Toilet Training

Mastering toilet training is an essential milestone for any puppy owner.

What equipment will you need?

Puppy training pads are an indispensable tool to help train your puppy to be clean and to encourage them to wee where you want them to.

Cleaning up properly after the inevitable accidents is also part of toilet training your puppy. Using a specific dog cleaning product with neutraliser will not just clean but will also neutralise the smell left behind. Regular chemical based cleaning products from the supermarket can leave behind a strong smell which your puppy can learn to associate with a place to go to the toilet. Likewise, bleach contains ammonia which is also in present in urine and makes it an unsuitable cleaning product for dog wee.

It is also worth investing in a separate cloth or mop from the one you usually use for floor cleaning to clean up any accidents. All you are doing by using the same mop or cloth is spreading the smell around further and increasing the area that your puppy understands as acceptance to use as a toilet.

Why your puppy wees in certain places?

Dogs have an incredible sense of smell and if the scent of their wee is left behind after an accident they are likely to wee in that location again. Leave a puppy pad in the location of an accident in case they go to the toilet again here by association.

How to get what you want?

Start in the place your puppy has had an accident. Make sure you clean the accident up properly with neutraliser and put a puppy pad down in this area. As puppies always wee where they can smell where they last went, using a small amount of a used training pad will encourage your puppy to wee on the new pad and therefore where you want them to go. To do this cut a small piece of the old pad out and place it underneath the new clean pad.

Once your puppy knows to wee on the training pad (and only on the pad) you can gradually move the pad closer to the door until you can eventually put it outside. Only move it by a few inches at a time. Your puppy is now (barring the odd accident) toilet trained.

If you want them to wee in a specific area of your garden you can use the used training pad and move this to where you want the dog to wee. If your puppy asks to go out for a wee, take it outside and stand with it where you want it to wee until it learns this is the right place. This may take a bit of time and accidents will happen.

Preventing accidents

In the first week dedicate an area for your puppy to play in to reduce the risk of accidents.

If your puppy has had a drink it is likely it will need to go to toilet so put a pad in this area. To prevent your puppy weeing on the carpet you need to use a crate or safe place.