Dog House-Training 101: Potty Training Unleashed

Unlock the secrets to successful potty training for your furry friends with pet behavior expert Will Bangura. Do you find yourself frustrated with a rambunctious new puppy or an older dog that just can't seem to get it right? You're in the right place. This episode promises to equip you with the tools and insights from Will's book, "House Training 101: Potty Training Unleashed," to transform your approach to dog training.

Join us as Will shares expert advice on everything from the strategic use of crates and indoor leashes to the psychology behind reward-based training. He emphasizes the power of high-value rewards like chicken and cheese and the critical importance of consistent routines. Learn how to employ a reward marker system and understand the nuances of timing and consistency in reinforcing positive behaviors. Will's tips extend to effective cleanup strategies, ensuring that both you and your dog maintain a harmonious living space while building a strong bond through patience and empathy.

In addition to practical training techniques, Will discusses the emotional aspects of potty training, highlighting the harm of counterproductive punishments and advocating for a strategy rooted in understanding and patience. This episode is a treasure trove for both new and seasoned pet owners, offering a comprehensive guide to overcoming common challenges and achieving potty training success. Remember to have your journal ready to track those crucial feeding and bathroom habits, and prepare to embark on a rewarding journey with your four-legged companion. Happy training!

Chapters

• 0:01 Puppy Training Tips With Will Bangura
• 14:28 Effective Puppy Potty Training Tips
• 26:44 Managing Puppy Potty Training Successfully
• 40:36 Effective Puppy Training Tips
• 51:32 Effective Cleanup and Training Tips
• 1:08:41 Improving Puppy Potty Training Success

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Raised by wolves with canine DNA in his blood. Having trained more than 24,000 pets, helping you and your fur babies thrive, live in studio with Will Bangura answering your pet behavior and training questions. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome your host and favorite pet behavior expert, will Bangura.

Speaker 2: 0:25

Would you like to go on walking? Y'all ready for this? Good day, dog lovers. I'm Will Bangura. Hey, thanks for joining me for another episode of Dog Training Today. So glad that you're here Today.

Speaker 2: 0:47

We're going to be talking about potty training. Yeah, whether it be a new puppy or whether it be an older dog, nobody likes their pet using the house as a toilet, do you? So we're going to be talking about potty training and I think I know just a little bit on the subject, since I actually wrote a book on potty training, and if you're really struggling with a puppy, if you're really struggling with your dog, you can go to Amazon and pick up my book on potty training. It's called House Training 101, potty Training Unleashed by Will Bangura. But I'm going to give you all the information that you need. It's all going to be free, it's all here for you and we're going to be going over that in about the next hour or so. There's a lot of information for us to go over. Typically, when I go into a client's home and I'm working with them and they've got a problem with potty training, I'm usually there for about two hours. So we're going to be here for about an hour talking about potty training.

Speaker 2: 1:56

All right, but before we do that, do me a favor. If you have not subscribed to the podcast, please do me a favor and subscribe. If you're listening to this on YouTube, please hit that subscribe button, hit that like button as well, and if you love what we do and you're listening to our podcast, please give us a five-star review. Okay, enough of the shameless promotion. Potty training, like I said, nobody enjoys it. It's probably one of the biggest frustrations and pains that anybody that ends up getting a new puppy has to deal with or gets an older dog they might be struggling with is potty training, and what I'm hoping to do here is, on one hand, make it as simple as possible for you, but, on the other hand, make it as comprehensive as possible, because I think one of the reasons we don't have success with potty training is that it's not comprehensive enough, and so I'm going to get into all the nuances that are related to potty training.

Speaker 2: 3:14

All right, let's talk about a couple of things that we're going to need to be successful. Number one as far as tools for potty training, you're going to want a notebook or something that you can use as a journal. Whether you write in a notebook or whether you do a journal electronically. You're going to need that. Also going to need a treat pouch and you're going to need high value food rewards, such as small pieces of chicken, small pieces of cheese, little cut up pieces of hot dog. You're going to need that. Also, I recommend that you have a crate and that you incorporate crate training as part of potty training. You're going to need a clicker or you're going to need to use an auditory marker for part of the communication. If you don't know what I'm talking about when I say marker training or I say clicker training, if you don't know what a marker is, it's important. So do me a favor and hit pause if you're listening.

Speaker 2: 4:21

Go to one of my websites. Go to dogbehavioristcom dogbehavioristcom and go to the menu. Click on articles. There's almost a hundred articles up there. Find the article on clicker training and also there's an article on crate training. There's an article on crate training.

Speaker 2: 4:49

Now, this podcast is not going to be going over all the nuances of crate training. It's not going to go through all the nuances of clicker training or marker training. I'm going to touch on those, but they're important for you to right. So when we're dealing with potty training. We want to minimize the number of accidents that we're having in the house and we want to maximize the number of successes that we're having outside. And I'm approaching this from the standpoint that you've got a dog that's going to the bathroom in the house. You don't want it to go in the house, you want it to go outside. Now, if we're talking about a situation where you want to train the dog to, say, use a litter box or to go on pee pads and that's being done in the house, that's fine.

Speaker 2: 5:47

I cover that in my book, house Training 101, potty Training Unleashed, that you can get on Amazon. I am not going to be going into that in this particular podcast, nor am I going to be going into hey, what are some special considerations when you have an older dog that you need to potty train? I've got a whole section in my book, house Training 101, potty Training Unleashed on potty training, the older dog. This podcast we're not going to get into it. So we're going to be talking about a younger dog, typical dog, puppy, and it's going to be more generic. But if you want specifics, you can get the book House Training 101. A behavior consultation with me, where we spend two hours going in depth, specifically customizing what we need to do to help get your pup or your dog potty trained. But let's get into it, let's dive right into it.

Speaker 2: 6:56

The number one rule when it comes to potty training any dog, I don't care if it's a young puppy, I don't care if it's an older dog, I don't care whether it's a male dog, a female dog, I don't care if it's what breed. It is the number one rule at all times your dog is in your eyesight and with you and you're supervising your puppy, your dog at all times. And when you can't have that puppy, your dog in your eyesight, you're confining. And when I say confining, I mean crating the puppy, your dog.

Speaker 2: 7:45

And while again, this is not a podcast on crate training, size of crate is really important. If the crate is not much larger than the dog, that's appropriate. If you get a really large crate, a lot of puppies or dogs will go in the corner and pee in the corner. Same thing, if you sometimes put towels in the crate or bedding in the crate, they may go in the corner and pee in the corner and then go sit in the other corner when we've got a crate and it's the appropriate size, which is just slightly bigger than the dog or puppy we're putting in the crate and their ability to stretch out in that crate. We don't want the crate much bigger than that. We don't want anything absorbent in that. The whole idea of the crate is they're not going to want to go to the bathroom in the crate because they don't want to soil where they've got to stay or where they're going to be sleeping.

Speaker 2: 8:46

Now, anytime you put a puppy or dog in a crate before, before you put them in the crate, please take them outside. Give them an opportunity to relieve themselves. See, a lot of people are putting puppies and dogs in crates when they need to go to the bathroom and boom, they're having an accident right away in there and once a puppy, once a dog starts going to the bathroom in the crate. Now it makes it that much more difficult. A tool that we would like to use to help potty train a puppy or dog now doesn't help us. Now, again, if you've got a puppy or a dog, they're not crate trained. I encourage you to get information on crate training, whether you get that from my website at dogbehaviorscom or somewhere else.

Speaker 2: 9:41

I am a strong believer in the use of crates when it comes to potty training, because my rule again, rule number one at all times your puppy or your dog is in your eyesight, you're supervising, and when you can't watch that puppy or dog, they're crated. But before you create them, you take them outside, give them an opportunity to relieve themselves. Now, if you put your puppy, your dog, in a crate and they're freaking out and they've got all kinds of either isolation, anxiety, crate anxiety, separation anxiety you need to deal with that. Anxiety, separation anxiety you need to deal with that. We don't want to just take a dog and put them in a crate and they're having a horrible experience just because we're trying to potty train. All right, now there are a lot of puppies or a lot of dogs, but put them in a crate and they're good to go. But then again there are puppies and dogs that you put them in the crate and they're going to freak out, and I am a big believer in making everything positive for the dog. Think about it when do you learn best? Do you learn best when things are chaotic and stressful and unpleasant, or do you learn the best when things are fun and when things are positive? Exactly when they're fun and when they're positive. So we want to make this fun and positive for your puppy or dog.

Speaker 2: 11:10

But the number one rule the puppy or dog is in your eyesight at all times. When your puppy or dog cannot be in your eyesight, you're creating the puppy or dog 1.5, rule 1.5, anytime you put the puppy in the crate, you take them outside. Give them the opportunity to relieve themselves first. Now let me talk a little bit about bringing them outside and relieving themselves things. When we take them outside, we need to think about how long should they be out there for and what should they be doing. When we take them out to go to the bathroom, well, one of the things we want to take them to the same spot every time for consistency. Teach them where the location is outside that you want them to go to the bathroom in. Now we want them to start sniffing on the ground. You know how dogs are they start sniffing. They got to find that perfect spot to go to the bathroom. Now, if your puppy, if your dog is not sniffing, if they don't have their nose on the ground, if they're not looking for a spot to go to the bathroom, chances are they're trying to be playful with you, trying to get your attention. Maybe they're distracted by birds or other sounds or things that they're seeing in the environment. Listen, if your puppy or dog is distracted, don't start the clock. What do I mean by that? Typically, if a dog or a puppy has to go to the bathroom and we get them to the place where we want them to go and they start looking for a spot to go to the bathroom, they typically are going to get that all covered. They're going to be done in about five minutes or less.

Speaker 2: 13:05

I watch a lot of people take their puppy, take their dog outside and they're hanging out there with the dog or the puppy for 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 40 minutes, an hour, hour and a half. That's ridiculous. Five minutes. But when do you start timing that five minutes? When they're not distracted, when they're sniffing, when they're looking for a place to go? Now if you feel, and you're pretty sure, that your puppy or dog has to go and you take them out to their potty spot and they're not distracted and they've been sniffing and you've been out there with them for five minutes and they don't go and you really believe that they've got to go, put them in their crate. Put them in their crate, keep them in there for 15 minutes. Then take them back outside to the potty spot. Give them another opportunity to go to the bathroom. Keep them out there for five minutes, undistracted five minutes. You know. If 10 minutes they're distracted and then they start sniffing, then start the five minutes once they start sniffing, not when they're distracted. If they don't go to the bathroom within five minutes, bring them back in. Put them right back in the crate for 15 minutes. Repeat that process until they go to the bathroom.

Speaker 2: 14:28

Now, remember I said we want to have as many successful opportunities to reward and we want to have the least amount of accidents, have the least amount of accidents. So, supervising, keeping your puppy, your dog, in your eyesight and when you can't watch them, have them in their crate. That is absolutely critical. If you're struggling to watch your puppy, your dog, if they won't follow you around the house when you're going from room to room, you need to put a leash on that puppy or dog and you need to keep them at your side. Look, none of this is difficult. Oh, it might be inconvenient, but you know what's really inconvenient Dealing with this for a year, two years, five years, six years down the road, the dog is still using the house as a toilet. Do it right the first time and you'll be done with this.

Speaker 2: 15:40

Tools. What we need? A treat pouch, high value food rewards. You want to have a 10 foot leash, not a short leash like a four or six foot. Have a 10 foot leash and when you take your dog outside and you're bringing them to the spot where you want them to go to the bathroom, keep the leash loose, quietly, follow them around at the end of the leash. Try to Quietly follow them around at the end of the leash. Try to stand still if you can. We don't want to distract them. This is not playtime. If your puppy or dog wants to engage you in play or is trying to get your attention, just turn your back to them. Turn your back to them. Turn your back to them and when they stop harassing you, stop wanting your attention, then watch them again. Remember, when we have the puppy or dog outside, we're out there. For what? Five minutes, undistracted five minutes, okay. Now, when they go to the bathroom, wonderful things need to happen. This is where we need to have the highest value food reward.

Speaker 2: 16:55

Whatever your puppy or dog loves. The more they love it, the more it's their favorite. Whether that be a cut up piece of chicken, a little piece of cheese, little cut up piece of hot dog, use what their favorite is. That's going to motivate them more. The other thing is we've got to be incredibly consistent. Every single time they go to the bathroom in the right place, we need to reward them with their absolute favorite food reward. Need to reward them with their absolute favorite food reward. We are going to be doing that for quite a while. Yes, we'll be able to wean off food. We won't need food forever. But I want you to think about the high value food reward like it's a paycheck, like it's currency, and we're asking the puppy or dog to do some work, and the better the pay typically, the better the performance is going to do some work, and the better the pay typically, the better the performance is going to be All right. So don't skimp on what you're giving your puppy or dog. Use the highest value food reward.

Speaker 2: 17:57

I don't like using store-bought treats. I find that, first of all, they're not that healthy. Number two, they're not as palatable. They're not as yummy as, say, a little cut up piece of chicken or a little cut up piece of hot dog or cheese. Find what your puppy or dog loves the most. Make sure that you have a treat pouch.

Speaker 2: 18:18

Make sure that you put that treat pouch on first thing in the morning, right away when you wake up. Put that on. Hey, listen, leave that treat pouch on you at all times. Yeah, I'm serious, leave the treat pouch on you at all times. Now, when you leave the house, yeah, take it off. Then when you go to bed at night, take it off then as well. But other than when you leave the house, other than when you're sleeping in bed, keep the treat pouch on.

Speaker 2: 18:50

Why? Why do I say that? Because you know how puppies and dogs are when they realize that you've got this pouch of yummy treats. They bother you, don't they? They just keep staring at the treat, they keep putting their nose by it. Maybe they start pawing you and harassing you for it. Yeah, they think, because that treat pouch is out, that you're just going to be reaching in there and giving them treats.

Speaker 2: 19:19

Your puppy, your dog needs to understand that there is nothing special about that treat pouch. Just because you're wearing it doesn't mean wonderful things are going to happen. Your puppy, your dog needs to learn that nobody reaches in that treat pouch, nobody gives them a food reward, nothing great happens until they do a specific behavior. The problem is most of us, when we're using food in training, we never have it with us. We usually just go get it and have it in our hand. And training is difficult when you have food in your hand because the puppy or dog is just going to fixate on that food in your hand rather than doing what we want. For example, if I go outside with my puppy or dog that I'm trying to potty train and I've got a handful of yummy treats and it knows it, do you think it's going to want to put its nose on the ground and start sniffing around to find that perfect spot to go to the bathroom? No, it's going to be just looking at me, looking at my hand, wanting the food that's in there.

Speaker 2: 20:35

Now the same exact thing happens when we first begin to use a treat pouch, because most of us will go put the treat pouch on, go outside, let the dog go to the bathroom, maybe reward, and then we come back in and we take the treat pouch off. That is the wrong thing to do. Or think about this. Think about if you were doing obedience training. One of the worst things that we could do would be to put on our treat pouch, do 15, 20 minutes of obedience training and when we're done, take it off. We're going to effectively train this dog to not want to do anything when we're not wearing a treat pouch and we want to get to the point where we don't have to use food. But trust me, the best way to get rid of that treat pouch, the best way to stop using food, is right from the beginning. Put that treat pouch on first thing in the morning, leave it on at all times, only take it off when you leave the house or when you go to bed at night. Once your puppy or dog is fully potty trained and you've had consistency, you've had time where there's not been any accidents, we'll be able to get rid of it. Well, you might be asking how long is that going to take? I don't know. You may get your puppy or your dog trained in a week. Then again, it might take you four months. I don't know. The one thing we can't do is we can't rush this. You cannot work faster than your puppy or dog's ability to learn this stuff, but you want to have that tree pouch on Dogs.

Speaker 2: 22:31

The way they think, the way they learn, the way they process information, everything is at black and white. Cause and effect association. Dogs live in the here and now. They're not thinking about the future. They're not thinking about the past. They make sense out of the world in the here and now. They're not thinking about the future. They're not thinking about the past. They make sense out of the world in the here and now. And it's so critical that we desensitize them and change their association with that treat pouch that it doesn't mean hey, just because it's on, I'm going to be reaching in there. Just because it's on me, no-transcript, but I need to wear that when we're not giving food to the dog. For that to happen, it only takes a little while. Eventually, within a week or so, your dog forgets about the treat pouch if you do it this way, and then it becomes a tool rather than a distraction, okay. So supervise or confine. Always give your puppy or dog an opportunity to relieve themselves. Before you put them in the crate, make sure the size of crate's appropriate. Make sure there's nothing in there that's absorbent. Okay, these things are critical. Again, if you don't know how to crate train, if you've got a puppy or a dog that's averse to the crate, get information on crate training. You can get that on dogbehavioristcom Also, I've got an article on my site, dogbehavioristcom, that talks about the right way to use food. But before we get into that, we need to take a quick 60 seconds to hear from our sponsor and pay the bills.

Speaker 2: 24:28

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Speaker 2: 25:30

All right, let's get back into potty training. You know, as we're talking about the number one rule supervise or confine, as we're talking about the number one rule supervise or confine and we're talking about confining in a crate, don't feel bad, don't feel guilty. Utilize that crate to help you potty train this puppy or dog. Now, a lot of you might put the puppy or dog in there when you leave the house. A lot of you might put the puppy or dog in there when you go to bed at night. But when you're home with the puppy or dog, you to spend a little time in a crate. Your puppy, your dog needs to have some independent time, some time away from you, some time where it can be independent. Now, granted, you're going to want to put some toys in there, keep it busy. And again, if you've got a puppy or dog that's not crate trained, if they're averse to the crate, you've got to train them to like the crate first. You can't just put them in there and shut the door and expect everything to work out just great.

Speaker 2: 26:44

But you know, when you're home it's so easy for the dog to get away from you and to sneak away and have an accident and you don't realize it With your best efforts at really really making sure that your puppy or your dog is in your eyesight, and when it's not, that you're creating it's these little situations where we run into problems. The phone rings. We've got an important call, we're focused on that and our attention because it's on that call is now away from the puppy and the puppy wanders away. So when the phone rings you need to think about it. If you cannot focus on the puppy and take the call at the same time, tell that caller hey, hold on one second, I'll be right with you, and then go ahead and take the puppy and put it in the crate, then handle the phone call and then, when you're done with that call, then you can get the puppy out of the crate. When you're home by yourself and you've got to use the restroom yourself, right, a lot of us we just think, ah, it'll be fine, I'll just walk into the restroom, it's only going to take me a second, the puppy will be fine. No, it's in those moments where you can't watch the puppy, even if it's for 30 seconds. This is when we run into problems. Put the puppy in the crate, use the restroom. When you're done, then you can take. Put the puppy in the crate, use the restroom. When you're done, then you can take the puppy out of the crate.

Speaker 2: 28:22

Somebody comes to the door. Maybe you've got somebody like a repair person coming in to fix the air conditioner or the furnace or somebody to do some other kind of work on the house and you need to talk to them. And while you're talking with them, you're not paying attention to the pup of your dog. The pup of your dog wanders away, has an accident. So in this situation, when somebody comes to the door and you know you need to focus on them, tell them can you hold on a minute, just wait one second. I'll be right back with you and then go get your puppy, get your dog and crate them and then go deal with this person that came to the door and then, when you're done, you can let the puppy or dog out when you're watching.

Speaker 2: 29:11

Well, if you're like me, when you're watching TV, if you start to feel yourself getting tired and you're supposed to be watching the puppy or dog but you're dozing off. Hey, that is a time for you to say, hey, hold on, I need to put the puppy, I need to put the dog in the crate because I'm dozing off and I'm not going to be great at watching the puppy or dog. How about this? It's exhausting. It's exhausting to have to follow around and watch a puppy 24 seven.

Speaker 2: 29:46

How about you need a break? It's okay. It's okay for you to need a break. It's okay for you to say, hey, I'm tired, I just need a break. 30 minutes an hour, it's okay. Don't feel bad about creating the puppy. All right, that's much better than you missing the puppy or dog. Having an accident and then potty training is taking much longer frustrating you, frustrating your puppy or dog. Having an accident and then potty training is taking much longer. Frustrating you, frustrating your puppy or dog. So again, whenever you can't watch your puppy or dog and I'm talking even for 30 seconds don't feel bad. Put them in the crate.

Speaker 2: 30:35

Be very liberal in your crate usage. It will help you to get to where you want to go, Having a dog or a puppy that's successfully trained to go to bathroom outside in the correct spot. The more you use the crate, the faster you're going to get there. Now I don't want you to be lazy. I don't want you to just throw the puppy or dog in the crate all day long and that's your excuse for not watching the puppy. No, that's not okay either. The puppy should be spending most of their time outside of the crate and they should be with you. And if you struggle to watch them and keep you with them, put a leash on them. Have them on a leash so that if they're not following you from one room to the next as you're moving around, or if you say, hey, come on with me, and they don't know what the heck to do and you need to help guide them, we'll put a leash on them. It's okay to have a leash on your dog in the house. It always amazes me how many people don't think about that. They have problems with their dogs in the house and they never think about putting a leash on the dog in the house Now. Granted, I don't want a leash on my dog in the house forever, but the leash is a tool and if my dog leash is a tool and if my dog doesn't listen to me in the house, there are times when I'm going to need to help that puppy or dog. There are times when I need to have the leash on the puppy or dog. So think about that. Do you need to have a leash on them?

Speaker 2: 32:10

Another thing let's talk about how we're going to have success.

Speaker 2: 32:15

Remember, I said we want to create the most amount of success and the least amount of accidents.

Speaker 2: 32:22

So one of the things that we're going to do is we're going to keep a journal and we're going to start collecting data, and once we've got maybe a week, maybe two weeks of data that we've collected, that's going to be really important and that's going to make our life a little bit easier.

Speaker 2: 32:41

Let me talk about what we're going to put in this journal. This is going to be our potty training journal, and in the journal I'm going to write down every time my puppy or dog eats, and I'm also going to write down every time my puppy or dog drinks. In addition to that, I'm going to write down every time my dog pees and I'm going to write down every time my dog poops. So I'm going to put the date and I'm going to put the time when my dog eats, the date and time when it drinks, the date and time when it has, when it goes pee and the date and time when it goes poop. I'm also going to make a note when I put down what time they peed or pooped Was it an accident or was it a success and I just put an A or an.

Speaker 2: 33:33

S Okay. Put an A or an S Okay. Now, in addition to that, in order to make this data useful, we're going to have to do one other thing, and that is temporarily, in the beginning. What I'm going to ask you to do is feed on a strict schedule and also water on a schedule. Now, when it comes to feeding on a strict schedule, I want you to put the food down at the same time every time. Try to be consistent. Put it down at the same time every time. Put the food down for five minutes. Pick it up after five minutes. Whatever your puppy or dog didn't eat, don't worry about it. Put the food back down at the next scheduled feeding five minutes. They're going to learn to eat within those five minutes and they're going to learn to eat on a schedule. When we can feed on a schedule, we can then start to get data that's going to help us predict how long after the dog eats does it need to poop. So, let's say, for a week or two, I'm collecting data. I'm writing down every time what time it is. Let's say that I'm feeding dinner at 6 pm and let's say that, as I'm watching my puppy or dog, it has an accident at 7. It poops in the house. Well, I'm going to put down 7 pm poop accident. Maybe I'm getting the dog outside Some of the time. I'm having success outside writing down when the dog poops. But let's say that I'm collecting data on when the dog eats and when it poops and as I start looking through the data I see a pattern and perhaps that pattern is after the puppy or dog eats, within 45 minutes to an hour. Almost invariably, this dog's got to poop. Whether it's an accident or whether it's in the right spot, it always seems to occur between 45 minutes to an hour after it eats. Now I'm making that timeline up. Hypothetically that might not be what it is for your dog, but if that's the data and if that's the picture that it's painting for me, do you see how that's powerful? Yeah, I'm going to set an alarm for 45 minutes so that I, after you know I feed my dog. I'm going to set an alarm for 45 minutes. I want to get my dog out to the correct spot before it has an accident, but around the timeframe that I think the puppy's going to have to go, so that I'm not out there forever and I don't have to keep on going back out there all the time and I'm going to give the puppy or dog five minutes of undistracted time to go to the bathroom and they typically will. If they're distracted they might not because they're not finding their spot, but if my data is painting the picture, hey, there's a pattern Every time the puppy or dog eats it's pooping within 45 minutes to an hour. That allows me to set the dog up for success, get the dog outside to the right potty place so that I can have a successful elimination and I can reward the dog. Okay, I'm going to do the same thing with water. I just might offer water more times throughout the day than food, but I'm not going to leave water out. Now, this is temporarily.

Speaker 2: 37:33

Once your puppy, your dog is potty trained, you can do whatever you want. You can leave water out, you can leave food out. I don't like to free feed, but hey, if that's your thing, fine. But when you're doing the potty training, there's no free feeding. When you're doing potty training, there's no leaving water out. And when you're doing potty training, there is no having the puppy or dog out unsupervised training. There is no having the puppy or dog out unsupervised when I give water or when the puppy or dog drinks the water.

Speaker 2: 38:04

I'm going to write that down in my journal, just like with food. Every time the puppy or dog drinks, I'm writing down what time it is. Now, every time the puppy or dog pees, I'm also writing that down in my journal, whether it's an accident or whether the puppy or dog peed in the right potty spot. But again, when I look at that data after I've collected it for a long enough period of time usually a week or two I should start seeing a pattern. I should start seeing a pattern that X amount of minutes after my puppy or dog drinks water, it needs to pee. Now let's just, for example's sake, say that my data that I've collected has shown me that after my dog or puppy drinks, within 20 to 30 minutes after it drinks, it needs to pee. Well, that information's powerful. I now get to set an alarm prior to that timeframe. So if my puppy or dog, after it drinks typically, is going to need to pee within 20 to 30 minutes, I'm going to set my alarm for 20 minutes. I might even set it a little bit shorter, maybe 18 minutes. I want to get the dog or puppy out to the correct potty spot when it needs to go. I don't want it to wait too long and then the dog has an accident. So, knowing that information is very powerful, this is critical.

Speaker 2: 39:48

You may think oh, what a pain in the butt I have to feed on a schedule. Oh, what a pain in the butt I've got to get water on a schedule. Oh, what a pain in the butt I've got to get water on a schedule. Oh, what a pain in the butt I've got to keep a journal. Let me tell you something you do that it's going to speed up the potty training process by 10 times. You want to have success. This is what you do. And again, if you're struggling, there's only so much information I can give in the podcast. You can get my book on Amazon, the book that I wrote, all evidence-based, science-based, on potty training House Training 101, potty Training, unleashed by Will Banguro. You can find that on Amazon. All right, let's get back into the podcast here on potty training.

Speaker 2: 40:36

So number one rule is the puppy or dog is always in my eyesight, with me, and when I can't watch the puppy or dog, it's in the crate. Before I crate the dog, I always want to give the puppy or dog an opportunity to relieve itself. First, when the phone rings, when I need to use the restroom, when somebody comes over to the house, it needs to talk to me when situations arise that I've got to do something. Even if it's for a very short period of time 30 seconds, a minute, two minutes I'm going to create the puppy if I have to take my attention off of it. Remember, we talked about if the phone rings an important phone call and you are focused on the call. You're not paying attention to the pup of your dog. We talked about if a worker comes to the house and you've got to give them your undivided attention. You're not there, available to watch the pup of your dog Create them. Okay, maybe you're a mom or a dad and you've got little kids at home and you've got to really focus on them and maybe during that moment you can't watch the pup of your dog. Get them in the crate we talked about. If you start feeling yourself getting tired and you can't watch them, if your eyes are closing right, get them in the crate. Don't be afraid to use the crate. We want them out as much as possible, but don't be afraid to use the crate Now when we take the puppy or dog outside.

Speaker 2: 42:20

I like to use, like I said, a long leash, 10-foot leash. I don't want it to get tight, I want them to be able to be a little independent and move away from me. I'm being as inconspicuous as quiet, non-engaging. I don't want the puppy or dog to think, hey, this is playtime, so when we go out to go potty, we're not playing and I'm not talking to them. Okay, I'm just there like a robot, like a tree, quietly following them around. Now, if I've got them out there and they've been sniffing and they're not distracted, we've been out there for five minutes and the puppy or dog didn't go. We go right back in the house and they go right back into their crate for 15 minutes because my data is telling me man, this puppy, this dog's got to go. And I believe it, because the data doesn't lie and for whatever reason, we got the puppy or dog out there, it didn't go. Well, bring it back in. And for whatever reason we got the puppy or dog out there, it didn't go. Well, bring it back in, put it in the crate for 15 minutes, go right back outside for five, and usually they'll go.

Speaker 2: 43:31

Now, some of you, when you come in after your puppy or dog has peed or pooped. They come in the house and just a short period of time goes by maybe within five minutes even and they go in the house. They have an accident. You're frustrated, you're like what the heck? They just went to the bathroom outside. Listen, that also is data and that gets put in your journal. And maybe you've got a dog, maybe you've got a puppy that doesn't empty its bowel, doesn't empty its bladder in one shot. Maybe you've got a dog that poops twice, poops three times before it empties its bowels. Maybe your dog's got to squat two or three times before it empties its bladder or lifts its leg two or three times before it empties its bladder or lifts its leg two or three times before it empties its bladder. Look, you're collecting that data. If you find that you've got a puppy or a dog that goes to the bathroom outside, you bring them right back in and they go in the house. That is data, that is feedback, that is information that tells you don't go in right after the dog goes. Wait another five minutes. Give the pup of your dog an opportunity to completely empty its bladder or completely empty its bowels before you go in. Okay, that's important because there are a lot of dogs like that.

Speaker 2: 45:15

Now, when it comes to rewarding your dog or your puppy with this super high value food reward, it's important that your puppy or dog understand why it's getting the food reward. Does your puppy or dog connect the dots cognitively that, hey, the reason it's getting that food reward is because it just went to the bathroom in the correct spot? You know a lot of us are using food in training and the dogs love the food and perhaps the overall training experience is more positive. But a lot of dogs are not connecting the dots that the reason they're getting the food is because of a specific behavior and the reason that happens, if it happens, is because of timing. One of the most important things in training dogs is your timing. Let me say that again One of the most important things in training your dogs is your timing.

Speaker 2: 46:13

You literally have about one to two seconds, if that, to get the food in your puppy, your dog's mouth at the exact moment they engage in the behavior you want to reward, or they will not connect the dots. What do I mean by that? If I ask the dog to sit and the dog sits, it's butt on the ground and five seconds later I give it a food reward. It is highly debatable whether or not that dog associates the fact that it got that food reward because it sat, because that five-second window might be too long and we might not be able to get food in our puppy or dog's mouth fast enough for them to be able to connect the dots mouth fast enough for them to be able to connect the dots. So professional trainers use what we call a marker system in training and we create what's called a reward marker.

Speaker 2: 47:16

Now, a marker is something that marks a behavior and lets the puppy or dog know that behavior is getting a food reward. Okay, some trainers condition a word to mean the dog's getting food. Some trainers use what's called a clicker to condition to the dog that when they hear the clicker they're going to get food, to condition to the dog that when they hear the clicker they're going to get food. Initially, the marker whether it be using a clicker in training or whether it be using a word to mark a behavior initially, those markers have no value, they have no meaning to the dog. You know, if I go to the store and I pick up a clicker, there's no magic. I can't just bring it home and start clicking and all of a sudden the dog's doing wonderful things. No, the way that markers work. First you have to condition and pair whatever marker that you're using to mark a behavior with the food reward over and over and over again. And the way it works. Let's say I've got 30 pieces of cheese little pieces of cheese and I've got a clicker.

Speaker 2: 48:25

I go click treat, give the dog the treat right after I click as soon as the dog eats it. I'm going to click again, give another treat right away. As soon as the dog finishes that treat, click, give another treat right away. I'm going to click treat, click treat, click treat, click treat over and over, maybe about 30 times in a row. And I'm going to do that for maybe two, three, four days in a row and then, after I've done that conditioning where there's been a lot of repetition, click treat, click treat, click treat. I'm going to test it.

Speaker 2: 49:02

Maybe on day five I pull out my clicker when my dog's not noticing. Now my dog's got to be awake. My dog's got to be in close proximity where it can hear. The clicker Doesn't have to be looking at me, matter of fact, I prefer. If it's not looking at me. I give this random click and what I'm looking for? Does the dog or puppy come running to me looking for the high-value food reward? Because if the dog or puppy is properly conditioned that they understand click means treat. When they hear that clicker they're going to come running to me. Okay, if they don't, maybe I need to spend more time conditioning that clicker. Click treat, click treat, click, treat more. Maybe that timing has to be better. Maybe I'm not getting the treat to the dog fast enough after I click.

Speaker 2: 49:56

Now, once you've got your marker conditioned whether it's using the word yes and pairing that with a treat, whether it's a click and a treat Remember there are a couple of rules Never click, never use your marker without giving the food reward. A click or any mark that you give is a promise to pay. You have to give food or don't use the marker. Promise to pay, you have to give food or don't use the marker. Every time you mark, every time you click, you reward. That's a given, that's a rule. Okay, now the beauty of having a marker and being able to have conditioned a reward marker. Once you have that reward marker conditioned, now you don't have the problem you had with timing. Why, even if I tell a dog to sit and that dog is a football field away from me, as soon as that rear end hits the ground I can click the clicker and the dog can hear that click sound right when its butt hits the ground. And when the dog hears the clicker and the dog can hear that click sound right when its butt hits the ground. And when the dog hears the click sound, that's a signal. It's a marker that lets the dog know hey, you're getting food, so your timing's not off. Now you can't take 20 minutes from the time you click to getting the food in the dog's mouth, but it buys you time. That marker, that click, is a bridge to the food. Does that make sense?

Speaker 2: 51:32

Now, this is not a podcast on clicker training. It's not a podcast on marker training. If you aren't that familiar with using markers, it's so important to use markers. And again, a clicker is just a type of marker. If you're not familiar with marker training or clicker training, please go to my website at dogbehavioristcom. Go to the menu, click on where it says articles, find the article on clicker training, and that will talk all about clicker training, marker training. And at the bottom of that article there's also an hour-long podcast where I talk in depth about clicker training, about marker training. All right, so let's assume we've conditioned our marker. I'm going to assume we used a clicker. You don't have to, but I'm going to assume we used the clicker. My dog or my puppy now understands that when I click that clicker it gets a treat. Okay, that helps me to have a very clear black and white cause and effect association communication with that puppy or dog when I'm trying to potty train dog, when I'm trying to potty train Now don't reward the puppy or dog when it's in the act of going to the bathroom.

Speaker 2: 52:53

So let's say we get our puppy or our dog outside to the potty spot, we want it to go. The dog begins to squat, begins to pee, pee and you click. Guess what happens? The dog gets excited because it wants the food. It stops peeing and comes to you for food. What didn't happen? It did not empty its bladder because you clicked while it was peeing. So when your dog is going to the bathroom in the right place when it's peeing, you wait until that last drop. Soon as your puppy or dog comes up from the squat. That's when you want to click and reward. Same thing when they're pooping. Don't click and reward while they're in the middle of pooping. Wait till they come up when they finished Right. Then, at that last moment, as they come up from the squat, click and reward the dog. That's when you want, so you're not interrupting them. Okay, very important Making sure you've got your food rewards, making sure you've got your treat pouch.

Speaker 2: 54:11

Now let's talk about accidents, because accidents have happened and they might continue to happen, and that's okay. Remember, we are feeding on a schedule, giving water on a schedule. We're keeping a journal. We are writing down when the puppy or dog eats, when the puppy or dog drinks, when the puppy or dog pees, when the puppy or dog poops. That data is helping us understand how long after the puppy or dog eats does it poop, how long after the puppy or dog drinks does it pee. That data helps us to predict when it eats, when it drinks, when we need to get the puppy or dog outside to have more successes. Again, the goal is to have less accidents, more success. Granted, we'd love to have no accidents and we're going to get there, but that might take a little bit of time If your puppy or dog has an accident, do not punish the dog.

Speaker 2: 55:26

Taking your dog and rubbing its nose in its mess is a myth. That will do nothing to help your dog understand where it should go to the bathroom. Especially remember we talked about timing a bathroom. Especially remember we talked about timing. Especially if you're using corrections or punishment after the fact, if you didn't catch the dog or puppy in the act, your punishment. They have no understanding whatsoever. All you're doing is creating anxiety and stress in that location, which anxiety and stress doesn't help any animal learn. It makes learning more difficult. Secondly, when you use corrections and punishment with your puppy or dog, you are ruining that trust and that bond and the relationship between you and your dog, you and your puppy. All the science, all the research, all the evidence that's out there has shown punishment corrections are unnecessary and in the long run they make it worse. You may temporarily suppress outward behavior, but again, you're not teaching the puppy or dog where to go to the bathroom, what we want it to do and that's what we need to be doing.

Speaker 2: 56:54

Okay, all right, but let's talk about if there's an accident. What do you do If you notice your puppy or dog having an accident very calmly, without getting upset. Get them outside, go through the process we've been talking about right, when they're not distracted and they start sniffing around, give them the five minutes we talked about to go to the bathroom. If they go, as soon as they finish, give your click and reward. So you mark and reward. Then you would go in the house, I would crate the puppy and then I would begin the cleanup process. Now let's talk about the cleanup process Both from the perspective of what to do when you see that there's an accident, or what do you do about all the accidents that have happened in the past.

Speaker 2: 57:52

Dogs tend to want to go back to where they have peed or pooped before and they use their nose, their sense of smell, to go back there. Back there, if the house smells like pee and poop, they're pee and poop Chances are they're going to want to go back to those locations. I'm assuming there have been accidents. Now a lot of people use products that are out there that get rid of the smell where you and I as a human can't smell it, but the dog still can. There are not a lot of great products on the market that actually get rid of that scent at the dog's level. I mean folks, think about it. A dog can smell a drop of blood a mile away. It's incredible, away it's incredible. Their sense of smell is unbelievable. One of the best products and I don't get any money for pitching this product, but one of the best products on the market.

Speaker 2: 58:56

What I recommend to everybody for cleaning up their dog's accidents is a product called S-C-O-E-10-X. S like Sam, c, like Cat O, like Ocean E, like Edward. The number one, the number zero, the letter Xcom S-C-O-E-10-Xcom. Go to their website. They've got lots of information there. Read the instructions, watch the videos.

Speaker 2: 59:31

When you use SCOE 10x, exactly the way they tell you to, you will get rid of the smell where the dog can't smell the urine and the feces. Therefore, they're not going back to places, they've gone in the house. You know, I want you to think about if they can smell their urine or feces. It's as if we're luring and telling them to go to the bathroom in that spot. So it's critical. Cleanup is critical.

Speaker 2: 1:00:04

Now, when you do your initial cleanup, you're going to want to have a blacklight when I come to people's homes and I pull out my blacklight and I start looking around for where there's urine, where there have been accidents, where they've been peeing, where they've been pooping. It's much worse than they ever imagined. Where they've been pooping it's much worse than they ever imagined. Now, just know that chances are you're going to be disgusted. You're going to get that blacklight. But any areas in the house that are lighting up with the blacklight, that means that it smells. Use the SCOE 10X, clean it up. Once you've cleaned it up, you've got to go back with your blacklight. Make sure it doesn't light up anymore, because if it lights up, it still smells. So once you've gone through the whole house with the blacklight, you've cleaned up everything. Nothing is lighting up anymore. Everything's clean.

Speaker 2: 1:01:05

What you need to do from that point on until you're done with potty training every night before you go to bed, you need to go through the house, turn the lights off, do an inspection of the entire house with that black light. Why do I say to do that? Well, guess what If everything was cleaned up and all of a sudden, today's Monday and on Thursday, I do an inspection of the house before I go to bed and something lit up? The dog had an accident and I didn't see it. What's my number one rule? Supervise or crate. My dog is in my eyesight at all times and when I can't watch my dog, I crated my dog, see if I'm having accidents, if that's my goal, if my goal is to keep the dog or puppy in my eyesight when I can't watch it, crate it and I feel like I think like I'm doing a really good job doing that. Yet in the evening time when I inspect, things are lighting up and I'm saying, oh my God, my dog had an accident. That lets me know I need to do a better job of either crate or keeping my eye on the puppy or dog.

Speaker 2: 1:02:26

Okay, so cleanup is critical, really, really important and, as I was saying just a little while ago, all the science, all the evidence shows us that punishment anything, what's punishment? Anything? Punishment is a correction, guys. Correction is just a nice word for punishment Anything unpleasant. Don't yell at the pup of your dog. Don't hit the pup of your dog, don't scold them, just calmly, quietly, get them outside to the correct spot. After they've gone, come in, crate them, clean it up. I don't want your puppy or dog watching you clean up the mess. Okay, that's just one thing I don't want. I don't want them watching you clean up the mess. I don't want them thinking that you are interested or find that valuable. Okay, all right.

Speaker 2: 1:03:26

The other thing that I want to talk about is doggy doors. Okay, and we talked about the crate. I think that a doggy door is the greatest invention that ever occurred and I think it can be incredibly beneficial to help you with potty training. Now, when I'm initially potty training a puppy or dog, I don't let them use the dog door. I first want to teach them where I want them to go before we start using the doggy door and in the beginning, I'm not just expecting them to go use the doggy door on their own.

Speaker 2: 1:04:15

The way that I do it remember that crate that we were talking about getting. I get a wire crate and I get a double door wire crate, so a wire crate that has two doors on it. I remove one of the doors completely from the wire crate, which leaves the opening Right. I take that opening where that door was removed and I push that up against the wall where the dog door is, so I can put the puppy or dog in the crate when I close the door. Remember there's two doors. When I close the one door, the puppy or dog's in the crate. It has the ability to go through the dog door and go outside, and if it comes back in through the dog door and comes back into the house, it's restricted to the kennel. I love using this when. When I go to bed at night, this is my setup, and when I have to leave the house and there's nobody there to watch the puppy or dog, that is my setup.

Speaker 2: 1:05:25

Yes, I've got to teach them how to use the dog door, but the beautiful thing about a dog door, the beautiful thing about a two-door dog crate I can put the puppy or dog in the crate. They have the ability to go out through the dog door, go outside and relieve themselves. Then they have the ability to come back in. They can't make any messes or have any accidents in the house, can they? Because they're in the crate. I love dog doors. I love crates. Two-door crates make this just all the more successful. Okay, so I highly recommend you get a double door dog crate. Highly recommend if you can get a dog door and start doing that, because once your puppy, once your dog has been conditioned which means that we're trying to create a habit of going to the bathroom outside, where wonderful, rewarding things happen when you do. Okay. We're trying to maximize our successes by being able to predict when the puppy or dog needs to urinate or defecate, because we're keeping that journal. We're feeding on a schedule, we're giving water on a schedule. We know because of our data pretty much after the dog drinks when it's going to have to pee, after the puppy or dog eats when it has to poop. These are all things that are setting us up for success.

Speaker 2: 1:07:04

Now, some of you have some special needs. Maybe you've got an older dog that needs to be potty training. Everything that I've told you here holds true for the older dog. However, I've got an entire section devoted to potty training the older dog, and you can find that in my book House Training 101, potty Training, unleashed by Will Bangura. You can find that on Amazon. Maybe you've got a dog that. Maybe you live in an apartment. Maybe you've got a little teacup dog and you want to train it to exclusively use potty pads or a litter box. You're training it to go to the bathroom in the house but not on the floors, right? I've got an entire section in my book House Training 101, potty Training, unleashed by Will Bangura. You can get that on Amazon can get that on Amazon, okay.

Speaker 2: 1:08:02

So, where this podcast can give you a lot of great information, a lot of tips to have a lot of success when it comes to potty training your dogs or your puppy. There's a lot more information that I'm able to cover in the book. So if you're really struggling, check out that book, because you might get a lot of benefit from that as well. Also, let your friends and family know about it. Well, that music means we are just about out of time. I hope this information's been helpful.

Speaker 2: 1:08:41

I hope this helps you if you've been frustrated with a puppy, or if you've been frustrated with a puppy or if you've been frustrated with a dog that wants to use your house as a toilet. It doesn't have to be that way. It's important for you to have patience. It's important to have empathy. Very important that you be consistent, that your timing is good. Remember, supervise or confine. Try to do this with a journal. It'll make life a lot easier when you can predict when your puppy or dog needs to go to the bathroom. Thanks for listening everybody. Please hit that subscribe button, hit that like button. If you're listening to the podcast and you love what we do Give us a five-star review. Let your friends and family know all about dog training today. Until next time, happy training. I'm out of here.