Sharing Some Remedial Potty Training Tips to Help Puppy Finn Go Outside
By: David Codr
Published Date: July 8, 2021
For this Omaha puppy behavior training session we shared some remedial potty training tips to help Finn, a 7 month-old Westie puppy who only poops in her crate.
Because Finn had already taken one of our puppy socialization classes, I was able to move through this session more quickly that usual due to all of the dog behavior tips we share in puppy class.
Finn’s puppy potty problem is a result of his guardians using the dog hotel kennel. This kennel has a partition that divides a party area from a sleeping area. While this is an OK tool to use when you first start potty training, you want to make sure that you’re also reinforcing eliminating in the yard otherwise the dog gets into a habit of only eliminating in a kennel. But because he was a puppy in the winter, the guardians were fine with him going potty in the kennel only.
Some Remedial Potty Training tips for Mature Puppies
While having a dog poop in a kennel is better than having accidents in the house, Finn’s guardians wanted me to help them train the puppy to go potty in the yard. If you have a puppy having accidents or your pup or dog poops in a kennel, you should check out the free positive puppy training video below.
By selecting a new command cue for potty, using marker words and taking Finn out at the appropriate times consistently, the guardians should be able to teach their puppy to potty outside within a week or two. The other puppy potty training tips I shared in the video will help as well.
It will be important that the guardians go out with fin for each bathroom visit and if she doesn’t go within five minutes, bring her back inside and hold her until she protests to prevent her from going into her crate to do her business. This is one of the easiest ways to potty train a puppy, but you need to be consistent. If you arent consistent in marking and rewarding, these puppy potty training secrets wont work, even if you are a professional Westie dog trainer.
The guardians would be well served to close the kennel door after a week as I mentioned in the free puppy potty training video. Hopefully, Finn will protest and bark outside the crate as her way of saying that she needs to go outside to potty. When this happens, the guarians need to take her outside to potty ASAP.
Since Finn is an excited pup who likes to run out the door, I recommended that we send one of our level one trainers back after the session to work on the relaxation protocol. This is a great way to teach a puppy or dog to stay calm and relaxed on a dog bed while various interesting activities go on around them like people at the door.
The guardians also mentioned that Finn is fearful of cars and avoids a busy street near their home as a result. I’d like the guardians to focus on the tips we shared in this in-home Omaha puppy training session for a month, then set up a follow up session so that we can help her get over her fear of cars.
To help the guardians remember everything we covered in this in-home puppy visit, I recorded a roadmap to success summary video that you can check out below.
Categorized in: Puppy Training