How to Avoid Puppy Accidents

How to Avoid Puppy Accidents

Accidents are bound to happen when you have a puppy or a dog in your home. Puppies are seeing everything for the first time.

Their excitement and enthusiasm make them forget their bowel movements resulting in accidents. You should take care of the puppy by constantly keeping an eye on it.

Beginning with puppy house training in the early days would also make it understand the surroundings.

Puppy house training should also include potty training since it is one of the important life skills to learn for pets.

Starting the training while your dog is still a puppy ensures that it becomes an obedient animal when it grows up. 

Familiarizing the puppy with your house and surroundings is the best way to potty train a puppy.

You may encounter puppy potty training accidents during the period but you shouldn’t stop the training.

Following some routine and employing a few tested and reliable tricks would make the training efficient.

Let’s see how to avoid puppy accidents during potty training.

Setting up a Routine

A strict routine disciplines a puppy and keeps it clean. Setting up a routine enables a puppy to adjust its body and mind to a schedule.

It automatically sets the biological clock of the puppy to particular timings. 

This sets up a schedule for a dog according to which it starts eating, excreting, and sleeping.

According to studies, a puppy can hold the bladder up to one hour. 

The capacity for controlling the bladder increases with age and may extend up to two hours.

You should keep this factor in mind while potty training your puppy and set the routine accordingly.

Several routines help a puppy to learn when to urinate and defecate. Following these routines should be a daily affair until your puppy grows up to an adult.

The best ways to potty train a puppy are listed below.

Take a Walk Outside

Once your puppy gets well house-trained, you should start taking it outside. It will enable your puppy to smell, see, and recognize new spots and places.

Seeing dogs, puppies, people, and animals outside will educate it about other living beings. Make it a habit of taking your puppy out daily.

You can set the timing according to your convenience. Early mornings and evenings are considered to be good for puppies.

Start with short distances and increase it as the puppy grows. Taking your puppy out immediately after it wakes up from sleep, consumption of food or drinking water would help the puppy to relieve.

The Regular Spot

Choose a particular spot for your puppy to defecate. Stick with it even if your puppy forgets to urinate or defecate in the same spot.

The use of a pee pad works wonders - it serves as a great starting point training your dog to urinate and defecate on it. 

Use commands to teach your dog that it should always relieve in the same place.

Reprimand your puppy with mild shouts whenever it fails to relieve in the same spot.

Visiting the place daily with your puppy familiarizes it with the spot and helps it to start relieving on its own.

As with the above, apart from a pee pad, you can also encourage your dog to urinate and defecate on the pee pad with a special dog training spray.

There are two types of spray - the first is to mark a location that encourages a dog to eliminate at that location.

Both work, but each dog is different, as are their training methods.

 Try both (they're quite cheap) and see which works better for training your dog!

Schedule Feeding

A puppy requires feeding three to four times a day. The quantity of food intake varies from one dog breed to another.

Learn how much food your dog needs and schedule the feeding time accordingly. 

Feeding your dog at the same time sets the biological clock of the dog and automatically fixes the defecating time on its own.

This prevents potty accidents and keeps your puppy’s health in check.

Keep a Check on Water Intake

Hydration is the most important thing to keep your puppy healthy. But some puppies may drink water in excess and keep urinating.

This may spoil the entire routine of the puppy. And it may lose all the discipline it has learned.

Drinking excess water may also make the dog wake up in the night frequently to relieve itself. Assess the water intake of your dog and provide the same quantity of water to drink.

 Don’t allow your puppy to play in the water for long hours. Make sure that you don’t allow your puppy to drink water two hours before it goes to sleep.

Even if it wakes in the night, allow it to relieve in the same spot without trying to engage with your puppy.

Treat for the Disciplined Puppy

Pampering your dog with small treats is an essential part of any training. Provide with treats every time your puppy relieves at the same spot.

Immediately rewarding your puppy with treats after it obeys your command would produce a lasting effect.

Always wait till it finishes relieving. Praising or showing eagerness to reward your dog may distract its attention.

These routines and training will avoid puppy accidents considerably.

Still, you may face an unavoidable circumstance where you have to make arrangements to continue with the training.

Want to know what is the best way to house train a puppy in a difficult situation? Keep reading.

What to do when you can’t Supervise Puppy Training? 

·        Confine your dog to a restricted area.

·        The area should be small enough to discourage your puppy from relieving.

·        A bathroom, laundry room, or doghouse is a perfect place to confine.

·        Make sure that you take your dog to a regular spot to relieve soon after it gets released from confinement. 

·        Crate trains your puppy.  

What to do if Accidents Happen? 

·        Interrupt your dog if you see it relieving inside the home.

·        Reprimand with mild shouting command to show your disapproval.

·        Don’t punish your dog with harsh shouts or punishments.

·        Clean the area thoroughly to remove traces of the smell of urination or defecation. 

This discourages your puppy from relieving at the same spot. 

What to do when you plan to go away? 

·        If you are a person who leaves your dog alone during your office hours, fix an alternate spot inside your home.

·        Arrange a person or professional pet sitter to take out the dog at the set time to allow your puppy to relieve.

·        If you are going out for a long duration, leave the dog with a trustworthy and responsible friend or neighbor.