Fresh Start Pet Coaching

Rusty

My 5 month old puppy Rusty goes potty on command! I have now decided that it is one of the best and most convenient commands any dog owner can teach. I only wish I had thought to teach my dogs this sooner! In fact, both our younger dogs Rusty and Torchy know what “go potty” means.

Any dog owner has had a moment like this. It’s pouring rain, dark and cold. All you want to do is get back to your warm dry home. Instead your outside with your dog waiting impatiently for him to go to the bathroom. Or your running late for work, but before you leave, the dog has to go out.

With Rusty and Torchy that is no longer a problem. Both of them know what to do when I tell them to “go potty”. I let them outside, give the command, and there they go. And because they are reliable with this command, for the most part I know that if they don’t go to the bathroom it’s because they don’t need to. It has really helped with the potty training. And it really is very convenient when you need your dog to go to the bathroom quickly for whatever reason.

So, would you like to teach your dog to go potty on command?

It really is quite simple to teach and you teach it pretty much the same way as you would any other command.

Steps to teaching your dog to potty on command.

• Wait. This is the part that is different from teaching other commands becuase you can’t force your pup to go to the bathroom. So you’ll need to wait to start teaching until your dog needs to go.
• Give the command while your dog is going potty. When your dog does start to go to the bathroom, repeat whatever command word you’ve decided on quietly as he goes to the bathroom. I actually made a little song out if it. What can I say, you tend to get bored standing their repeating “potty” while your dog urinates. The goal is to get your pup to connect the word with the action here.
• Praise your pup. Immediately when your pup has finished you want to praise your dog and give him a treat. Especially if you are also in the process of potty training your pup you really want to make a big deal out of this. Your dog just went potty outside and that is the best thing in the world at that moment.
• Start giving the command first. Gradually you want to start giving the command before your dog goes potty. This is where being able to read your dogs body language is an advantage because you will need to be able to tell when he’s about to go to the bathroom. You want to start by giving the command just before he starts to urinate and gradually work up to being able to give the command and have your dog respond by going to the bathroom.
• Be patient. This is not going to be a command that you are going to be able to teach in a few days because you can’t control your dogs bladder. It is easier to teach with young puppies because they have to go to the bathroom so frequently, but you can certainly teach this to adult dogs as well. Just remember to be patient and take your time. We started teaching this command to Rusty and Torchy at about 8 weeks of age when we started potty training and it took a month for them to start connecting the command with the action. It was probably another month after that before they were really solid in responding to “Go Potty” as a command.

Are you having a difficult time potty training your puppy? If so, contact us today to set up your complimentary 15 minute telephone consultation.