House training for puppies and adult dogs

A routine, a timetable built from age, supervision between breaks and a log. Clean up accidents without punishment, which tends to make a dog fearful and slows progress. Adult dogs start the same routine.

1. The routine: when and how a dog goes out Understand

House training is teaching a dog to empty its bladder and bowels in the place you choose, and to wait between chances. It rests on two principles that Penn Vet's behavior medicine service puts at the top of its handout: reward the dog every time it goes in the right place, and prevent mistakes (Penn Vet, Tips on Housetraining Your Dog). Everything in this chapter serves one or the other.

When a dog needs to go

The sources give overlapping lists of the moments a puppy is likely to need a break. AKC's guide lists first thing in the morning, last thing at night, after naps, after time in a crate, after meals, after drinking, after chewing and after indoor play (AKC, How to Potty Train a Puppy). Ohio State's Indoor Pet Initiative adds "whenever there is a change of activity" (Ohio State, Housetraining). The Merck Veterinary Manual's owner pages say to take dogs out 15 to 30 minutes after eating, and right after play, waking, or when they slow down (Merck, Behavior Problems in Dogs). Convention

Put together, the routine is: out on waking; out 15 to 30 minutes after each meal; out after play, a drink, a chew or a nap; out at intervals in between, set by age (section 2); and out last thing before bed. The calculator turns that list into clock times.

Go out with the dog

Penn's handout explains why you go too, using a puppy let into the yard alone. She pees in the far corner, sniffs a bush, barks at the neighbor's dog, and then comes in and sits for a treat. The treat rewards the sit at the door, not the pee in the corner. Penn's advice follows from that: take the dog out on a leash during house training, so the reward can arrive the moment the dog finishes. The UC Davis handout says the same in its own words: do not leave the puppy outside unsupervised, because you miss the chance to reward (UC Davis, Housetraining Your Puppy). A fenced yard does not change this while you are teaching. Convention

• Same spot every time. Penn says a dog makes a visual association with the place and, over time, a scent association too, and that dogs tend to go where they have gone before.
• Same door every time. Penn says this helps if you want the dog to signal at the door later, and adds that not every dog learns to signal in a way owners understand.
• Reward as the dog finishes, not before. Penn says to praise and give a special treat immediately as the dog finishes, but not before it has finished, so it does not stop halfway for the food. Keep the treats in a pouch by the door.
• Business first, play after. Penn suggests holding a walk or a game until after the dog has gone, so the walk becomes part of the reward. UC Davis says not to play with or excite the puppy until it has gone.
• Give it a few minutes. VCA's house-training page says that if the puppy has not gone after 5 minutes, bring it in and supervise it closely, then try again soon (VCA, House Training for Puppies and Dogs).

The elimination cue

An elimination cue is a word the dog learns to associate with going, so that later it can be asked to go before a car trip or in a new place. Penn's handout teaches it in a set order. For the first week or two, say the word only while the dog is already going. Once the dog goes reliably on the routine, say it as the dog shows the signs of being about to go. Once that works, say it earlier, when you first step outside. If the dog does not go after the word, Penn says to go back to saying it only during the act for a couple of days. Penn also notes that dogs can learn to pee on cue more easily than to poop on cue. Preference Pick a word nobody uses in conversation and write it in the household sheet with the other cue words from Set up to train.

2. How long a dog can wait: the timetable

The holding interval is the longest stretch a dog can reasonably be asked to wait between breaks. For puppies it grows with age, because the bladder and the muscles that control it are still developing; the UC Davis handout says a puppy lacks the bladder muscle development to hold as long as an adult. Merck says puppies start to form habits about where they go at 8 to 9 weeks and begin to have voluntary control at about 8½ weeks. Physical principle

The hold rule, as each source states it

The sources agree on the shape and differ on the edges. Convention The one-hour-per-month rule describes the longest stretch, usually at rest or overnight. It is not the gap between breaks while a puppy is awake and playing; for that, VCA and AKC give every one to two hours, and Humane World says at least every two (Humane World, How to Potty Train a Puppy). Activity, a drink and excitement all shorten the wait. The rule also stops growing at some point: AKC caps it at about 9 to 12 months, and the adult figures take over.

The hold rule does not promise that a given puppy can wait that long. It is an average from experience, stated with a one-hour band because puppies vary. A puppy that has an accident inside its band is not failing the rule; it is showing you its own number.

How the calculator builds the table

The timetable page turns those rules into clock times. Knowing how it works lets you see what to change.

1. The holding interval. For a puppy, the age in months, in hours, with a band of one hour either side (Ohio State, Penn). AKC's figure is shown beside it. For an adult, about every four hours (Ohio State, Penn), with VCA's 3 to 4 hours for an inactive adult as the second figure.
2. Breaks while awake. Every two hours for puppies under 6 months, using the outer edge of VCA's and AKC's one to two hours. Every four hours from 6 months, and for adults.
3. Fixed breaks. On waking; 20 minutes after each meal, inside Merck's 15 to 30; and last thing before bed.
4. Meals. Pre-filled from the ASPCA's general care guide: four a day at 8 to 12 weeks, three from 3 to 6 months, two from 6 months to a year, and usually one for adults. The calculator spaces them evenly from 30 minutes after waking to 3 hours before bed. That spacing is this manual's assumption, not a source's rule; change the times to when you actually feed.
5. Interval breaks. Added wherever the gap between breaks is longer than the awake interval (with 15 minutes of slack). When the next fixed break is under 45 minutes beyond the interval, the new break goes halfway between them instead, so no gap runs past the interval.
6. Overnight checks. For puppies under 5 months, when VCA says overnight trips may be needed, the calculator adds one overnight row without clock times, because the age rule is a rough guide: expect a trip or two if the puppy wakes and stirs. It is not an alarm to wake a sleeping one; Humane World says most puppies can sleep about seven hours.
7. Time alone. If you enter the longest weekday absence and it is longer than the top of the puppy's band (or four hours for an adult), the table says so. Section 3 and Crate, pen and alone time explain what follows.

Every row is a break, but not every row in the table is a trip outside: the meal rows are placeholders for feeding times. A puppy that has just played, drunk or woken from a nap goes out then, whatever the table says. If the log shows accidents in a stretch with a long gap, add a break there.

The outings-per-day check

A UC Davis Clinical Animal Behavior Service handout gives a count of breaks per day by age. The handout says it was written by veterinary students as a class exercise, so we cite it as a cross-check, not as a rule. Convention

The calculator shows this count next to its own. If your table has far fewer breaks than the handout's range, look at the wake and bed times and the meal count first.

The log overrules the table

The timetable is a starting schedule from rules of thumb. Your potty log, the potty sheet in the house and home log, records what actually happened: time, event, place and what came before. After a few days it shows your dog's real pattern. Test it

• Accidents cluster at one time of day: add a break before that time.
• Several "no result" trips in a row at one slot, with no accidents: that break may be early, and the interval there can grow by 15 to 30 minutes.
• Accidents come soon after play or a drink: those are the standing "any time" breaks the table lists at the bottom. Take them.
• Poops come at a regular time: put a break there. VCA's house-soiling page says most dogs poop one to three times a day (VCA, House Soiling).

Within a week, the log should be telling you more than the table. When the two disagree, follow the log and change the table.

3. Between breaks: supervision, confinement and accidents

Penn's second principle is preventing mistakes. Between breaks, the dog is either watched or confined. Each accident that happens unseen is a rehearsal of going indoors, and Penn notes that the smell of an earlier spot becomes a cue to use it again.

Supervision

Supervision in house training means you can see the dog and get to it within seconds. VCA's page puts it at less than about 10 feet away. The ASPCA's house-training article suggests limiting the dog to the one or two rooms where you can watch it (ASPCA, House Training Your Dog or Puppy). Close doors, use baby gates, and keep the dog in the room you are in.

Watch for the pre-potty signs, the behaviors that come just before a dog goes. The ASPCA lists sniffing, circling and walking with stiff back legs; Penn adds squatting. When you see them, go out at once, even if a break is not due.

A tether keeps the dog near you when watching is hard. Ohio State and Penn suggest a light line about 6 feet long attached to you, especially for dogs that were confined in dirty conditions before and will not hold it in a crate. UC Davis suggests a leash attached to your waist. Clip it to a flat collar or harness.

Confinement

Confinement means a crate, an exercise pen or a small gated room when you cannot watch. It works because, as Penn puts it, most dogs naturally avoid going where they sleep or eat. Three rules from the sources:

• A crate is for stretches the dog can hold. Ohio State and Penn say that if the dog must be left longer than the hold rule, it should not be crated; use an exercise pen or a baby gate to give it a slightly larger area instead. VCA says a puppy left no more than about 3 hours can usually be crated, and that one left longer needs a potty break. Convention
• A longer absence needs a pen with a toileting area, or a person. VCA suggests an exercise pen with a resting spot at one end and a toileting area at the other; UC Davis describes the same set-up, with the toileting area away from food, water and bed. Penn suggests a dog walker or a neighbor as the other answer.
• A crate the dog fears is not a tool for house training. Ohio State says that a dog eliminating in its crate even after short periods may have separation or confinement anxiety, and that this calls for a veterinarian or behavior specialist. Crate, pen and alone time covers those signs and the crate itself.

Crate, pen and alone time covers crate size, introduction and hours in detail. For house training, the main point is the one Ohio State and Penn make: the crate holds the dog only for stretches it can wait.

Accidents

An accident is the dog going somewhere other than the chosen place. Accidents are information. They tell you that the interval was too long, the supervision slipped, or a sign was missed.

1. If you catch it happening, interrupt it gently. VCA suggests an odd noise with your voice or a light tap of your hand on your leg or a table: enough to pause the dog, not to frighten it. Then take the dog straight out to the spot, and reward if it finishes there.
2. If you find it afterward, clean it up and say nothing. The ASPCA says a dog learns nothing from being scolded for a past accident, even one a few minutes old.
3. Clean with an enzymatic cleaner. An enzymatic cleaner breaks down the compounds in urine and feces that carry the smell, rather than covering it. VCA and the UC Davis handout both recommend one, because the odor is a cue to use the spot again.
4. Write it in the log. Time, place and what came before. The pattern is what you change.

Sources differ on the interruption. The ASPCA and the UC Davis handout say it is acceptable to startle the dog by clapping. VCA describes a milder noise. Merck says startling is appropriate only when the dog is caught in the act, and that a dog with submissive urination should not be startled, because any punishment worsens it. This manual uses the mild version. The reason is in Ohio State's and Penn's pages: some dogs that were scolded for going indoors in front of their owner learn to avoid going in front of any person, and then hold it outside and slip away to go indoors. A quiet interruption gets the dog outside without teaching it that you are the problem. Preference

Every source in this chapter that addresses it advises against punishing accidents. Humane World says not to punish a puppy for accidents, and that scolding or rubbing its nose in the mess makes it fearful and slows progress. VCA says not to punish, not to rub the dog's nose in it, and not to strike it. Merck says punishment is not helpful and may be counterproductive. AKC says punishing accidents is less effective than rewarding correct behavior and preventing mistakes. This manual gives no method of punishment for accidents.

4. Adult and adopted dogs, marking and other urination

An adult dog new to your home may have been house trained somewhere else, or not. A shelter card often does not say. A new house has new doors, new smells and no history of where the spot is. This manual's approach for a new adult: assume nothing, and start the same routine as for a puppy, at adult intervals. Two weeks of the log tells you which kind of dog you have. Test it

The adult interval is about four hours when possible (Ohio State, Penn), with VCA's 3 to 4 hours for an inactive adult as the shorter figure. Ohio State and Penn also say an adult can reasonably be expected to hold urine 8 hours or longer. Those two statements answer different questions. The first is how often to offer a break. The second is how long a healthy adult can manage when it has to. A long absence that a reliable adult manages once in a while is a different thing from a schedule built on it.

If the log shows that the adult goes reliably in the right place and has no accidents, the dog is house trained in your home and the routine can relax to its adult rhythm. If accidents happen, treat the dog as a puppy in house training, at adult intervals, until the log is clean. If it was confined in dirty conditions before, Penn warns that the crate may not work and suggests the tether instead.

Marking, submissive and excitement urination

Not every puddle is a house-training problem. Merck's owner pages describe three kinds of urination that look like accidents but have different causes.

None of the three is fixed by a tighter schedule, and none is a training failure. VCA's house-soiling page says treatment for submissive and excitement urination focuses on the emotion behind the greeting, not on the puddle. A common first change is to make greetings quiet and brief, and to greet outside or on a washable floor for a while. Preference Marking that starts suddenly, or any of the three that persists, is worth a conversation with your veterinarian, who may suggest a veterinary behaviorist. Ask the authority

5. When a trained dog starts soiling

A dog that was reliably house trained and starts having accidents is not forgetting its training. It is usually telling you something about its body. VCA's house-training page says that if a previously well-trained dog begins soiling, consult your veterinarian. VCA's house-soiling page says to have the veterinarian check for physical illness first, especially when the change was sudden, and AKC says persistent soiling may signal a medical problem and that a dog that stays hard to house train despite consistent training should have a veterinary evaluation. Ask the authority

House soiling is the veterinary term for urinating or defecating in the house. VCA's house-soiling page lists the medical causes a veterinarian looks for (VCA, Dog Behavior Problems: House Soiling). We list them by group so you know what the visit is for, not so you can sort your dog into one.

The "what you might notice" column is this manual's plain-language summary of why each group causes accidents. It is there so you can describe what you saw to the veterinarian, not to diagnose. Bring the potty log: the times, amounts and circumstances are the history the veterinarian will ask for.

6. See it: Biscuit's timetable See it

• Penn Vet, Tips on Housetraining Your Dog: a four-page handout from a veterinary behavior service, with the hold rule, the reasons for going out on leash, confinement and the elimination-cue steps.
• VCA, House Training for Puppies and Dogs: the most detailed break schedule in our sources, with supervision distances, confinement for longer absences and how to interrupt a mistake.
• UC Davis, Housetraining Your Puppy: the outings-per-day table, in a handout written by veterinary students; useful as a cross-check on your count.
• VCA, Dog Behavior Problems: House Soiling: the medical causes a veterinarian rules out, and the difference between marking and other urination.

7. Practice: two days of the log Practice

Minimum: the timetable generated, two days of breaks taken with the dog and logged (one day for a reliably house-trained dog), and any accident cleaned with an enzymatic cleaner. Time: about 15 minutes to set up, then a few minutes per break over two days. Materials: leash and flat collar or harness, a treat pouch by the door, an enzymatic cleaner, baby gates or a crate or pen, and a phone or paper for the log.

1. Generate the timetable. On the timetable page, enter the age in months (blank for an adult), your actual wake and bed times, the meals you feed, and the longest weekday absence. Move the meal rows to your real meal times. Print it or keep it on the fridge.
2. Choose the spot and the word. Pick one spot outside, the same door, and one elimination word. Write the word in the household sheet.
3. Take every break with the dog. Leash on, straight to the spot, quiet. Say the word only while the dog is going. Reward the moment it finishes. If nothing after 5 minutes, back in, supervise, and try again in 10 to 15.
4. Log every event. In the potty sheet: date, time, pee or poop or both or no result or accident, place, and what came before (waking, meal, drink, play, nap, interval, before bed).
5. Watch or confine between breaks. Same room with a gate, a 6-foot tether, or a crate or pen for stretches the dog can hold.
6. Handle any accident the chapter's way. Interrupt quietly if you catch it and go out; clean with the enzymatic cleaner; log it.
7. Read two days of the log. Mark where accidents happened and where trips had no result. Change one row of the timetable if the log points to it.

8. Your dog Your dog

9. Check your work Check your work

Criteria

• Does the timetable use your real wake time, bedtime and meal times?
• Did you go out with the dog at every break, on leash, and reward at the spot as it finished?
• Is every event in the potty sheet, including trips with no result?
• Between breaks, was the dog either watched or confined for a stretch it could hold?
• Was every accident cleaned with an enzymatic cleaner, logged, and handled without scolding?
• Does the longest weekday absence fit inside the dog's interval, and if not, is there a plan (a person, or a pen with a toileting area)?
• For a dog that was reliable and has started having accidents, has a veterinarian been called before any change to the training?

Worked example

Fictional example: Biscuit's plan checked against the criteria. The timetable uses the family's own wake and bed times; the meal rows are the calculator's even spacing, so the first fix is to move them to when the Nakamuras actually feed, and the after-meal breaks move with them. Every break is taken on leash at one spot in the yard, with a parent present; whether the 8-year-old can take her out alone stays open until the parents have watched two sessions. Between breaks she is in the room with an adult behind a gate, or in her crate for stretches inside her band. The weekday absence fails the criterion: two stretches of about three hours against a 2.3-hour interval, open until the walker says whether a second visit is possible, with a pen and a toileting area as the fallback. The evening is flagged to watch. After two days, the log is checked for accidents in the evening and after play, which are the two places the table is weakest.

Common mistakes

• Opening the back door and waiting inside. You cannot reward what you did not see. Go out with the dog.
• Rewarding at the door instead of at the spot. The treat rewards whatever came just before it.
• Saying the cue word while the dog is wandering. It comes to mean wandering. Say it only during the act at first.
• Skipping the "after play" break. Activity shortens the wait. The log usually shows these accidents within minutes of a game.
• Crating for longer than the dog can hold. A dog forced to soil its crate loses the instinct the crate depends on.
• Using a household cleaner that leaves the smell. The dog can still find the spot. Use an enzymatic cleaner.
• Treating a new problem in a trained dog as a training problem. The veterinarian comes first.

What is still unresolved

Two days of the log do not tell you how long house training will take. Humane World says house training a puppy typically takes 4 to 6 months; that is its general figure, and your log shows your own dog's rate. The chapter cannot settle whether your dog's accidents have a medical cause, which only a veterinarian can, or how to handle long absences in a way that fits your work and your dog, which Crate, pen and alone time takes up. Marking, submissive and excitement urination that persist go to the veterinarian, and then possibly a veterinary behaviorist.

10. Knowledge check and scenario

Checklist

• Two days of the potty sheet are filled in (one day with no accidents, if my dog is reliably house trained).
• I generated the timetable with my real wake time, bedtime and meal times.
• I have an enzymatic cleaner and a plan for watching or confining the dog between breaks.
• I know which signs mean a call to the veterinarian before any more training.
• I kept the log for two weeks and changed one row of the timetable from it. (Go deeper; optional)