Toilet training your puppy should be quite a simple process, as long as you take the time and trouble to get into a good routine.
Initially, you will have to build your routine around your puppy’s needs, and these are reliably predictable when they are very young. Puppies need to urinate immediately after waking up, so you need to be there to take your puppy straight to the place where you would want him to relieve himself.
Eating its meal stimulates its digestive system, and puppies normally urinate within fifteen minutes of eating, and defecate within half an hour of eating (although this might vary slightly with each individual).
Puppies have very poor bladder control, and need to urinate at least every hour or two. They can urinate spontaneously when they get excited, so take your puppy out frequently if it has been active, playing or exploring.
CRATE TRAINING/CONFINEMENT
You can’t be with your puppy every second of the day and your puppy does need lots of rest, usually around 16 hours a day. When you and your puppy need a break, send your puppy to bed somewhere that will limit any roaming accidents. For puppies who love to chew things like power cords, this is a safety precaution that can stop your dog getting into mischief when you can’t watch them.
Some Basic Pointers:
- Keep your puppy with you at all times during toilet training. If you can’t watch closely and attentively, consider crate training or using a playpen, the laundry or the bathroom as a safe den.
- Use appropriate and motivating rewards. This is usually a treat, as most dogs aren’t motivated enough just by praise or a game. Keep your treats on you at all times so you can reward within a few seconds.
- Take your puppy out every hour. Repetition and consistency is key. The more occasions you have that you can reward the appropriate behavior, the quicker your puppy will ‘get it’. If it has been 24 hours since your puppy last got a reward for toileting in the correct place, it will take much longer to learn.
- Be patient and consistent and avoid punishment. Punishing your dog after an accident will not teach him anything, except that you are to be feared. If an accident happens, move on and try to take your puppy to the designated spot more frequently.
How To Toilet Train:

First of all keep a diary of your puppy eating, resting and elimination times for a period of 3 days. You should now notice a pattern emerging here where the puppy wants to sleep at certain times, is hungry at certain times and wants to go to the toilet at certain times and on certain surfaces. All you need to do is armed with the knowledge, is to predict when the danger times are likely to be when he wants to go give him access to your preferred TOILETING SURFACE, whilst denying him access to any other than his preferred sleeping surface-simple. The only problem is that the surface you choose may not be as attractive as the surface that the pup chooses. To encourage him to use the surface that you decide he should use, all you need to do is transfer the smell of his urine and feces to this surface via a pair of gloves and then take him there at appropriate times and allow him to sniff. A little trick here is to scatter small food treats in a large circle around this area which will encourage him to sniff the ground and nature will do the rest.
Don’t use ammonia based cleaning agents to clean up afterward as the smell often encourages the dog to use these areas again
Don’t scold puppy physically or try to rub his nose in the mess. This will have the effect of making the pup hide from you when he goes to the toilet thus making the job of house-training much more difficult for you to accomplish. Only scold your dog verbally if you catch him in the act of going to the toilet in the wrong place and take him to the right place.
Repetition and patience is the key to success in toilet training your pup. Always make sure you praise him whenever he relieves himself at the right spot with praise or treats
Introduce a cue word: To encourage toileting on command it doesn’t take much extra work to introduce a word while your dog is urinating or defecating. So when your dog/pup starts toileting say ‘wee wee’ or whistle (or introduce a hand signal) so that the behavior is paired with a command. This means on those rainy days, or during toilet breaks on long road trips you have a way to quickly get your dog to urinate/defecate on command.
U make it sound easy…surely owners struggling with their pets will find it helpful super informative proud of u ?
Thank you poonam ???
With so much info on your blog, I know for sure if I ever parent a dog I need no trainer 😉 way to go gurl
Thank you 🙂
So helpful for me with my 11 week old Aussie puppy! He’s a stubborn one with potty training. Great post!
Thank you for the visit. Let me know how training comes along with your Aussie puppy
It’s so important to toilet train pets from a young age – love your tips for helping pups and owners!
Yes toilet training is imperative in a pet household
Great tips!! My older shelter dogs were potty trained very fast. Maybe one week! But my pup was horrible! It took up to 8 months for me to trust him alone!
Patience is the key to toilet training im glad you got there with your pup
Wonderful, great, caring article about potty training – one of the most important pieces of information you shared: don’t scold puppy because puppy made an accident! Exactly – it wouldn’t work for anyone to do that, so if your article can help with this, holy smokes, you are an angel!
Thank you MattieDog 🙂
I just went through this with my puppy! Following these basic steps made it such a breeze. I have a leash that attaches to my waist that I used for keeping him with me during the day. I’d take him out after every nap, meal, and pay session. He had it down pretty well by 10-12 weeks, but it took till he was 7 months before I’d leave him alone and could trust he wouldn’t have an accident. They say they should be able to hold it for an hour per month of their age up to 6-8 months. So a 3 month old puppy should be able to hold it for 3 hours. I followed that with Echo and found it to be pretty true.
I loved the idea of you attaching his leash to your waist now that is real toilet training commitement
Oh it feels like only yesterday when I was potty training Edie. You mention wonderful tips to help the pet owner understand potty training. I’ve always believed that its most important to have patience, don’t get upset with your puppy and be consistent with taking them out on a regular basis.
Patience is they key to toilet training your pup
Great tips here! The cue word makes so much sense. We adopted our dog as an adult. We have never had to toilet train a puppy before, but your tips here would be very helpful if we needed to.
We love your visits Three Chatty Cats 🙂
Whoa! Puppies are hard work. With cats, you just show them the litter box, scratch the litter with their paws and they know what the do from then on.
yes with cats it really is a piece of cake
This is exactly how I potty trained all of my pups and it’s a method that definitely works! I’m so happy when I see people advocating positive methods of training! Great blog post!! 🙂
Thank you Luna ????
A neighbor offered to watch the pup but she’s of the rub nose in the mess philosophy so he doesn’t go there!
Phew, im glad you dont send him to your neighbors any more
Mommy has ever had a puppy so she never thought about all the work that went into it. These are great tips.
Thank you for your visit Lola we love hearing you purr here
It takes time and patience thats for sure. Wonderful tips and advice you shared.
Thank you for your visit and feedback. Yes without those 2 factors toilet training can turn in to a very messy affair
When I rescued Layla she was about 4 years old and not properly potty trained and it took me about a month to get it sorted out, now she refuses to do it inside even when its raining outside – any tips on how to get her to do inside on really bad rainy days – I would be so grateful
Ruth try putting in a cue word when she does her jobs outside. She will soon start associating the cue word with the job and do it on the designated spot indoors during rainy days
We just adopted out six rescue puppies to amazing families through the rescue I work with and I can’t tell you how much I wish I’d had this post to offer them as a resource! (I will email each of them the link!) This is the method I used when potty trained all three of my dogs as well and it’s a fantastic approach that works beautifully!
i am so happy to know about the rescue work that you do may your tribe increase. Please be my guest in emailing the toilet training link, thank you
Thanks for the nice puppy potty training tips. Puppies are a ton of work, but so worth it.
Yes puppies are a ton of work but then again who doesn’t love puppies
You can’t share how to potty train a puppy too much at all! Although it’s been 6 years since my mom learned the hard way it’s always good to have a refresher course! Love Dolly
Thank you for your visit Dolly we love having you here
Great post! I’m consistently reinforcing with my own Crazy crew… and introducing housetraining concepts with foster. Appreciate the share!
Thank you for your visit. We would love to know more about your crew
We’re currently in the process of potty training our little Georgie and we’re using these tips. Great advice, thanks for sharing!
Good luck with Georgie’s potty training
Great post for new parents. I’m also revisiting these timings with our new guy, Jack. He’s not a puppy but he’s new to us and these timings are really helpful until he gets used to the routine.
Good luck with Jack’s house training
I have that same deck potty featured in the top photo and we love it. I haven’t had to potty train a puppy in 9 years and reading this t all came flooding back to me, I had to take a stress break and eat a cookie. LOL. I really regret not teaching a cue word. It would come in so very handy now that we live in an apartment and have to go out more often!
Yes, I too realised the importance of a “cue” a little late but like they say better late than never
These are some great tips for those getting a new puppy. I grew up with a dog, but just don’t have the lifestyle right now for one. I travel a lot and wouldn’t be able to give a dog the attention it needs. I’ll share these tips with people I know who have puppies.
Thank you for your visit & share 🙂
Thank you for the visit 🙂
Great tips- we use similar with Kilo the Pug. He was not well housetrained and still occasionally prefers to pee (and poop) inside. We have Puppy Pads and bath matts around and he uses those if he needs to but we take him out every 2 hours and he does pee and poop on command now. U used to give treats but now mainly verbal rewards then a treat and game at the end of the walk.
That’s a fantastic strategy to toilet train Kilo 🙂
We have always adopted older dogs who have been at least partially house-trained. We also rely on puppy pads when we are away for longer periods.
Yes those potty training pads are really a helpful tool
These are good tips! I am a big believer in setting a puppy up for success and positive reinforcement!
Thank you for your visit. Us too!!
I’m sure this will be very informative for the owners of puppies who are looking for this type of resource. Thanks for writing and sharing this to help them out!
Thank you for your visit; just trying to create awareness
Would like to know what I can clean the area where my pupy has messed so she doesn’t go back to it.I wish you had an artivcle about nipping!!!
Will do one soon on teething. Use a product to clean that doesn’t leave a scent of its own which will only attract the pups attention. There are lots of pet products you can choose from