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I always joke about how housetraining is my least favorite thing to train. Or, I half-joke, because there’s really some truth to it. I deal with noisy dogs, severely aggressive dogs, reactive dogs, 100-lb dogs who run people over, and am usually excited to handle them all.
But potty training? I despise it.
Not that it’s difficult; it’s one of the easiest things to train, in terms of how straightforward and follow-along it is. There’s a set number of steps, it’s all reward-based, and if you follow the rules, you typically come out a winner at the end.
No, the reason I hate housetraining is that messes are just inevitable.
No matter how tuned-in and careful you are, mistakes happen. I’ve housetrained dozens if not hundreds of dogs, and I still make mistakes. In fact, the morning that I sit writing this article, I had to clean up a mess in the crate of a board-and-train in for potty training. Messes will happen on this road.
I often have to remind clients of this while doing private lessons and coaching them through their own housetraining process. Messes will get fewer and farther between as you go along, but they’ll happen. Better to embrace it now.
The important thing is to know how to approach it when these things happen.
First things first, take a deep breath and try to stay calm. When potty training a dog, there’s really no point in correcting the dog, especially if you didn’t even witness it happening. No rubbing the dog’s nose in it, no shouting, and no corrections. Just take a second and move on.
The reason we don’t correct while potty training is that, speaking broadly, accidents are just that: accidents. Your dog has not made a choice by losing control of their bladder, and if you’re just starting out in housetraining, they also don’t understand what the expectation is yet.
Especially do not react or correct your dog if you found a mess much later. Timing is important, and if you yell at or correct your dog long after the mess was made, that anger and correction will be associated with whatever the dog is doing at the moment.
If you need more information on when it is appropriate to correct a dog and when it is not, you can reference my article, The Ten Commandments of Dog Training Corrections.
In the case of housetraining, we’re teaching a new behavior, and we go about that with reward.
Catching a Dog in the Act
When you have the chance to catch your dog in the act, there are definitely ways you can interrupt that action and turn it into a success.
Note that, unless your dog is marking, which is decidedly different, we are not correcting or applying a punisher. We are just interrupting an anticipated behavior.
Catching your dog in the act of eliminating in the house is more about seeing the signs that immediately lead into the mess. For poops, dogs will usually open their hips as they walk before they actually squat. For pees, dogs might start walking more quickly when they find that perfect spot. Keep an eye out for your dog’s particular pre-potty habits, and be ready to interrupt it.
If you see your dog start to position for eliminating, you can make a sudden sound meant to catch them off-guard. This can definitely be a firm “no” if your dog understands what that means, but in puppies it can be anything odd and interesting that can snap them out of the mindset they were in.
If you do use a firm no, make sure that you do so matter-of-factly, and not with added anger or an intimidating stance. What we don’t want is our dog thinking that they just shouldn’t eliminate around you. This can create the issue of your dog sneaking away to a different room or behind the couch or whatever, instead of learning to not potty in the house.
When you catch your dog in the act and distract them from what they were about to do, usher them outside immediately and without any hostility. When your dog eliminates outside instead, give them a reward and praise for a successful outcome.
If your dog already had a small accident — for instance, they started to poop but stopped when you surprised them with your interrupting noise — reward them for doing the rest outside, anyway. Then, put your dog in the crate when they come inside, clean up the mess, and then let them back out.
If you caught your dog too close to being finished and they’re unable to “go” when they get outside, that’s okay. Pop them in the crate while you clean up the accident, and then take them back outside after a few minutes.
Cleaning Up the Accident
Cleaning up the accident correctly is especially important. Remaining traces of odor can be enticing to your dog when they have not yet completely learned the rules. If your dog things that your rug is their designated potty spot (because their nose says so) then the training can become more tedious than it needs to be.
Common mistakes in cleaning up pet messes is using general cleaning solutions like detergent, vinegar, and multi-purpose cleaners. You don’t want to use these types of cleaners because they can actually leave the scent behind in a concentrated form. Also be careful to not use bleach solutions to clean urine, as urine contains ammonia and the combination of bleach and ammonia makes toxic chloramine.
The best way to clean up pet messes is going to be an enzymatic solution or cleaner that is made specifically for pet odors. Bubba’s Super Strength Enzyme Cleaner is one that I like quite a bit, and Nature’s Miracle is usually easy to find at pet stores.
If you don’t have any of these on-hand, you can use baking soda to help reduce the odor, but you should definitely come back when you have a designated pet odor eliminator.
Since I train dogs for a living and have dogs of various holding-it capabilities coming in and out, I also like to keep around a Little Green Clean Machine that helps me get all of the urine or poop out of a spot of carpet. You can fill the tank with warm water or cleaning solution, and then dump the yuck when you are done.
