Your New Puppies Potty Patch
See our Training Tips Below!
Having a new puppy is an exciting, yet difficult time. The dog potty patch is a great way to make this process easier. House training your puppy can be a downside, but if done initially with dog potty pads you have the best chance of training your dog correctly. The dog potty patch is a great way to house train a dog.
Next, every time your dog goes to relieve himself you should start moving the potty patches away and closer to the door. As you move the dog potty pad, the dog should always go on the dog potty patch and you should praise him every time he does so. At this point you should be only praising your dog if it goes on the dog potty patch.
Eventually you’ll get to the door and you can start to put the dog potty patch outside. You’ll start to realize when the dog or puppy needs the toilet so you can move the dog potty pad before he goes. Once the dog starts to go outside you should praise him whether he goes onto the dog potty pad or not. Remember, the key to using a dog potty pad effectively is praise not negative feedback.
Once you’ve gotten this far you’re nearly there! Leave the dog potty pad outside (although you need to make sure it is secured down). Try to get the dog potty pad to an area of the garden where you want the dog to go to the toilet – leaving dog potty patches right outside the back door probably isn’t a good idea.
Once your dog is potty trained, you can then get rid of the dog potty pad altogether, but you may want the option to keep him indoor as well. By this point he should know the he should only go to the toilet outside or on the dog potty patches inside. Using dog potty pads indoors is very useful on rainy days when dogs tend to track mud into clean, tidy homes.
Dog Potty Patch Training
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Signs Your Puppy Needs to go Potty
Familiarizing yourself with signs that your dog has to go is the first critical step in training them. This is why it is ideal to be able to spend uninterrupted time with your puppy at first. Being able to watch them constantly is important in both recognizing the signs and catching them in the act allowing you to dissuade them if they try to go in the wrong place. 
Some basic indicators that your puppy has to go are returning to an already used location, showing signs of restlessness and sniffing the floor as they scan around for a place to go. Since these signs are a bit vague and can be difficult to distinguish from normal behavior at first, it is helpful to understand how often and when your puppy may go potty. Generally, within a half hour after eating your puppy will have to go. The same goes for playing and sleeping. In short, it is after eating, waking up or running around that you can expect within fifteen minutes to a half hour your puppy will have to go potty.
Taking Your Puppy Potty
If you do recognize that your puppy has to go potty you should use your one or two word commands to indicate you are aware they need to go. This helps them develop their regiment and also helps them understand that you have rules that govern where they ought to go when they need to go. Whether you are using one of our puppy potty pads or simply taking your pup outdoors, it is important to take them to the same spot each time. With the potty patch this is easy as you’ll not likely move it around just for kicks.
Other important things to consider are the manner and type of praise for going in the right place. Again, you should express enthusiasm when your puppy goes potty in the right area and can reinforce the approval with a treat and good neck scratch, belly rub or whatever you prefer to show praise and love. Remember NOT to scare or jolt your puppy accidentally while they are going. You can clap, smile, woo and all as much as you want after they are done but you don’t want to scare them during the act and accidentally dissuade the appropriate behavior. Wait till they are done to do your praising.
Capitalizing on the “Den Mentality” of Your Puppy
Since dogs are born with an instinct to avoid soiling their den, it is important to help your puppy recognize where the den is. In most case the den is your house - where you don't want them to soil. Puppy dogs will endure, to some degree, the discomfort of having to go potty if a) they recognize they are in their den and b) they anticipate being able to go where it would better suit their instincts. 
This is in part what makes the use of crates an effective training tool. It is easy for them to recognize they are in their ‘den’ so to speak when they are confined to a small, enclosed area.
Using Scheduling to Potty Train
Scheduling is as important a factor and tool as anything else when training your puppy to go potty. Some key elements in scheduling are making sure you feed your puppy in regiment as well as take them out or to a potty location in regiment. Both eating and relieving are important to schedule and doing so with both is effective.
Other items to consider are regimenting how much and what your puppy eats. This can prove especially helpful in making more predictable the time between eating and relieving. If these strategies are employed with precision, you can couple the regiments with commands which can actually help train your puppy to alleviate on command (assuming they have waste in their bodies to get rid of).
In addition to scheduling feedings and using the schedule to help control potty location and times, you can use feeding portions too. Generally, if you find that your puppy is going all day long – the possibility of overfeeding may exist. The puppy’s potty regiment should be a little more regular that just all day long. As a rule of thumb, it is OK to feed your puppy three times a day. You can control the quantity you feed them to help alleviate how much goes away in waste. The best times to work into scheduling are right after your puppy eats, right after they wake up from a nap or night time and after they have been very active and/or running around. It is important to note that unrestricted access to water, especially for puppies, is the best way to go. As we have already discussed, scheduling trips to your dog potty pad (or outside and not on the pad – often times the pad is outside for balconies, porches and patios) can be very beneficial. Remember - they can go as often as every hour but in general should go around every two to four hours. You should plan on giving your puppy five to ten minutes each time to get comfortable and settled before they are ready.
Eventually, you can train them to go on command during these regimented visits. The good news is that the older your puppy gets, the longer they will be able to survive between relief periods. When you are around eight weeks however, they will likely not be able to go past a few hours. Some have observed that while sleeping, they can go up to six hours. Recall that puppies are most likely to go after eating, sleeping and playing. Since you, as the owner, are ultimately in control of you puppy’s eating, sleeping and playing arrangements – you have the opportunity to observe your puppy’s unique potty habits as well as regiment your puppy effectively based on those habits.
Training Your Dog to let you Know They Have to go Potty
It has been suggested, and is generally accepted as possible, that you can train your dog to give you signs they need to go potty. For example – if every time you go to take your dog potty, you have them sit down at your door step just prior to going, they may use that as a sign to indicate that is what they want. This is similar to treats etc. If you have your dog stand on two legs for a treat frequently and repeatedly, they will develop an association between their trick and the treat they get for doing it. If your puppy becomes very hungry, it is not unheard of that they perform the trick in an attempt to ask for the treat.
Conditioning for outdoor relief
With the puppy potty patch, conditioning your puppy to go on the balcony, patio or in a certain spot can be helpful – especially if it is an indoor dog that you cannot remain outside or in the particular location for long. When you are training your puppy, take them out to the potty patch and wait for them to start going potty. Once they begin, repeat your one or two word command calmly so as not to disrupt them but clearly so they understand. If regularly during movements you repeat “Go Potty,” then at other times when you take them to their potty patch you can use the command to indicate that that is what they are there to do.
Transitioning to a leash
One important step in the training process is getting you puppy comfortable with going while leashed. This is important for the times you are walking your dog and they want to go relieve themselves. If they have already developed a comfort going while leashed, they are less likely to avoid going while being walked and saving it for when you get home.
Relieving indoors with your potty patch
If you need your dog potty patch for indoors you will want to control where they go with more precision. Your puppy will become accustomed, if trained properly, to both look for the patch and the location. Consistency is very important here. It can be beneficial in the early stages to have multiple patches to build the association with the patch and going potty first while they are learning. Little by little you can remove patch areas so your puppy learns to associate both the location and the patch with going potty. Here it is important to recall how to deal with mishaps. If you catch your puppy in the act of going in the wrong place, calmly relocate them to the right spot so they understand they were in the wrong spot and that it is not the fact they were going potty that was the problem (otherwise they will hide it from you) but the fact that they were going in the wrong spot (in which case they will be more likely to go in the right spot.)
Remember, after the fact is too late! Your puppy will not realize that they made a mistake and went in the wrong spot if you try to bring it to their attention after the fact. If you don’t catch them in the act you missed your opportunity. Simply clean it up and watch more closely next time. If you do react harshly and after the fact you will most likely encourage something you don’t want either in the form of your puppy not wanting to potty in front of you or scaring them to the point they fear you.
A few additional tips when potty training your puppy
When you have had a successful event, and your puppy has gone outside for relief by your prompting – it is wise in the early stages to give them an extra few minutes. Often times it can take new puppies, especially when they have been introduced to a new food (perhaps different than what they had in the store) for them to have multiple sittings before it’s all out. So don’t neglect, especially in the early days, to give them a little extra time!
Another useful piece of information when using your pet potty pad for your new puppy or your dog is to keep in mind that feces are best removed as soon as possible. Your dog or puppy will likely avoid stepping in his or her own feces and as a result will begin to spread the waste over the pad if the solid waste is not removed (because of draining, you will not have to worry about this with the urine – only the solid waste). So be sure not to allow the solid waste to collect and pile up. Your puppy will not want step in it and will eventually spread it beyond the potty patch!
General Tips When Training Your Puppy to go Potty on the Pad
While it is ideal never to let your new puppy out of your site, in practice this is nearly impossible to achieve. There are a number of ways to accommodate this reality when training – one of them being to create a special area where only the puppy is, not on carpet, that they can associate as their own when you cannot watch them, and where mistakes are easier to deal with. During this early stage, try to have your puppy sleep, eat and play in the specially designated area.
Your puppy may develop the ‘den’ association early in this space and this is helpful when conditioning the new puppy to keep waste away from home. Gradually expand the area over time (applicable to indoor dogs and training indoors) so your puppy continues to develop a sense of where home is. It is critical to have a designated potty area so that as you expand the ‘den’ area, the waste area remains the same. Keep your potty pad in that location to facilitate this expansion of understanding.
In the beginning the eating, sleeping and play area should ideally be kept small – and the potty area totally distinct. Keep your potty pad as far away as possible from where you are cultivating the den mentality. Try to regiment your puppy as much as possible. Regiment the times, the locations and the details (i.e. the commands, the protocol, the temperament, tone, praise and treats). Watch for signs and patterns. Learn your puppy’s indicators that it has to go and try and facilitate communication once you pick up the signs (i.e. train your puppy to sit at the door when it needs to go by having it sit momentarily at the door each time you take her to go in regiment).
As a helpful hint – a vigorous communication, like running around near the door or jumping by the door serves you doubly by having the activity stimulate the bowls just before going. Another helpful hint would be to consider having a special treat specifically designated for potty pad success – or potty success in general. While treats are used for all sorts of training – one very important one to pack some punch is a special taste they specifically associate with going to relive themselves in the right place on the right surface (your potty patch).