Potty Training A New Puppy

You brought home a new puppy and now it's time to continue with its potty training. Where do you start?

I highly recommend starting with a dog crate. The key to successfully potty training a puppy is to not allow it the chance to go potty in your home. Once it has had the opportunity to go potty in your home, without you nearby to quickly move it to an appropriate location, it will believe it is an acceptable place to relieve itself. Allow the puppy time to get used to its new crate. You may try placing a treat inside of the crate to make it an enjoyable experience for your puppy and be sure to never leave it locked up for extended periods of time in the beginning. 
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When the puppy is not able to be monitored closely, you will want to place it in its crate. As soon as you let your puppy out of the crate, take it directly outside to the desired location for your puppy to start learning it's potty spot. It is best to keep the puppy on a leash to ensure it stays within this area and no not play with your puppy during this time. It is important for the puppy to learn that when it is brought outside, it is to first go potty and then it may play as a reward. Ignore your puppy if it jumps at your feet in an attempt to get you to play with it. Once it has had a few minutes outside it should find a location to go potty. Do not interrupt it until you are sure it is finished with its job (#1 and #2). If it has not gone potty within 5 to 10 minutes, bring your puppy back inside and place it back in its crate. Try again in about 30 minutes.

As soon as your puppy goes potty, it is important to immediately affirm the good behavior with praise, petting, a treat, or play time.

Once you bring your puppy back inside, it is a good idea to keep it on a leash or in an enclosed area where you can watch it closely for signs of needing to go potty. This includes wandering, snooping and sniffing, and of course starting to squat. Your puppy will typically seek out an area to go potty so watch for clues that it is searching for a potty place. If you notice this, take it outside and give it a word or phrase to associate with what is happening. You could say "outside" or "potty" when you take it out. This way, in the future you can call for your puppy and tell it "Outside" or "Potty" and it will know what the plan is and should be willing to go outside to it's potty spot to relieve itself.

A puppy will need frequent potty breaks, starting every 45-60 minutes. If it is doing well with this timeframe and is having no accidents in your home after a few days, you may slowly increase the time between breaks. 
It is important as well to take your puppy out approximately 10 to 15 minutes after eating or drinking and right after playtime or naps. 

Do not get angry with your puppy for having an accident, it is your job to supply it with ample opportunities to relieve itself. It may take some time, but with consistency you will have great results.

Here at Northern Paradise Pups, we take the first steps in potty training your puppy before it goes to its new home. We start with training your puppy with potty pads and slowly transition to taking it outside for frequent potty breaks. Our puppies are typically doing very well with this by the time they are 8 weeks old, but may occasionally go potty on their potty pads. It is important to keep this training going once you bring your new puppy home so as not to lose any progress made and to reinforce the behavior of going potty only outside.

If you have any questions about potty training your puppy, feel free to email us at Northernparadisepups@gmail.com and we will be happy to help.


​Good luck! You got this!

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