Puppy Potty Training For People

Pooch Coach Beverly Ulbrich provides the basics on housebreaking dogs. If you do everything by the book, expect that housebreaking your puppy will take at least a few weeks. Generally, according to Pooch Coach Beverly Ulbrich, it can take up to a couple of months to insure that your dog understands where and when to go. On this episode of the "Good Dog" podcast, we learn how to reward appropriate behavior, how to handle mistakes, and how to reinforce what you've taught your puppy or dog.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Smarter Podcasts dot Com delivering sound advice. There is nothing more wonderful than getting
a new puppy. I suppose itwould be even more wonderful if that puppy
came housebroken, but yeah, dreamon. Hi. I'm joe Anne Green
and welcome to the Good Dog Podcast, where today we will focus on house

(00:23):
breaking your dog, and we welcomeback Beverly Albrick, the pooch coach from
San Francisco. Beverly's just released avideo entitled Puppy Potty Training for People.
Welcome Beverly. Thanks. Is thisa universal problem? Does everyone complain about
this process? Yeah? Potty trainingis probably the number one complain I hear

(00:45):
from people, and not just withpuppies, but with adopted dogs. Because
many rescue dogs that have lived theirlives, especially if they've have times and
shelters, they've learned to pie andpoo exactly where they sleep and eat.
So if they can come with somepretty bad habits, and is it tougher
to train a dog out of thosebits then to train them first time around
when they're a little pup. Typicallyyes, because dogs and naturally in their

(01:06):
own environment, do not want togo to the bathroom near where they sleep,
are eat, and so if theyare left to their own devices,
they will they will do that.But if they're forced to stay in their
crate too long and end up goingin there after a while, they'll become
numb to it. As in thecase with potty training a child. Do
you have to wait until the dogis actually developmentally ready for the process,

(01:26):
or are dogs ready from the getgo? The dogs should be ready by
the time you have him as anadopted apparent of him, are her.
Most good breeders, if they're doingin homebreeding, for instance, will even
put paper out for the puppies andstart potty training them on paper right away,

(01:47):
or they will have them outside andstart training them to go outside the
kennel and in the grass right away. So sometimes you'll even get a head
start with a very good breeder onthat. But if you buy again,
if you get a rescue dog,or get a dog that's seen God forbidment
a bet store or whatever, thenthey're going to have different situations where again
they were used to being in asmall cage and going to the bathroom there.
So we'll talk about techniques in justa minute. But if you do

(02:10):
everything right? How long should thishousebreaking process take. The quickest anybody can
really say that they've gotten through pottytraining successfully is about two weeks, but
you can expect more on average abouttwo months, and then even some mistakes
afterwards, especially if you go toa new environment or change your environment.
Are there some dogs that just don'tget it sometimes? But really it's the

(02:36):
people that aren't getting it. Ifit's the dog's not getting it, got
it? So what should the orderof events be? When we first got
Lulu, we got puppy pads andput those out, but we didn't end
up using them for very long.She didn't really respond that well. She
really got that outside thing very quickly. But we work from home, so
we were here and we're able tomonitor it around the clock. Yeah,

(02:57):
puppy pads are very important if you'regoing to leave your dog for a length
of time longer than they're capable ofholding their bladder, because by definition,
they're going to need a place togo, and if they're in a pen
or in a room that's closed off, they're going to need to have some
place that's absorbent that they can goto the bathroom. So and puppy pads
aren't just absorbent, right, There'ssome odor in there that indicates to them

(03:19):
that they should go on that spot. That's a market it's been marketed as
such, but I don't think thatthat really helps. What I do do
tell people that will help though,If your dog does have an accident,
taking the pad and dabbing it intothe accident so the pad has a little
bit of urine smell or something onit will actually help. It will help
bring the dog to the pad atthat point, because they'll smell their own

(03:42):
urine on it. Is that becausethere's such creatures of habit, Yeah,
exactly, they tend to want togo where somebody else has gone before to
cover up and mark and that kindof stuff. Plus you're letting them know,
hey, I want you to gohere. You're giving them a hint,
you know, like that's good.I will not get mad at you
if you do this. Is therea difference between potty training female dogs and
mail dogs? Not really. Theonly thing I always worry about is if

(04:05):
you do want to pad train amail dog, you have to get something
with sides on it a little bitmore for when they if they do start
lifting their leg at all. Buttypically they don't start lifting their leg till
about seven months anyway, so you'reusually okay, great, So what is
the order of events? How doyou advocate people begin this process? Well,
the number one most important thing isto try to catch the dog as

(04:25):
much as possible. I always saythat the closer you come to catching your
dog one hundred percent in both goodand bad in other words, making mistakes
and actually going in the right place, the closer they're going to come to
one hundred percent accuracy, because bydefinition, if they're not getting the feedback
each time they go, then howare they going to learn? So when
you say catching your dog in theact in the right place, should you

(04:46):
be rewarding them when they pee orpoop outside? Yes, I say,
always treat the dog with praise anda treat literally a cookie every single time
they go to the bathroom in theright place until they're one hun percent potty
train, and then they probably go, hey, where's my cookie now?
Because then you substitute the cookie forpraise, you continue praising. I still

(05:08):
praise my dog to this day forgoing and she's four and a half.
But so you keep it up bypraise just like other training. It's like,
you know, anything you tell yourdog to do, you don't always
have to give them a cookie,but at first you do it to get
the behavior you want. So wouldyou say this is true for training them
to do anything at all? Yeah. The main thing that with all training,
and this is a very common mistakepeople make, is you've got to

(05:30):
have a balance. You can't justdo positive just like you just can't do
negative. In other words, ifall you do is yell at your dog
for peeing in the wrong spot,you're not indicating where you want them to
go, So how are they goingto learn where to go? In fact,
it's going to be It sometimes turnsaround to the point where the dogs
afraid to go to the bathroom infront of any human because they think going
to the bathroom is bad, notwhere they go, but just the fact

(05:50):
that they're going. So you can'tjust yell at a dog for having a
mistake. And the same if theygo outside and you don't tell them how
good they are and give them eats, then how are they going to know
that's what you do want? Sothey'll they might figure it out over time,
but it'll take a heck of alot longer than if you make it
very clear this is good, thisis bad. So how do you make
it clear when a dog piece orpoops in the wrong place? What should

(06:14):
you do? Well, First ofall, the number one thing you really
want to do is try to getto know your dog's signs, because ideally,
if you can catch them as they'resniffing around and getting uncomfortable and lead
them to the door or to thepotty pad, then they're going to learn
to start going there on their ownwhen they have to go, versus sniffing
around in the house and finding aspot, and they're learning to indicate to
you that they need to go bygoing to that spot and then you can

(06:35):
let them out. The mistake peoplemake, and it's been and they even
tell you a lot in the booksto do this is you don't want to
take your dog out every two hourson the nose, because then your dog's
going to pee every two hours onthe nose and it doesn't matter. They
still might pay in between because they'regetting taken out and they don't understand they're
supposed to indicate to you that theyneed to go. So your best thing
is to watch for the clues,then look for it. If they start

(06:57):
squatting, then you can say no, pick them up and take them outside.
Go right through the same door everysingle time, to really indicate to
them, this is where I wantyou to go every time. Don't go
here, run to this door andlet me know you need to go out
at some point. Though, youdo want to get your dog on a
schedule, so that unless you havea doggie door and they have access in
and out, which is always agood thing I suspect, particularly in places

(07:19):
where the weather is good most ofthe year, but otherwise don't you generally
want to get your dog on aschedule so that your dog is going to
the bathroom when it's convenient for youto take them out for a walk.
Well, to some extent, butjust like with people, you can't really
control it. I mean, mostpeople don't necessarily go to the bathroom the
exact same time every single day,and so goes for the dog. And

(07:44):
what happens if the dog isn't feelingwell, for instance, and has to
go out a little more often.You don't want to have that kind of
mess all over your house. Soyou want them to be able to indicate
I have to go out again.I have to go out again. If
that's the case. Are they ableto control their bladders better as they get
older? I mean, do theypee actually less frequently as they get older?
Oh for sure. I mean somebaby puppies will pee literally, you
know, every fifteen minutes. They'lljust be running around tea, running around

(08:07):
tea, you know. And thenwhereas older dogs can hold their bladders,
sometimes they see upwards of fifteen hours. That couldn't be good for them though,
No, but I've seen them doit. I've seen dogs like even
I've had pets where you know,we go to you know, let him
out at ten or eleven at night, and the next morning they get up
and they're like, don't need togo and they hang out for a while
and it's like wow, right,But they're not drinking in the middle of

(08:28):
the night, which helps too.There's it's not like there's any anything going
in either. Interesting. Now,what about problem cases, I'm sure you
run into those all the time.Yeah. Again, the only real issues
are if people that The number oneissue I have with that is either the
dog again was caged in a badsituation, whether that was you know,
a kennels, you know, ashelter, or in somebody's home even or

(08:52):
another really common thing is people getdogs shipped to them from far away places
when they purchase a dog from abreeder. And if you ship the dog
and a plane in a small crateand they're there for hours, they're going
to end up pooping and peeing inthe crate. And at that point,
again, they're creating a bad habitfor themselves. They might hate doing it
at first, but once they've doneit, it's going to be like,

(09:13):
hey, you know, I livedthrough it. So then the whole crate
training idea of saying okay, onceyou're in, you're den I know you're
not going to go because it's anice, clean sanctuary is kind of thrown
out the window because they think,hey, you know, I've been sleeping
and peeing in this for a whilenow I don't care. Amazing how short
of time it takes to develop abad habit. Yeah, it is amazing,
especially again because I mean it's sotraumatic too. And then once they're

(09:35):
laying there on their own pee fora couple hours again, they just start
thinking that that's normal and and notlike that. But the traumatic experience them
cells are going to come back up. Somebody then takes them home, put
some of the crate, shuts thedoor, and the dog panics again.
But you do advise using a cratewith puppies. Yeah, Typically the thing
with the crate is dog can onlybe in the crate. And this my

(09:56):
video goes over all these this indetail. A dog, it should only
be in the crate about one hourfor every month old they are. So
in other words, if a dog'sonly eight weeks old, it should only
be in a crate at most fortwo hours before you have to expect it.
They're going to have to go tothe bathroom, so you can't leave
them there if you're going to begone all day for instance, or even
out for a good length of time. So you need to have a setup

(10:18):
that allows them to be able togo to the bathroom if they need to.
What about marking territory. I've knowncases where dogs were perfectly potty trained
at home, but when you,for instance, bring them into a new
environment, including into someone's home,they run around all excited and lift their
leg exactly. So first one thingyou can do is just help by not

(10:39):
letting your dog mark that much outside. I always tell people, even the
dog walk itself, If you goout for a half an hour and a
walk and your dog is stopping thirtytimes to smell and lift their leg,
what kind of exercise is that goingto be? I mean if you got
around the block. But if yougo out for a half an hour and
get two miles in your dog's walkinggetting aerobic exercise and fit in and learning

(11:00):
not to mark, and learning thatthe walk is for walking and that lifting
your leg on every single object isnot something that's desirable. So that's one
way to start helping that. Theother thing is is the dog really truly
is potty trained and knows how toask to go out and knows the phrase
you're going to be using, likegood dog, go potty or whatever,
nos, and understands what it is. That's half the battle right there.

(11:20):
Because what I find is is whenI've trained dogs that are marking, I'll
tell them you just want potty,basically it because like you just want potty,
and they look horrified, sometimes literallybecause they don't realize it. They
think they're marking. It's completely separate. And when you tell them no,
that's the same as going potty andyou're a bad dog from going potty in
the house and you've got to gooutside to do that. They go,
oh, no, You've got tobe kidding me. I'm so sorry.
I did not realize that was potty. I've literally seen dogs react like you

(11:43):
know, basically, I'm obviously youknow, putting words in their heads here,
but that's basically what's going on isthat they don't know the difference.
And so you basically go back topotty training one oh one and teach them
that that's just not okay and notacceptable to do in the house, and
it's the same thing as potting,and then they go, oh sorry,
and and they'll stop doing it.Beverly, how can people get ahold of
your video on The best thing todo is to go to my website poochcoach

(12:07):
dot com. Halfway down there's alittle list of the activities and things training
that I do, and there's alink there for housebreaking. You can click
on that, or if you're havingtrouble, just always you can send me
an email info at poochcoach dot comand I can send you the link to
the potty training video. Excellent BeverlyElbrick, thanks so much for being our
guest on Good Dog. Thank youfor having me and once again. Beverly's

(12:30):
website, where you can get acopy of Puppy Potty Training for People is
poochcoach dot com. I'm Joe AnneGreen.