Aug 20

Tips To Calm, Happy Toilet Training For Your Puppy

When toilet training a puppy, the most important thing you can bring is patience. Some pups will get it within a few days, while others can take months.

Here’s our Vetchat vets’ checklist for toilet training your puppy:

  1.   Prevent accidents in the house by providing plenty of time outside.
  2.   For inside time, have a designated potty spot set up and let your puppy get familiar with it.
  3.   Watch your puppy like a hawk: as soon as they start showing you signs (i.e. sniffing, restlessness––you’ll get to know them), take them straight to their spot.
  4.   Repeat this hourly, especially after eating, drinking or sleeping
  5.   Keep potty trips calm: speak in low, quiet tones and stand with them for support (don’t let this be playtime).
  6.   Reward, reward, reward. When they do the job, treat them with something yummy! Do it straight away too, rather than waiting till they return to the house.
  7.   Pair your potty trips with a phrase. Some of ours include ‘wee wees’ or ‘do wees!’ This becomes handy as they grow up.
  8.   Start a routine: set feeding times and exercise times and you’ll soon notice when your mate needs to go.
  9.   Ignore accidents, even if you see them in the act. Fur kids (like human kids) can’t always prevent going to the loo. It’s all part of growing up.
  10.   When cleaning up, avoid ammonia or products with strong smells (ammonia can smell like wee to animals and we want to eliminate the scent completely).

Stick with the above and try to be as patient, as hard as it is!

About The Author

Claire is a QLD graduate with 19 years experience as a neighbourhood Veterinarian in Australia and the UK. Animal lover and the founder of VetChat, born from a passion to help pet carers everywhere access trusted advice earlier, for healthier, happier pets. Grateful to be carer to her beautiful Red-dog.