How to Potty Train

Well, you can google this topic, too, so I will only say how we did it in our specific circumstances. We live in a house with no stairs out front, with a nice sized yard, underground fence for the older dogs, on a quiet cul de sac. We have a good situation. Not everyone does. But I've also trained from a 5th floor walkup in New York City, so stuff's possible.

So here's what we do (trainer approves).

It's been week #1, and we've had a few accidents in the house, but not many, meaning less than 5 in one week!

(Oh, and I am home most of the time because I took early retirement when we moved to North Carolina from Wisconsin. That makes me REALLY lucky when it comes to potty training. I know. But if you work, just google how to potty train for working people. I've done potty training while working, too.)

Basically, I just have my eye on Jack almost every second. If I have to leave the room, I carry him or put him in his crate (that's more complicated).

Of course I'm supposed to watch for signs of sniffing, circling, or squatting, and get him outside the instant I see that.

But I also just take him out A LOT. Like every half hour if he is awake. I could say it's kind of like cheating--how can he fail if I do that, and how can I think I've potty trained him if I keep making it so simple for him?

But it's still teaching him a lot. It teaches him that there is a PLACE to go, a place where I WANT him to go. And after a while, if he can't remember going anywhere BUT that spot, he's going to also think that's the place to go, and he's going to want to get there. Yeah, we HOPE it's that easy. :)

When I take him out, I carry him along the floor like he is walking, only he's an inch above the floor. This teaches him the route. Right now, he doesn't like to go to the door because it's freezing outside and he shivers so hard.

At the door, I have bells hanging down from the doorknob (trainer advice). I'm going to try to teach him to ring the bells when he wants to go out.

Now, they automatically ring when the door opens, and he theoretically associates the sound with the door opening.

Then I carry him out, low to the ground, and put him in the same spot. I say nothing, but when he starts to squat, the whole time he is squatting or pooping I say over and over, "Go potty." This teaches him to associate those words with the action. Later I can say the words BEFORE he goes, and theoretically that will make him DO the action. But if I try to say the words now, before he squats, he will have no idea what association to make.

This particular technique of associating words and action worked a miracle for my Italian Greyhound, and she is NOT a rocket scientist, but even if she forgets why she is outside, if I say "Go potty" over and over, she gets it, and runs off and does it.

That's it. By day 2, he would potty every time I put him down on his spot. Then he invented a different spot to poop in, under a bush, and now he always runs there to poop.

The trainer says dogs will always distance themselves from the pack leader before they poop, as this protects the den and the pack in the wild, preventing predators from smelling it and finding the group. Jack really does always get far away from me to poop.

If he doesn't have to go, he returns to the door. I say, "Do you want to go IN?" and then I open the door. This question comes in handy with older dogs when they are out playing and I want them to go in. Once they're trained to associate that phrase with going inside, then when I say that phrase, they know to run to the door. It's not so much me ASKING their opinion, as just picking a phrase that comes into my head naturally when I want everyone to go in.

Jack has to work hard to climb up the doorsill to get in but the trainer said not to baby him, let him do it the hard way.

So far, even tho it is freezing out there, he hasn't been faking like he wants to come in if he really has to pee. If he has to pee, he really does it as soon as I put him on his spot.

Does cold weather make potty training harder? No. Easier. If the dog has to go, and knows that he can't go in until he does his business, he is much more motivated to hurry up and go than he would be if it were summer and there were lots of fun things outside.

Also, freezing weather has another huge bonus if you have pups and older dogs: Coccidia parasites (which a lot of puppies have) die immediately when pooped out into freezing temperatures, so this keeps them from spreading to other dogs who might come along later and contact the poop. Though older dogs have a lot of immunity to coccidia anyway.

Anyway, the HARD PART of potty training isn't the part I've done. The hard part is getting him to know when he has to go, and to learn to hold it inside, and also to indicate to me that he needs the door opened.

I frankly am discouraged at the thought of how hard that is going to be. It seems impossible, but somehow I guess he will figure it all out.

When he makes a mistake, the trainer said not to show it to him and say no, or bad, etc. because he will think that I mean pee is bad and get confused. Rather, I just take him outside if I catch him. Then I'm not supposed to let him see me clean it up. And I'm supposed to use Nature's Miracle with enzymes to clean it.

When I mop up the pee, I take the paper towel with the pee on it, and I drop it outside at his pee spot, and I show that to him. I hope it helps him learn that I want him to pee only at one spot.

Excuse any punctuation errors or typos. I'm still halfway groggy from all the sleep I've missed and haven't caught up on yet!