First of all a dog isn’t born with the capability of knowing where to go potty. It is up to us humans to properly train them. Just like a lot of people think a dog is born knowing the come command. That couldn’t be more farther from the truth. A dog learns just like a human, through consistence and repetition over a 30 to 45 day period. Here is a human example; learning how to play the guitar, if practiced wrong there is no learning but if practice correctly the skill can be learned and managed over time. It’s the same way with training a dog, once the skill is learned then all is needed is continued training for the rest of the dog’s life. Housebreaking a puppy/dog without the crate can be impossible, but housebreaking with the crate is almost fool proof. Whenever a dog owner can’t supervise their dog 100% of the time then it needs to be in their crate. The best way to get a leg up on crate training and not spend most of your free time giving the dog a bath and cleaning the mess up in the crate is to teach your dog potty on command. Potty on command can be easier than you think if each time you take the puppy/dog outside put them on a leash. In the beginning of the walk tell them “go potty”, when they seem to be more interested in a leaf, neighbor or anything else moving in the neighborhood, then give them a pull and release of the leash and say no at the same time, this is called a correction. After the correction follow up by saying, “go potty” and each time this happens follow this step. Now when you take your dog out it is important you know what the dog needs to do, number 1 or number 2 or both. If you don’t know this and the dog slipped off somewhere in the house and went because they weren’t in their crate, then training will take much longer. If this does happen or the dog went in their crate you will learn what they need to do and don’t. But, when you take the dog out and he doesn’t “go potty” due what you know he/she needs to do, bring the dog back in and put them into their crate and wait 15 minutes or so and go through the same process until you get the potty you’re looking for. Some older dogs when taught this process might try to hold it. There are a couple of reasons for this: One is possibly the dog has never been taught how to potty on a leash or the dog is too afraid to relieve itself in front of you because he/she hasn’t ever been made to. Don’t give up; it takes time, consistency and repetition.

Tammy Molnar