforcement opportunity for your canine buddy.

Although successful potty training takes time, plenty of patience, and lots of positive reinforcement, it can be a simple process when you are well-prepared. Making sure your canine family member has great potty skills goes a long way in ensuring both you and your dog are living a happy, relatively clean and stinky-carpet-free, life together.

Compiled  & Shared by- Team, LITD (Livestock Institute of Training & Development)

 Image-Courtesy-Google

 Reference-On Request.

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