Tips on Stopping Accidents in the House With Remedial Potty Training

Kevin (left) is a six-month-old America Bulldog Mix puppy who lives in Omaha with his sibling Al. Their guardians booked an in home puppy training session with us to stop the dogs from having accidents in the house, listen better and respect their humans.

You could tell right away that Kevin was the more rambunctious of the brothers. He jumped up on me first, repeatedly tried to take Al’s bully stick and he moved in front or between Al and any human offering attention or affection.

While I explained the importance of rules and consistent enforcement of them within 3 seconds, I repeatedly blocked Kevin’s attempt to take Al’s bone. One of the dog behaviorist tricks I have learned is you have to always outlast a dog who is challenging. When Al finished chewing the stick, the guardians mentioned that was the first time he ever had and chewed anything to completion without Kevin taking it away.

If we want a dog to see and respect us as a leader, we have to act that way in front of them. Dogs are all about what they see us do (or fail to do). Each time Kevin stole Al’s bone in front of the humans without their objection, they were confirming that Kevin was the top dog in the house and that this behavior was ok. This is why he did not listen to their commands, invaded their personal space, jumped up, challenged his brother and was the source many other unwanted dog behavior issues.

To help shift the leader follower dynamic, I shared the escalating consequences I developed a few years ago. Using these to disagree with unwanted behaviors, preferably before the start, will go a long ways towards the puppy obedience the humans want.

I also suggested they start petting with a purpose and use passive training to reward the dogs for desired actions and behaviors. This is positive puppy training at its most basic.

One of the puppy problems the guardians wanted to address was the puppies accidents in the home. At first I wondered if it was a case of marking, but based on my conversation with the humans, and witnessing the dogs relieving themselves on the carpet in the middle of the room with no warning, it was pretty obvious some remedial potty training was needed. You can get a ton of free potty training tips in the video below.

It will take a week or two of consistent rewarding successful eliminations before the dogs start to indicate they need to go outside. These will include whimpering, pacing back and forth in front of the humans and pawing at the door. Recognizing these signs and promptly taking them out to potty is going to be a crucial element in this puppy potty training problem.

One of the rules I suggested the guardians incorporate was asking he dogs to sit at the door before letting them out. Regular requests to ask the dogs to sit before letting them outside often results in the dogs going to sit by the door as a way of asking to go out to potty. If this is the case, it will be important for the guardians to immediately let them out and richly reward them after going potty. Puppy potty training is all about observation and reward for desired behavior.

I also coached the humans through claiming their personal space. This act and correcting the defending each dog while it has a bone, for or other resource will help the humans practice demonstrating their leadership to the dogs. Combined with consistent enforcement of the new rules should stop puppy problems the humans are experiencing.

By the end of the session, Kevin had stopped challenging Al for his bone, was showing respect for people’s personal space, both dogs were sitting to ask for attention and even walked nice on the leash without pulling the human’s arms out of their sockets.

Because the puppies are still so young, puppy behavior modification should be fairly simple. Its just going to take the humans consistent enforcement of rules, petting with a purpose and passive training to help the dogs understand what is desired and use of the escalating consequences to learn what is not.

We wrapped up the session by filming a roadmap to success video filled with all kinds of puppy training secrets and puppy training tips to help Kevin and Al grow up into well mannered adults.