Potty training Your Puppy

Our Premium Labrador has been practicing good potty habits since 2.5 weeks of age.  When you take your puppy home, the basics are there and many new owners report that the puppy was fully trained and never had any accidents.  This is awesome but the truth is no puppy is fully potty trained until at least 4 months, just humans are trained.

• Decide where you want your puppy to eliminate before the puppy comes home, ensure there are not a lot of steps as steps are not good for young developing pups
• Confine your puppy to a small area of your home , preferably with easy to clean flooring
• Make sure this area has access to the door you wish to use to go outside
• If you have multiple doors to the outside in your home, choose only one to start 
• If you have other pets who may have had accidents in your house clean those areas really well.  Puppies will go to the bathroom where they smell other dogs eliminations
• You can train your dog to only use one area of your backyard.  This is a bit of work but if it will make your life easier over the next 15 years it is worth it, so consider this before you bring your puppy home and put a training plan in place
• If you feed your dog real whole foods their urine is very unlikely to stain your lawn.  Kibble fed dogs can have an increase in Nitric acid in their urine that will leave a brown patch

• Keep your puppy confined when not supervised.  Dogs are Den animals and want to keep their dens clean and cozy.  Once they know how, they will ask to be let our
• Establish a routine and stick it.  Chart when your dog has eaten and had a big drink.-chart the time and estimated amount consumed.  Chart when/time your dog eliminates.  The trends in this data will help you know when your puppy has to go out.
• Avoid using puppy pads. Your puppy did start their training on puppy pads as a 2 wk old and knows how to use them but your goal is to train the puppy to never eliminate in your home. After 8 weeks we remove the puppy pads and do not use them.
• In the beginning either carry your dog to the potty spot or put them on a leash.  limit the interactions with him on these trips until the business is done.  Interactions should be limited to talking to your dog about "going outside to potty" so they associate the words with the actions 

• NEVER,EVER strike, yell at your puppy or stick your puppies nose in the mess.  This will just traumatize your puppy and negatively impact your bond and the dogs behavior's
• IF, IF you catch the puppy in the act say "NO" in a firm (not angry, firm) voice and pick the puppy up and carry it outside.to the potty area and say "yes Potty" "Okay pee and poo"
• If you come upon an accident, just clean it up. DO NOT reprimand the puppy after the fact, it will not associate the mess with them and you can't substitute the behavior's so there is no learning opportunity

• There is nothing your pup loves more than your praise and love.  Celebrate the wins and praise, play and treats
• When you take your pup outside to do their business, give them a playtime afterwards.  If you rush your dog inside as soon as they have done their business, they will wait and take their time.  If you reward them with a play session, afterwards, they will want to hurry up and get there business done to get to the playtime.

• First train the puppy and create a potty routine before you add in this step- too many commands can become confusing
• You can look up videos on YouTube to train your dog to use bells hung on the door to ask to go outside