How to Toilet Train Your Puppy

If you’ve just welcomed a new puppy into the family, then you’ll probably want to spend more time cuddling and playing with it than touring the house, cleaning up after it!

Here’s a few handy tips on how to toilet train a puppy:

Choose Where Your Puppy Goes to the Loo

Most dog owners want their pooch to go to the loo outside, but if your pup hasn’t had their vaccinations yet, if you don’t have easy access to a garden or if you’re out of the house for long periods of time, you’ll need to teach them where it’s ok to go indoors.

Choose a space in your house that’s easy for your puppy to get to at all times, preferably somewhere that the occasional accident is easy to clean up like a kitchen or bathroom, and mark out a toilet area for them to use.

You could use newspaper but our quilted puppy training pads make it easy (and probably cheaper!) to toilet train a puppy.

These bright, white, quilted squares are easy for your puppy to differentiate from other flooring and they’re soft and inviting to be on. More importantly they absorb moisture to keep your floors dry, change colour so you can see how soon a pad needs changing and fold up for easy disposal.    

If, in the long-term, you want your puppy to do their business outdoors, it may help to use training pads part-time, perhaps at night or during periods when you’re out of the house. When you’re home, take the pad away and take your puppy into the garden or out for walks at regular, set times.

Introduce Your Puppy to Their Toilet

Most puppies need to go to the toilet every couple of hours and tend to go when they wake up and within an hour of eating. Sometimes they just do it because they’re excited to see you so take any minor accidents as a compliment! 

In the early days, you’ll need to put your puppy in their toilet area every 30-60 minutes, especially after naps and food, and encourage them to stay there until nature takes its course.

Talk to Your Puppy

Puppies, just like children, respond well to clear instructions so if you want yours to sit, roll over and fetch one day, toilet training is the perfect way to introduce your puppy to clear commands.

You can’t, of course, make your puppy go on demand. But you can teach it where it’s ok to go indoors by giving simple commands in a clear but kind tone. It doesn’t really matter which phrase you choose as long as it’s used consistently.

When you start taking your puppy into the garden or out for walks, use the same phrases but remember, when you’ve finished praising your dog on mastering the correct toilet manner, you have an obligation to your community (not to mention the law) to scoop that poop, bag it and bin it!  

Praise Your Puppy

Everyone likes to be praised for a job well done and dogs are no different, so every time your puppy uses the toilet properly, reward them with lots of praise and fuss! But, be wary of using all-purpose statements like ‘good boy’ as they can confuse your pooch and lead to mishaps indoors.

Accidents will happen but stick to a clear routine, be patient, and soon, your puppy will learn where and when to go to the loo and until they do, you’ll find kitchen roll, air fresheners and cleaning products in our household cleaning range!

Everybody loves puppies, so feel free to introduce the latest member of your family to the B&M community over on our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages.