Toilet Training

When teaching your puppy toilet training, one mistake many people make is scolding or punishing them for accidents inside the house. This can cause a major issue, which we'll get to shortly.


The most effective way of toilet training is a method called "trial-and-error learning" or "operant conditioning." To use this method, set a timer on your phone for every 15 minutes (if your puppy is 8 weeks old, increase the timer by about 5-10 minutes every week) and take your puppy outside when it goes off. Once they finish going to the toilet, reward them with a treat. During the first week or two, it's a good idea to use special treats just for toilet training to make them more valuable to the puppy.


It's important to remember that scolding or punishing your puppy for accidents inside the house can lead to negative associations with going to the toilet and may cause the puppy to only go when you're not around, in order to avoid punishment. Instead, it's crucial to reinforce the desired behaviour and ignore mistakes. This is the most effective way of setting boundaries because it communicates what we do want, provides nothing positive to mistakes, which is very punishing to a dog expect reward and overall doesn’t cause any further issues. 


Consistency is vital, and catching all repetitions of the desired behaviour is crucial. Be patient and keep the treats valuable by only focusing on toilet training in the early stages with your puppy. If they make a mistake and go inside, it’s our fault, so stay on top of things.


There is a full toilet training lesson on MK9Plus, as well as a whole library of lesson to help manage your dog mental health and behaviour, therefore making training much more affective.

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