Training a dog to relieve itself in one place is possible even if some people consider this task complicated. We will show you how to house train your dog where you want them to and not the other way around.
Dogs can learn from the time they are puppies and even being adults to differentiate the right place to do their needs. All it takes is to have a little patience and the necessary advice; we help you for the last, the patience part is all up to you. There are certain things we can do to teach our puppies to use the bathroom.
To know how to teach a dog to relieve itself there are some things that are basic to achieve an effective training regardless of whether it is to teach him to do his needs outside, the house, or in a specific area of the same, those bases are identical in any of the cases, below we show you how to achieve them:
1. Take your dog to the designated site often
This step is very important for training. We must take into account that dogs learn to a large extent by association, so it is important that we take them to the designated place . If it is outside, we take them out, and if it is inside, we take them to the designated area.
The idea of this step is that if by chance the dog wants to do any of their business, do it there and start the process of correct association between the site and your need to do what you have to do.
2. Create a stable schedule for your meals
Dogs usually do their business 20 or 30 minutes after eating, so having a stable schedule for their meals helps us to have an idea of when we should take them out or take them to the designated place, so their needs are served.
Regardless of whether it is a puppy or an adult, this schedule should be established; in the case of puppies, they should eat at least 3 times a day, then this process follows the same amount of times.
3. Learn to interpret your dog’s body language
Dogs give clear indicators with their body language letting you know when they need to go to the bathroom. If we learn to recognize these signs, we can prevent them from emptying in the wrong place. Some of those visible signs are to smell the floor, bend the back or move the tail in a particular way.
What we should do in this case is to immediately lead him to the place we have chosen to do his business, either outside or in on a newspaper, this way he will learn to associate that whenever he feels like it, this is the place he should go .
Here are tips to teach your dog to go outside
It does not matter if you live in a house with a patio or if you want to teach it to go outside, we will show you some useful tips on how to teach a dog to relieve itself outside:
1. Choose the right place
We know that outside the house or the building where we live we can find several spaces in which our pet can do their needs, however, it remains for us as responsible owners to choose a place that is appropriate, because we do not want them to go to do their business in the middle of the sidewalk.
Select a place preferably with grass and whenever you take your dog take it directly to that same site to create the association between the site and the action. Little by little your pet will understand that whenever it is in that place, it is time to go to the bathroom.
2. Train with a word or command
This is a good way to train our dog to relieve itself. Just as we teach them to sit down or shake, using a word or phrase, we can use the same technique to teach them to do what they should do at the right time.
You can use a short phrase such as ‘go to the bathroom,’ so your dog associates the phrase with the action effectively.
3. Work with the rewards
It is always a better idea to reward our dog when he does things right instead of punishing him when he does it wrong. Have prizes in the form of cookies each time they leave and when your pet needs to be in the right place, reward it with one of those cookies.
The ideal is that the positive reinforcement makes it repeat the action and for this method to be effective we must be consistent, that is, for a good period of time, we must use it as a work tool.
How to teach a dog to relieve itself inside the home
Sometimes we spend a lot of time away from home, and we will not have the time just to get our dog to relieve himself outside so it is always good that we also train him in case he can not get out. Here are some tips on how to teach a dog to relieve itself in some space inside your house or apartment:
1. Delimit the space of your dog for a while
It is very important, especially if it is a puppy, that the first few weeks we keep it in a restricted area of our home. This we can do with the help of security gates for dogs or babies, both serve the purpose.
The reason for this advice and its importance in training the use of the bathroom is that it is much easier to keep an eye on the dog if it is in a single space and not walking around the house.
If the dog has a lot of freedom, we probably can not see the signs that he wants to go to the bathroom and will end up doing it anywhere in the house.
2. Select the space that you consider appropriate
We must choose a space that will be something like the internal bathroom for our dog. We must bear in mind that space must be comfortable enough so that he feels safe to relieve himself there; Some specialists recommend that it be at least 8 times the size of the animal so they can go around.
Cover the area with newspapers or special absorbents for puppies and what you will do is use the same method to teach them to do outside. Whenever you see your dog with an attitude that he needs to use the bathroom, take him to this site and use positive reinforcement if he does in the right place.
Some people recommend placing the first few weeks on clean newspapers a piece that has some dry urine so that the smell attracts the dog to use this area, after this, the dog will automatically understand that the newspapers are the exact place.
3. One kennel during the night
Many will believe that this is more a method of torture than one of teaching but the truth is that this training technique works very well for many things.
What we must do is to accustom our puppy to sleep inside his kennel during the night and in his daily naps; what happens is that our fury friend will avoid making his needs in that space because it is where he sleeps and thus we maintain control over this matter.
Make sure you take the dog to the right place so that he can relieve himself before putting him in the kennel or cage, if you hear him bark a lot during the night, take him out and take him to the right place to do what he needs.
4. Clean accidents immediately
It is very important that if our dog does his / her needs outside of the site we have selected it is very important that we clean the area very well and disinfect it to eliminate the odors that may remain, remember that the dogs are guided with the sense of smell, so this step is very important.
We hope we have helped you discover how to teach your dog when and where to relieve himself. If you have any other advice or questions, you can leave it in the comments or contact us.