Potty Training a Dog

In this article I will be talking about how to potty train your dog! I have a dog named Juna that I have been potty training so that she does not urinate inside the house! The Three things you need to remember are consistency, patience and positive reinforcement!

Whenever you are training a dog you need to always be consistent. The first step of potty training is to make a schedule and stick to it, write down when you feed and walk your dog. Usually puppies need to go outside about every half an hour to an hour, but dogs can hold it for about 2 to 4 hours! Take them on walks right when they wake up in the morning and after eating and drinking. I noticed that when Juna did her business she would go to the same spot in the house, that's because of the scent. One of the things you can do when potty training your pup is having a bathroom spot in the yard where your dog likes to poop. Don’t give your dog any extra food between meals and take away the water bowl about 2 hours before bed. You can also have a word you say when your dog urinates outdoors like “Potty!” or “Potty time!”.

Potty training a dog takes a lot of patience! Usually doing it takes about 1 to 4 months depending on the dog or puppy. If you see that your dog did their business don’t punish them because they won’t be able to connect their accident with your anger and instead they will fear you. Potty training is a hard job and sometimes there will be setbacks but don’t lose hope and have faith in your dog/pup! Juna was a street dog and now that I have started potty training her she has to unlearn a few things, so if you have a street dog, please be patient and keep things simple.

If you want to potty train your dog/pup it will require a lot of positive reinforcement! When you give your dog positive reinforcement, you are not only bonding with them you are teaching them useful skills! If you don’t give them positive reinforcement and instead give them negative reinforcement, they might not do what you say and instead they might fear you. When your dog does their business, reward it immediately after with a small treat or/and say “good job!” in a positive voice. After some time they will connect reward with peeing outside and will want to do it more. Also if your puppy is going more outside they will do it less inside! Dogs can tell if you are happy or not so when you are it makes them happy too.

Thank you for reading my article about how to potty train your dog! If you are looking into getting one please check out my video about The Pros and Cons of Having a Dog! For more projects like this one go to WEquil.School/projects.