Crate & Potty Training 101

It’s an exciting time preparing to bring a new puppy home. Now you get to decide how you want to potty train your pup. There is no single right way to train a puppy and I will describe the two most common methods.

First of all, it is important to have healthy, realistic expectations for your puppy. Potty training is a journey and mistakes will happen. The goal is for your puppy to have fewer accidents and build trust with you in the process. My puppies are typically potty trained by 4 months, but some still have accidents until 6 months. You will learn your puppy’s cues as you get to know each other better. You’ll want to slowly introduce your puppy to one room at a time in your house, as opposed to giving them a free run of the entire house. They will learn these spaces are their home and not want to pee/poop there. I'd also pull up all the rugs or gate-off areas that you don't want to supervise (like expensive furniture, nice rugs, family heirlooms, etc.).

An 8-week-old puppy can hold their bladder (on a good day) for a maximum of 3 hours at a time during the day and you can work up to longer intervals. I recommend setting an alarm on your phone to take him/her out on a schedule while potty training during the day. Give lots of treats and verbal praise for going to the bathroom outdoors. Make it a big deal, so they want to do it again. If they have an accident in the house you can say “NO” in a serious tone and be sure to clean it up with a special detergent for urine (like this) that eliminates the smell so they don’t create their own preferred bathroom spot. You can spray an attractant (like this) wherever you’d like to encourage your pup to go to the bathroom (whether that’s a pee pad, litter box, woodchip area, or in the grass). You can teach them to ring a doorbell to tell you when they need to go outside. Our puppies know how to use doggy doors, like this one. Some signs that a puppy might need to potty, are walking more slowly and sniffing the ground more than usual or a little doggy waddle with a rounded back can mean they are getting ready to poop. Some pups like to walk around in a little circle and wipe their feet after they go and these are normal dog behaviors. All boy dogs squat to pee, like girl dogs until they reach sexual maturity (around 6-12 months of age).

For the first night sleeping away from the litter, these Snuggle puppies help your pup self-soothe sleeping apart from their siblings for the first time. Your puppy will come home with a blanket that smells like home that you can place in his/her sleeping space or rub on the snuggle puppy. The first night, your puppy may cry/whine a little because they are in a new environment and that’s normal and if all of their potty needs have been met, it is best to let them cry it out. If you come every time they cry, they will learn to cry for a longer duration next time in hopes that you'll come give them attention. You can give them a high-value treat in the cage, like freezing peanut butter into a kong toy. If it’s been over 3/4 hours that night that they start crying it may be a request to potty and I would go let them out in that case. They should only have enough space to comfortably stand up and turn around, or they will potentially have accidents on the other side of the cage and go back to sleep. I recommend setting up the puppy sleeping area somewhere quiet and away from the hustle and bustle of the house. A sunroom, basement or less used room that won't be likely to disturb you if they cry is best and you can leave a sound machine or music on for them when it's time to enter the crate. It is helpful to introduce your puppy to one room at a time (preferable without carpet and a floor that can be cleaned from any accidents). Dogs are smell-oriented so they will want to go potty wherever it smells like pee/poop and their scent is 10,000-100,000 times stronger than a human's. If they have an accident, you can wipe it up with a paper towel and bury that in their desired potty location for next time and bring them there when they start showing signs that they need to go.

We feed our puppies the Pawtree whitefish and brown rice kibble three times a day (morning, noon, and night). We allow them to eat as much as they want for 30 minutes and then immediately take them out to go potty. We use the phrase “go potty” and take them to the desired potty location (we have been using woodchip areas). I give my puppies constant access to water and keep them in a playpen (like this). I provide a litterbox at night and if I need to leave the house for more than a few hours. During the day, I set an alarm and take pups outside for potty breaks and when they can hold their bladder for longer stretches (like all night), I remove the litter box option. I use pelletized litter and a box, like this but if you prefer pee pad holders with a grate, you can find those on Amazon and Chewy.

If you prefer to have a faster path to potty training, many people choose to crate-train their puppy. The right size crate allows the dog to stand up and turn 360 degrees without hitting the crate sides. When choosing a crate that will fit your puppy when they are full-grown, I recommend going slightly larger than smaller just to give them more room to move. The small size (24.5”) fits a mini doodle under 25 pounds, the medium size (30”) fits a medium doodle between 30-40 pounds, but if you think your pup may get 45 pounds or lager you can size up to a large 36" crate. I like this crate because it comes with a divider to expand the crate as he/she grows, so you don’t need to purchase multiple crate sizes as they grow through their first year. I've found that most pups feel more secure having their crate covered with a blanket, so it's like a little den. I recommend giving your puppy time every day alone in the crate (even if you're home for practice) and working your way up to longer intervals in the crate. I recommend starting with 25/30 minutes in the crate alone the first week they come home and letting them cry or fully settle down, and then increasing to an hour or more.

It is best to start housetraining a puppy one room at a time. The idea is to keep their living space small enough to set them up for success. We use crates, pens, and baby gates to limit our puppy’s access to the rest of our home to keep them from areas that aren't puppy-safe. Once your puppy keeps their current space consistently clean without accidents for at least a week, is ringing bells in that area consistently to go out, then add another room to the current living space. If they were in the kitchen, add the living room, etc.

I do also recommend doing some type of official training with your puppy--it doesn't matter if it's an in-person class, an online class, or getting them boarded and trained but you want to have a support team around you in case you get stuck in your training journey. It is easier to nip things in the bud at the beginning before they make an undesirable behavior a habit.

Dogs do not generalize like we do so each new environment means behaviors must be retaught there. They pick up on the behaviors in the new space more quickly though. We repeat this process until our entire house is included. Once they generalize a few new rooms, it goes faster...we may introduce the entire basement at once but our puppies are usually six months old before we even get to that point. The older they get, the more accountable to training they can become. As a general time frame, we typically wait until after one year to completely trust a puppy in our home without supervision but every dog is different. Also note, every puppy is unique and we work with each puppy on their level. If they are not ready by one year, we keep helping them by limiting their living space until they show signs that they are ready and are consistently following our house rules.

If you are looking for puppy training help, check out Baxter and Bella's Online Puppy School. You get 20% off with code TEDDYPUPPIES.

The most important part of potty training is definitely building trust with your puppy and learning how to understand their cues and what they need. Good luck on your puppy potty training journey!