So what can we do to get the best out of puppies toileting behaviour? One of the first things to do is to put in perspective just what we expect of puppies compared to what we expect of our children. Our children can take a couple of years to successfully toilet train (imagine the mess if we did not have nappies, eeek, it's not worth thinking about is it?). It takes toddlers quite a while to learn to control their bladders and to know how soon to go to the toilet before they need to go. Ask any parent how many accidents their toddlers have some days. Puppies are no different they take about 6 months to get full bladder control, despite the fact we expect them to become continent in a few short days or weeks. So patience is one of the most important things you can arm yourself with when walking through the mine filed (like that imagery?) of puppy toilet training.
So what can we do? Naturally dogs have a dislike of urinating or defecating near their beds, so they will naturally try to move away from their beds to go to the toilet.The trick is trying to anticipate their need to "wee" and "poo". You can do this as soon as you bring the puppy home, introduce the puppy to the spot outside where you want the puppy to go and wait there until it goes. Give it a food reward and introduce a toileting word like "wee wees" or "bananas" if you prefer a more neutral word so that it learns what you expect from it when you take it outside. If the puppy does not go, take it indoors and try again in 10-15 minutes.
Sniffing or circling behaviours are common indicators of the puppy tying to find a place to toilet. Other times to take the puppy outside are first thing when it wakes up, after or even during play time, after eating or drinking, being in the car and of course just before bed time. There will be accidents but with positive reinforcement ( treats and kind words of praise) when your puppy toilets outside and an avoidance of angry reactions (which only confuses the dog and gives it a complex about toileting in front of you) your puppy will eventually get the hang of going in the right spot-outside. Some people leave newspapers down in one spot, say the laundry, so the puppy can go there, but essentially you want the dog to learn to go outside, so that technique is really only a transitional training stage which some people may prefer to avoid.
If your puppy has most of its accidents overnight you may need to get up every 4-5 hours to take him or her outside to give the puppy the opportunity to do the right thing. You may need to set an alarm, especially if the dog is not sleeping in your room. Don't forget the puppy is used to being with its litter-mates, so it is likely to be lonely and have anxiety sleeping by itself. If you do have the puppy in a bed or crate in your room you can put a little cat bell on its collar overnight so that when it starts to move around to get up to toilet you can take it outside.
With a bit of consistency and positive encouragement your puppy will hopefully not give you too many interrupted nights. If your puppy does not seem to be doing so well with toileting as all the other puppies in puppy school do not worry, some puppies just take longer to learn and get bladder control than others. If you are really worried ask the vet for a check up to see if there is any source of infection that may be preventing better toileting. In most cases all that is needed is a big dose of patience, a deep breath and a few puppy cuddles to get things into perspective.
Enjoy your new puppy!
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