How to Toilet Train a Puppy Fast
Toilet training your puppy is an essential step in their development, maintaining a hygienic and clean space for both yourself and your new pet pooch. This guide walks you through the essential tips and knowledge you’ll need to potty train your new puppy, from knowing how to recognise when they need a potty break to the equipment you’ll need, and how to set the good habits that will make the entire process just that little bit easier.
How Long Does it Take to Potty Train a Puppy?
Every puppy is different. The amount of time needed to potty train a dog depends on many factors, from the breed and age of the pooch, to their previous living conditions, and more. Potty training a puppy takes time and rushing the process can be a recipe for disaster.
From our research and experience, we know it can take anywhere from 4 weeks to 6 months to train your puppy depending on your circumstances and your puppy’s history.
The potty training process generally takes longer if you need to break a puppy’s bad habit before teaching them a new good habit. If multiple people are training the puppy, the training methods and schedule must be consistent to speed up the process, otherwise, your dog could get easily confused and the process can take longer.
What Equipment Do I Need to Toilet Train My Puppy?
We’ve compiled a list of all the things you’ll need to make the process of potty training your puppy as smooth and stress-free as possible:
- A dog toilet – or a place for your puppy to do its business. Many dog owners resort to regular puppy pads during the toilet training process to prevent their dog from peeing (or worse!) on carpets and furniture. Unfortunately, puppy pads are really bad for the environment, are unhygienic and smell particularly bad, and can even be dangerous as puppies have a tendency to chew them. A real grass dog toilet like Piddle Patch is a much more comfortable, fun, hygienic and environmentally friendly way of training your dog. It also teaches your dog to only go potty on grass, rather than pads or other textiles.
- Collar and leash – to keep your puppy focussed on the task at hand, rather than becoming distracted with other things.
- Dog Treats – reinforcing good behaviour is one of the best ways to train your puppy, so be sure to have plenty of tasty dog treats at hand.
How Do You Know When Your Puppy Needs the Toilet?
Learning to recognise when your puppy needs the toilet is essential when it comes to training your puppy to do their business where you’d like them to do it. Common signs that your puppy needs the toilet include:
- Sniffing the floor
- Circling
- Looking restless
- Going into a room or to a space they’ve previously been to the toilet in
- Wandering away from family
- Whimpering
- Running to the door
If you see any of these signs, accompany your puppy to wherever they are being trained to do their business and praise them if they relieve themselves in the correct location.
Puppy Potty Training Step by Step
We’ve put together a step by step guide on how to set up a potty training routine with your puppy:
- Establish a place for your puppy to go to the toilet
It’s extremely important that your puppy has a consistent place to do its business. Start by establishing one particular place for your dog to go to the toilet. Ideally, this should be an outdoor space like a back garden. If , however, you don’t have any outdoor space because you live in an apartment, using a real grass dog toilet like a Piddle Patch can be a great way to potty train your puppy while still encouraging them to look for natural spaces to go potty.
- Create a potty training schedule
Perhaps the most important part of the entire potty training process is timing, so keeping a consistent potty training schedule is crucial. Identify when your puppy is likely to need a toilet break based on their regular patterns. Generally, a puppy potty training schedule will include toilet breaks first thing in the morning, after meal times and playtime and, of course, last thing at night before you and your puppy go to bed. Keep in mind that younger puppies may need to go more frequently.
- Adapt the schedule if needed
As your puppy grows up, their toilet times will likely change a little, so you’ll need to adapt your potty training schedule. When doing so, be sure to make the changes bit by bit to avoid throwing your dog’s routine off completely. Consider making changes of 10-15 minutes at the most if you need to. Eventually, you’ll find a potty routine that works perfectly for both of you.
- Making the routine stick
Once settled into a routine, make sure both you and your puppy stick to it. Encourage your puppy to go to the toilet at regular times and avoid breaking the pattern. Rewarding your pooch for good behaviour is a fantastic way of telling them they are doing a good job. That’s where the tasty dog treats come in!
General Tips on Toilet Training a Puppy
Some quick tips on how to make the whole process easier and more likely to work.
- Always praise your dog for good behaviour, rather than punishing for bad behaviour.
- Be patient with your puppy, mistakes can and will happen but be sure to clean up any mess quickly in order to teach your puppy that this is where their waste does not belong.
- Don’t carry your dog to the toilet. This can set a bad habit and lead them to form a reliance on you taking action.
- Set a consistent routine, particularly for potty training your puppy at night. This is an especially challenging part of the process, so be sure to check out our guide on “How To Potty Train Your Puppy At Night”.
And that’s it! That’s everything you need to know about how to potty train a dog. We might make it sound easy, but toilet training a puppy is always a challenging task, so be sure to be patient and have as much fun as you can.
We hope that this guide will help you to potty train your puppy and wish you all the best on your journey with your new best friend!