Do you have a puppy that you're struggling to house train,
or that's still having accidents in the house,
even after you've taken them outside,
you bring them inside and they're just still peeing everywhere?
Well there might be some big mistakes that you're making in that house training.
In today's video,
I'm going to give you some important tips that you can use to save you paper
towels and mess I'm Steve. This is a little Piper. Welcome back to McCann Dogs.
It's time to take a little Piper out here and you'll notice.
The first thing that I have done is put a leash on her.
The best thing that I can do to help her get outside is limit her options.
Cause oftentimes we bring them out of the crate and they sneak around the corner
and go for a quick pee or they stop behind us.
This will allow me to direct her right outside where she can go pee.
Okay, girl. Good.
That's a good girly. Okay.
Let's go up, up, up, up, up. Good girl. Munchkin. Let's go, but up, up, up.
Good girl. Now the.
Other benefit that I have outside of having the leash on is that again,
I limit her options. There's a lot of distractions out here.
So this allows me to sort of keep her in a consistent area and I'm going to try
and be as boring as I can. You know,
puppies get distracted so easily that the more I can try and keep her
focused on the task at hand, the more she will most likely be successful.
Come on over here girl? Go up, up, up, up, up.
Good. And there's lots of different smells.
So I'm just going to be out here and I'm going to be patient.
If she starts to chew on things, I'm just gonna try and interrupt her.
A little touch on the side. I might even move her away from.
Those things she's trying to chew. Here pup pup pups? What are you doing?
Hi, that's better.
That's a good girl. Now,
I am doing a little bit more engagement and talking to her to keep her focused
on me because there are so many distractions.
I don't want to just yank her around here.
So how is it possible that we've taken our dog outside and they didn't go to the
bathroom and they come inside and instantly go to the bathroom? Well,
we have to talk about puppies attention spans.
They get distracted by everything.
And oftentimes even though they know they need to go to the bathroom and we know
they need to go to the bathroom, we take them outside and a leaf blows by,
or the wind comes from a different direction or there's an interesting ant on
the ground. All those things distract our puppies from the task at hand,
which is going to the bathroom.
I've been outside here for five or 10 minutes of Piper,
trying to be kind of boring and trying to keep her a little bit more focused on
the task at hand.
But there are just way too many things out here for her to get distracted by.
So I'm going to scoop her up and we're going to head back inside.
And that's where probably the most important point in your house training is
going to come into play.
What do you do when you come back inside. Well,
it's important that a couple of things happen.
And the first thing that's going to happen is you're going to supervise your
puppy. And that literally means having eyes on your puppy.
You can't just let them wander around because you're going to miss some of the
cues that your pup could give.
When they remember that they actually need to go to the bathroom.
You might see a little change in their behavior,
going from just wandering around to stopping and looking or sniffing the ground
or starting to even circle and sniff the ground.
Those are the times that you're going to be able to take the dog right back
outside and encourage them to go. But if you're not paying attention to them,
you're going to miss those signs.
So what does supervising our puppy actually look like? Well, you know,
I talked about having eyes on them the whole time,
but she's also got a little leash or a line that she's dragging.
That I can easily step on or gain control of her. She can't run away.
I've got a couple of cool chew bones here for her to focus on and I've got the
space managed a little bit. She doesn't have free reign of the house.
So let's say I am doing a little work here at the counter.
I'm able to really control every part of her life.
So I can see that she's chewing on the bone appropriately.
If she decides to chew on something else, I can interrupt her quickly.
And if I see those signs that she needs to go to the bathroom,
I can quickly pop her outside.
The other thing that you can do is use your crate.
A crate is a fantastic house training tool and something that when you can't
directly supervise your puppy, like I just talked about,
you can use to manage them a little bit more to prevent them from making those
mistakes in the house puppies generally will not go to the bathroom in a
properly sized crate. That's where they sleep. That's dog nature.
So when you bring them back inside, pop them in the crate,
just let them be there for a few minutes or so,
but keep an ear out for them because you will notice that again,
there will be a little change in their behavior.
They might rustle around a little bit more.
They might start to whine a little bit.
And that's your cue that you can then take them from the crate,
take them directly outside again and encourage them to go to the bathroom.
When you're working on house training,
there's some pretty common times when your dog probably has to go to the
bathroom. Any time you put them in the crate,
they should go out before they go in. Anytime you bring them out of their crate.
After a nap, they need the opportunity to go to the bathroom.
And anytime before a big play or after a big play, chances are,
they probably need to go to the bathroom.
And the other thing is you really need to keep a mental note of when the last
time your puppy actually did go,
the bathroom puppies will need to go quite often.
And if you're working on house training,
you need to be proactive about taking them out. Now I'm talking to you guys,
but I am very much paying attention to Piper right now.
You have to be aware of what your puppy's doing,
because you can put them outside. But if you don't actually see them go,
how do you know they went? If you're checking your social media,
maybe they went, maybe they didn't. And when they do go,
it's also important to kind of keep an eye on how much they actually went.
Did they actually empty themselves or did they just pee a little bit and then
get distracted and wander away. You got to have eyes on the puppy at all times.
I want to make sure our dogs know that they're right to go to the bathroom
outside in a, what does that look like? Well,
we want to praise them and we want to pet them.
And we want to use those as our rewards for the puppy. Oftentimes if I use food,
pups can get sort of mixed messages. Um,
the act of going to the bathroom itself is pretty self rewarding.
Just the feeling of going to the bathroom is really nice for the puppy.
So we don't need to add on top of that, a reward of food,
but I can praise my pup. I can pat them.
I can tell them what a nice job they are doing at that particular moment.
Our rewards. Aren't always just food.
You are reward to your puppy and that praise is what's going to let them know
they're doing a great job. So Piper and I are having a little play. You know,
I know that puppies generally need to go to the bathroom, um,
after they've had a play.
So instead of actually just putting her in a crate and try it again later,
I'm going to see if I can actually encourage her to I need to go to the bathroom
by having that little play?
Now here's the fun thing about this is I'm actually doing a little bit of
training too. I'm teaching her to tug with me and give the toy back.
When I ask her to all while encouraging her to have to go to the bathroom.
So I'm working on house training and general training at the same time.
Good girl. Get that thing. Get that thing. Good.
Yes. Good girl. Very good girl. I get that good.
Now we just had a big yawn there from Piper,
and we're going to put her in her crate for a little nap soon because she is
getting tired.
This is pretty mental for her being here with us and doing all this work.
But it's important again that I give her an opportunity to go to the bathroom
before I put her in her crate for a little nap. So I'm going to scoop her up.
We're going to take her out. We're going to try again.
It's great to have this plan in place and it's fantastic to follow it to the
letter,
but there's a really important point about house training that a lot of people
miss, house training is actually two parts.
The first part of course is teaching your dog to go to the bathroom outside.
But the second part and sometimes more important is teaching your dog not to go
to the bathroom inside.
How do we teach them not to go to the bathroom in the house? Well,
I'll tell you with my dogs. I like to catch them in the act, Hey, Hey, Hey,
I caught you, caught you. You,
I like to take the opportunity to interrupt the behavior so that I can then
take them outside and show them how to be right. So what do I do? Well,
oftentimes I will really supervise my puppy, keep close eyes on them.
And the moment that the dog starts to go to the bathroom in the house, Hey cool.
I caught you. And you're going to see this. In fact,
some of you may be finding your dog just turns and looks at you and starts to
pee. That's the moment you need to interrupt them and sort of startle them. Now,
I don't want to scare puppies and I don't want to worry them,
but I do want to do something that will get their attention and interrupt the
stream just a little, Hey,
something like that that quickly captures their attention. And of course,
the moment they stop peeing,
I'm just going to scoop them up and take them right outside and then go back to
encouraging them calmly to go. Now here's the really,
really important part with this. Startling Your puppy is one part of it,
but I need to let my dog know when they're right.
So when I do get them outside and they do finish going outside,
I'm going to really make a big deal about it by praising them and petting them
and letting them know that that is exactly what I want. So on one hand,
I quickly simply interrupt the behavior that I don't like.
And then I set them up to do the thing that I do like,
and I really acknowledge it.
And they will start to put together quickly going to the bathroom outside,
gets the good things, gets the praise, gets the pets,
but if they start to go inside, they get that weird startle noise that we do,
and we get sort of the negative side of it.
But it's all about teaching them what to do. Now,
if you're still struggling with potty training, check out that video right here,
that talks about the biggest mistakes people make when puppy potty training,
click that card right there. Now,
if you'd like some more help specific to you and your dog with your training
check out the link in the description below to our Puppy Essentials online
training program,
where you can have direct access to our instructors on a daily basis.
And with that, I'm Steve, this is little Piper. Happy training.