Welcome back to McCann Dogs. I'm instructor Shannon.
If you're struggling with your puppy,
potty training plan know that you're not alone.
And we know that because we get a ton of questions about it on our YouTube
channel. The problem is, are you asking the right questions?
Very first question that you need to ask yourself about puppy potty training is
do you have a plan? The planning phase is a really important piece of things.
And I like to use just a simple notepad with every new puppy that I bring home.
And I'll note things about their specific behavior.
Some of the questions that we get a lot are how long does it take to potty
train? How often do I need to take my puppy out?
And those questions are fabulous questions,
but unfortunately there's no one size fits all solutions.
So you need to learn about your puppy. You need to make some notes.
Some really quick notes jotted down in a journal can go a long,
long way to helping you figure out the answer to those questions.
When you should take your puppy out, how long after they've had their meals,
how long after sleeping,
how long after each activity that's going to stimulate their bladder and their
bowels.
Do you need to make sure that you are running outside to take your puppy out for
a pee.
Planning is crucial for those of you who are hoping to get through a night
without having to get up with your puppy.
And this starts really early in the evening. So ask yourself,
do you know how much your puppy has eaten? If they've peed,
if they've pooed all of the things that you wanna make sure that you've got in
order as your evening progresses.
So that by the time you get close to bedtime for your puppy,
you know exactly how much they've drunk,
exactly how much they've eaten. And you're gonna know if they're gonna need to
pee or poo overnight. For the first few days to a week.
You may very well have to get up in the middle of the night to take your puppy
out, but with good planning that should come to short order pretty quickly.
Now we do not want you to set an alarm in the middle of the night to take your
puppy out for a pee.
A lot of the time that'll actually create a habit that we don't wanna create.
Have your puppy close by so that you can hear.
If they happen to whimper wine in the middle of the night,
that's a good indication that they probably need to go out to the bathroom when
you take them out, try to make sure it's not an eventful happening.
We don't wanna encourage our puppies to wanna play and have a good time in the
middle of the night. We'd much rather take them out,
not pay a whole lot of attention.
Put them straight down on the ground with a leash on,
give them a couple of minutes to pee and poo,
and then bring them right back in and put them right back to sleep,
to discourage any sort of unwanted interaction in the middle of the night.
The next question to ask yourself is, are you managing your puppy appropriately?
And by managment,
we mean making sure that you're puppy doesn't have opportunities to have
accidents when you aren't there to help make sure they get good information from
them and our best friend, when dealing with house training.
And when we can't be with our puppies to actually prevent those accidents,
is an appropriately sized crate.
The crate is gonna help your puppy learn how to hold it.
For those of you who are a little bit reluctant to use a crate. Trust me.
When I say that this is a wonderful training tool for your puppy.
And when it's introduced in a nice, positive way,
it's not a cage and it's not something that becomes oppressive for the puppy.
It's something that will help you with making sure that you can keep your puppy
safe,
that they're not chewing on electrical cords when you can't supervise them.
And they're not having accidents in your house. Now,
a pretty common potty training mistake is that our puppies are
distractible. And when we go outside with them,
they don't always go to the bathroom.
This is where the crate is going to really do a lot of shining for you.
Because when I bring my puppy back inside the house and I give them freedom,
inevitably,
my puppy is gonna have an accident at that point because he didn't take the
opportunity outside to go to the bathroom.
So instead of allowing him freedom and hoping that he doesn't have an accident,
I'm actually gonna bring him back inside, use my crate for five or 10 minutes,
just to help him remember that he needs to go to the bathroom.
It's not meant to be punishment. It's just meant to work up.
That need to go again.
And then I'll have an opportunity to take him back outside and hopefully get a
pee or a poo or whatever it is I'm waiting for at that point. Now,
if you are having.
Multiple accidents inside the house, you need to ask yourself,
am I supervising my dog well enough? Supervision out here is so important.
Whether you have a fenced yard or whether you don't,
whether you live in an apartment or whether you have 25 acres to work with,
it is so important that when you go back in the house, you're very,
very well aware of whether or not your dog still has anything in their bladder
left to spare.
Supervision outdoors is crucial so that when I come back inside the house,
I'm going to know for certain that my puppy is not gonna have an accident in the
house.
Cuz now I know his bladder and his bowel is empty and he's not gonna end up in a
situation where I'm not watching him.
And he wanders off into the dining room and has a pee behind the table when I'm
not looking. And he can't get information from that.
Now a big part of this plan,
this overall plan to train and supervise and manage our puppies well is making
sure that we use things like baby gates to contain our puppy in the same room
that we're in.
And that way I can make sure that I'm always able to keep my eyes on him.
And it's easy for him to stay contained in the same room. I'm not having to
chase him around the house and having all those other elements in place is going
to make sure that I can quickly help direct him outside to go to the bathroom.
And I can watch for the signs that he needs to go.
Some of the signs that I'm gonna need to look for are my puppy looking a little
bit antsy, wandering around the room, maybe sniffing at spots.
Those are all telltale signs that he's maybe looking for a place to go to the
bathroom. And if I'm here and I've contained him well,
so I've managed him well and I've got my eyes on him through supervision and
I've got my training plan in place.
I'm gonna see those signs and be able to quickly recognize that he needs to go
to the bathroom and I can scoop him up and take him right outside. And if they
do sneak away and have an accident,
your response is going to be to scoop them up as quickly as you can take them
straight outside so that they can finish outdoors.
This is not the best information for my puppy when they have this accident that
I wasn't able to catch him and say, Hey,
that's a mistake because what happens is they get a self-reward when they go to
the bathroom in the house. If nobody's there to say, Hey, that's wrong.
It feels good for them to void their bladders.
And they end up in a situation where they think it must be right to go inside
because it felt good. The next and probably,
probably one of the most important questions to ask yourself is,
are you actively training your puppy to go outside, to use the washroom?
Or are you hoping that they'll figure it out on their own? Making sure that I'm
training.
My puppy includes me doing all the things that we've already talked about,
supervising them very closely so that any accidents they might have,
I can give them good information from training is all about giving your puppy.
Good information. Hope has nothing to do with it. Now,
something that all of us McCann dog trainers do to help speed along the house
training process is teach our puppies how to go pee on command.
And if you'd like to know how we go about that process,
watch this video right here.
If you would like some help personalizing your puppy house training plan,
join me and the other McCann Dogs instructors in our online puppy essentials
program. You'll find the link in the description below. And on that note,
I'm instructor Shannon. This is Five happy training.