How To Potty Train Your Puppy
We often get emails from prospective buyers asking if bulldogs are easy to potty train. If you have ever owned a dog like a cocker spaniel then you know why a person might ask a question such as this. When my wife and I were newly weds we rescued a very cute black and white cocker spaniel from a pet store. I say rescued mostly because of his condition. He smelled just terrible. And this of course was an indication of his living conditions. He was kept in a crate. Clearly he was not let out often enough to go potty outside. As a result, Dolorian, smelled like he had been bathed in urine. In fact, it took about 3 weeks of regular bathing with strong smelling shampoo to get him even close to a normally healthy puppy smell.
Be encouraged. It is not “normal” for a puppy to do their thing in their crate. Our experience with Dolorian was atypical for a normal puppy that has been raised in a loving healthy environment. Dolorian merely exhibited the traits of a puppy that had his natural instincts repressed by repeatedly forcing him to do what was not natural for him to do-in this case, that was to urinate in his crate and then step in or lie in that urine.
If you will work “with” your puppy’s natural instincts the process of potty training your puppy can move forward relatively painlessly. Knowing the natural tendencies of a normal healthy puppy can make it a simple process to potty train your puppy. Two main principles will go a long ways to helping you to potty train your dog.
- It is not normal for a puppy to poop or pee where he lives.
- It is normal for a puppy to need to “do his thing” relatively soon after he eats.
So common sense will tell you not to put a puppy away into his crate soon after he drinks a large volume of water or he eats food. Crate your puppy after he does one or both of these things and you are asking for trouble. Think about it? If you drink two large glasses of water and then lay down for a nap, how long is it going to be before you have to get up and make a trip to the bathroom? It won’t take long at all.
So rule number one is feed and water your new puppy soon after you take him out of his crate, not right before you are ready to put him away for an extended period of time. Take your puppy out of his crate. Let him come say hi, and play for a few moments. Then feed and water him. His natural reaction will be, within a relatively short period of time, to go to the bathroom. No two dogs are identical. You will quickly learn the habits of your dog. It might be as quick as 2 or 3 minutes, or it might be 15 or 20 minutes.
After your puppy has been fed and watered and an appropriate time (for your dog) has passed be ready to take him outside so he can relieve himself. Remember the key is to work with nature not against nature. By feeding him AFTER he comes out of his crate you are not putting him in a difficult position where he is forced to hold his bladder past a point where he is not able. If your puppy is young, this might not be longer than 30 minutes to an hour. So be kind and thoughtful. Think about and plan your feeding times so they occur at regular planned intervals. Then as much as possible stick to that feeding schedule.
If you are like our family and you have nice hardwood doors in your house, you might appreciate this last tip. This tip is golden and literally can save you potentially hundreds and hundreds of dollars.
Go to Hobby Lobby if you have one nearby, or some crafts store. Buy yourself a simple metal old-fashioned sleigh bell. Something solid and durable that you can hand by a leather cord from you’re door handle on your front door. Every time you go outside stop for a moment. Take the foot of one of your puppy’s front feed and hit the bell. At some point in the future this will give some dinner guests a good laugh. You will be sitting down to eat. And one of your guests will quizzically look up and ask why your dog is ringing the doorbell. And you will smile; perhaps a little smirk might be in order. Oh, that’s just my dog. He’s reallllly smart. He is telling me he wants to go outside to do his thing. I’ll just go let him outside. He’ll really appreciate that. And then you smile as you go outside knowing how really, really cool all your dinner guests think your dog is.
Follow these steps on how to potty train your dog and your English bulldog puppy should be trained most likely in as little as a week to two weeks. Work with nature, not against nature. You will find by doing this that your new little puppy is so much smarter than you may have originally thought. Best wishes on potty training your new little puppy.
Article by Chad McCarthy of www.sumobulldogs.com
