1. Use only positive reinforcement. Don’t punish your puppy for the negative only give praise when your puppy goes outside. Punishing your puppy when she wets indoors will only teach her to hide from you when she has to go.
2. Be consistent; take your dog outside first thing in the morning, whenever she just wakes up from a nap and about 15 minutes after she finishes eating.
3. Walk the puppy outside. Very important! You must not carry the dog outside let her walk out on a leash so she will learn where to go when she needs to go out.
4. Don’t let her out of your sight! Your untrained puppy should always be by your side where you can see her. Keep her on her leash and attach the leash to you as you go about your day. You’ll trip over her quite a bit at first but she will learn to follow your lead soon enough.
5. Crate train her. If you are un-able to watch her she should be confined to a small area and not allowed to run free around the house. Having your puppy sleep in her crate is ideal and will help speed up the potty training. Dogs naturally do not like to sleep in a soiled area so she will wait until you let her out to potty. Make sure the crate is not large enough for her to eliminate on one side and sleep on the other; she only needs enough room to stand and turn around. See the crate training post for more tips on this.
6. Take your puppy out to the same spot every time. When you get there say the same word, if you’re going to use ‘potty’ or ‘go pee’ just keep it the same.
7. Thoroughly clean all accidents. Use vinegar and water to clean up the area where your dog had an accident so she is not tempted to re-use that spot.
8. Feed a good diet. Feed your dog a good quality food and stick with it. Switching food will upset her stomach and possibly cause diarrhea, this will greatly delay your potty training efforts.
9. Be patient, all puppies have accidents; this is just part of owning a dog. Puppies can only hold their bladders for one hour per month of age. So your two month old puppy you just brought home can only hold her bladder for two hours, this means night time outings.
10. The key to success is positive reinforcement. When your puppy eliminates outside, praise or give a reward immediately! Not when she comes back in the house, or runs back to you. It has to be the moment she finishes. This is the only way to let the puppy know what is expected of her, do it to late or too soon and she won’t get it.
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