Sharing Remedial Potty Training Tips to Stop a Pit Mix’s Accidents in the House

For this Omaha dog training session we share remedial potty training tips with Bella, a very happy 1 year-old Pit Bull / Boxer mix who has accidents in the house.

We started off by discussing the importance of rules and structure. Bella is one of those dogs who is so awesome, the humans think it doesn’t need rules as it only has a few problems. But when you don’t have any rules, it’s easy for a dog to get confused as to who is leading and who is to listen.

As a dog behavior expert, I have found that dog problems often fall into two categories; making sure the dog actually understands what you want / are tying to communicate and if it WANTS to obey.

If your dog does not see or respect you as a leader, then listening to you becomes optional. While potty training is necessary to communicate what they guardians want, if they don’t include rules and boundaries and consistently enforce them, she may not choose to stop having accidents in the house.

After discussing rules and how to enforce them, I showed the guardians how they can train and build up Bella’s respect for them by petting in strategic ways. Petting with a purpose and passive training seem like small things when I explain them in my in home dog training sessions, but they only work when they are applied consistently.

It will take the humans a month of being mindful before they become habit. But once they do, every time they pet their dog, out will include a mini dog training lesson that happens without the humans even thinking about it.

Now we were ready to address Bella’s habit of having accidents in the house. You can get a ton of free potty training tips and learn the two most common mistakes people make when potty training a dog in the free dog training video below.

Stopping accidents in the house is all about good timing, communication and proper motivation. I recommended the guardians come up with a completely new command word to go potty so they can jettison any excess baggage that may be associated with the old command word.

Id recommend taking Bella out once an hour for a week, as well as the other three times I mentioned in the above video. The more the humans reward successful eliminations, the faster potty training will go. The jackpot reward for the first week will jump start things even more. With consistent rewards for the next week or two, the humans should help stop accidents in the home for good.

Near the end of the session, I learned that Bella hated going into her kennel. In fact she hated the kennel so much they humans had resorted to picking her up and placing her inside (something you should only do in an emergency with no other options.

To help the guardians learn how to help Bella get over her fear of the kennel, I combined my usual Roadmap to Success video with some kennel training tips. You can learn how to help a dog feel good about the kennel and get the rest of the dog psychology secrets I shared in this session in the video below.