So puppies are really great and everything. Like they’re just kind of floppy and boneless and fuzzy. They look cute, they move cute, they sound cute, they smell cute…they’re just cute. They have a lot going for them. 10/10, really.
But…potty training, though.
There are so many resources on housetraining puppies that in some ways it feels redundant to do a post about it. But I’ve seen a lot of people report that their corgi is especially difficult to potty train compared to other dogs they’ve had, so I thought it would be worth distilling some potty training tips through this blog’s corgi-owner focus. Plus, this was a request that I got. (And if you want to request a topic, you can do that here.)
Actually, full disclosure: for me, potty training was one of the easier parts of having a puppy, and I don’t think corgis are particularly difficult once you realise that they are herding dogs; they love patterns and routines. I know that it’s obviously not that easy for everybody and every puppy. I have puppysat for some puppies that had no problem soiling their crate and who would pee in the house after they’d just peed outside. Or who were afraid to go in front of people so would do it sneakily. I do fully empathise: it can be a nightmare!
As with so many things, prevention is the best medicine. So I’m going to tell you how to set yourself and your pup up for success from day one. But then I’m going to give some troubleshooting tips in case that ship has already sailed.
Before You Bring Your Puppy Home
If you already have your puppy, and probably also if you’re going to adopt your puppy from a shelter or a rescue, then you can just skip this section.
But if you are going to get your puppy from a breeder, then you really should set yourself up for success by choosing a breeder who will give you a head-start on potty training. Meaning that there’s a separate toilet area in their puppy-raising setup My preference is some sort of litterbox, rather than puppy pads, just because to my mind that’s much more distinct.
This does not mean that your puppy will be potty trained when you bring it home! All it means is that the puppy will be introduced to the idea that it’s not supposed to just void whenever and wherever it feels the urge, but that there is a separate and distinct spot they’re supposed to head toward. This will buy you a precious few seconds to rush the puppy outside when they get that look in their eye. You still have to be on top of it, but those seconds are priceless. As I said, I’ve puppysat for a puppy who would immediately just go wherever he was standing without hesitation. Once that habit has been established, it’s very, very hard to undo.
On the other hand, in the first few moments I had Delia home, she started glancing around the room when she had to pee. She didn’t know where the spot was, but she knew there had to be a spot she was supposed to go. I had time to catch that and rush her outside. Again—priceless.
Don’t assume that a breeder does this. Not even if they’re a member of their breed club or have successful show dogs. Get detailed information on their puppy-raising methods. Ask lots of questions. Your breeder should also give you realistic expectations. Delia’s breeder was clear that, while she utilised a litterbox, we couldn’t expect that our puppies were coming home fully potty trained. We’ll talk about that more in a second.
As always: take your time in choosing a breeder! (I would link to the post I did on finding an awesome breeder/not getting scammed, but I actually need to rewrite it. It was rather generic, and I feel it could be vastly improved.) Puppies aren’t blank slates even as newborns, and they most certainly are not blank slates by the time you have them in your arms. Their brains are doing so much wiring and learning in those first several weeks. A breeder who understands that and makes the most of this time is worth their weight in gold.
Realistic Expectations
So now let’s talk about our own expectations when we bring this puppy home. Some of us are really doing the equivilent of letting a baby crawl all over the house without a diaper and wondering why he didn’t climb up onto the toilet, flush, and put the lid down when he was done. Let’s consider a non-exhaustive list of all the complex things involved for this poor pup.
First, they need to connect the sensation with the meaning. Have you noticed that human toddlers can’t always do this yet? It’s a no-brainer for us, but it’s something we all had to learn. “This feeling means I need to go.” And then, the judgement to realise you shouldn’t wait until it’s overwhelming, you have to pay attention while the urge is still faint. That takes a long time for humans to learn! So that’s really step one.
Step two is the idea that there is an appropriate place they’re supposed to go. Again, if your breeder set the puppy up for success by introducing this concept, that’s invaluable.
And then they need to learn where that place is. That’s going to take a lot of repetitions and rewards.
After that, how do they get to that place? How do they communicate to you that they need to go? And this needs to be combined with giving themselves sufficient time by correctly identifying that urge to go and acting on it soon enough, in case they can’t get your attention immediately. It’s really a lot, and thinking about this can help us be more understanding of why it’s not an overnight process, and why there will be mistakes and setbacks along the way.
So keep your expectations reasonable. Set yourself and your puppy up for success. And beware of giving too much freedom too soon. On that note…
My Number One, Zero Accident Tip
If you read my puppy pen post, then you already know this one. For those of you who don’t, hear me out:
The key to potty training is to prevent as many accidents in the house as possible.
I know. I know it sounds unhelpfully obvious, but it really does come down to that. It’s all about management. Set up the environment so that it is more difficult for your puppy to fail and easier for them to succeed. I recommend checking out that post, and the one about setting up your puppy pen too. Go ahead, those links should open in a new tab for you.
You cannot give a tiny puppy run of your home and expect that they will not have accidents constantly. You must supervise and contain. This can take different forms depending on what works for you. You can utilise what some refer to as a “buddy leash,” where you actually have the pup on a leash that is connected to you, so that you are supervising them at all times, or you can have the pup contained in a small enough area that they will be averse to toileting in it. I would recommend that even if you use the buddy leash method, you still have times where the pup is crated AND times where they are in an enriched playpen environment, expected to entertain themselves. This will help foster much-needed independence. Again—go read the puppy pen posts.
Make It Like Clockwork
Now, I fully understand that not everyone will be able to stick to the schedule I am about to describe. I am very fortunate in that I work from home. If you don’t, and you’re able to take even a few days off in order to adhere to this schedule, I would so recommend it. Even a few days of this will make a huge difference. I really do think it was the key to how quickly Delia was potty trained. But, again, it’s not going to work for every situation, so I promise to address that.
When I first brought Delia home, I had alarms set to go off every 15 minutes. And during the day, every 15 minutes, unless she was sleeping, I took her outside on a leash and we stood in one spot until she went potty. If she didn’t go potty, that was okay; there was no pressure, because we were going out so frequently. When she did go potty, I made a big deal about it and gave her a treat.
Because she’s Delia, on her first day home, after maybe the 5th time of getting a treat for squatting and peeing in the right spot, she ate her treat, and then she just looked at me. I could see the little gears turning behind her eyes. Then she squatted and pretended to pee!! The little stinker looked at me like, “Okay, I did the thing. Where’s my treat?” Not every dog will try to manipulate you and game the system (thankfully—because not all dogs can be this extra), but all will see the connection with repetition! And for most, this will be fairly quick. Especially smart little corgis who love order and patterns.
If you’re taking them out this frequently, it’s entirely possible that you will have zero accidents in the house! Delia didn’t have any while we were on this schedule. But if they do have an accident, it’s important that you don’t make a fuss. (More on that in a moment.) Just clean it up (and more on that, too!) and move on. Take them outside and reward them heavily the next time they go in the appropriate place. It won’t take them long to learn that there is a predictable schedule when they’ll be taken outside to relieve themselves, and if they do it out there, they get handsomely paid! It becomes a no-brainer, then, to hold out as long as their little puppy bladder can.
If memory serves, I only did this rigorous 15 minute schedule for the first two days. After that, I moved to every 30 minutes. Some of the resources I’m going to provide say every hour. You can do whatever works best for you. The reason I like doing the 15 minute schedule at first if you possibly can is that it really establishes that pattern in the puppy’s brain and gives you a lot of opportunities to reinforce in those first couple days. My goal was zero accidents in the house, and we achieved that as long as we stuck to these schedules. It was over two weeks before she had a single accident!
What If My Puppy Is Napping When the Alarm Goes Off?
Naps are really important for puppies, so if you’re able to wait until the puppy wakes up, I recommend doing that. The key is you need to be able to take the puppy outside right when he wakes up, as he will usually have to go after waking. Of course, if you’re on a tight schedule, you need to take the puppy out when you can take the puppy out. Again, I had the advantage of working from home with the puppy pen in eye-sight of my desk. I realise that’s not going to be the case for everyone.
If you need to wake the puppy up to take him outside, just give him a couple extra minutes than you might normally before giving up and taking him back in. When puppies are all groggy and sleepy, it might take them a little longer to realise what’s happening and what they need to do.
The Potty Break Formula
Always take the puppy out on a leash for potty breaks. Not only will this give her good practise with leash manners, so that when she’s fully vaccinated and able to go on walks she’ll already know what’s up, but it is also crucial in making sure that she gets down to business right away.
Puppies have short attention spans and are very fascinated with all the new and exciting things the outdoors has to offer. Especially when they don’t know yet that the expectation is for them to potty, it’s all too easy for them to get distracted playing in the yard. Then you assume your puppy doesn’t have to go and you take him back in, and he immediately pees on the floor. And then that becomes the pattern, and you get frustrated, and it all goes downhill pretty quick.
Avoid all that by taking your pup out on a leash and standing in one spot until he goes. Then, you reward him with a treat, throw a little party, and unclip the leash. Now he gets to play and explore. Or, if it’s bad weather, take him back in and let him have some supervised exploration of the indoor space with the benefit of an empty tank.
This sets up the habit: when they go outside, the first thing they do is potty. To this day, my dogs typically do their business immediately upon going outside, and then proceed to sniff around or play. This is really valuable if you’re ever in a hurry.
Now, if she doesn’t go, that’s okay. Just take her back inside, maybe put her on a buddy leash so that you can catch it if she starts to sniff around and act like she might need to go. You can try again in a few minutes.
How Long Can My Puppy Hold It?
Now, probably the majority of people aren’t working from home. Even for those of us who are, at some point we’ll need to leave our puppies to go run errands or something. So how long can we leave them?
You will see different rules and formulas for this. In general, most sources abide by either the 1 month = 1 hour rule or 1 month = 1 hour + 1 formula. The latter is what I always remembered. So, for example, on average, an 8 week old puppy can hold their bladder for a maximum of 3 hours at a time. Now, that’s the maximum. But if you can think back to a time when you had to hold your bladder to its absolute maximum capacity and what a singular discomfort that was, I think you’ll agree that, if we can help it, we don’t want to force our puppies to do this regularly. It’s very uncomfortable, at times verging on painful. That’s one of the reasons that a more regular potty schedule is ideal.
Now you might notice that until now I haven’t mentioned puppy pads. And that’s because I didn’t use them. If you don’t need to use them, I think it’s much better not to, especially if you don’t plan on relying on them for the rest of your dog’s life. But, if you aren’t home during the day and don’t have the ability to con a family member or pay someone to let your puppy out every 3 hours, you’re going to need to have a toilet area set up. There’s no other option. And for that, I’m going to refer you to Dr. Ian Dunbar’s long-term confinement concept, which will be in the resources here in a bit.
Another situation where you might need to have an indoor potty area is if you live in an apartment or other situation where unvaccinated dogs might have recently been. Parvo is a very serious risk, even in areas where one would assume most dogs have been vaccinated. It’s not worth chancing it.
What About At Night?
Do not imagine that I was waking up every 15 minutes to take Delia outside at any point in my life. Neither of us would have benefitted from that.
Night time is a little bit different. Your puppy’s body recognises it’s time to sleep, and that means it isn’t needing to eliminate so often. Plus, there shouldn’t be access to food or water, which helps too. So for the first night, we went to bed at 10:30, and I had alarms set for 1am, 4am, and finally 6am—which is my normal wakeup time regardless. But after the first night, I realised that really wasn’t necessary.
I wish I could remember for sure, but I think after that I had an alarm set for 3am for a few nights. Mostly, I was just paranoid that I would sleep through it if she was crying. But I remember it really wasn’t long before she was sleeping from my bedtime to my early-morning-wakeup with no problems. There were a few nights when she needed to go out and would cry and wake me up (and it turned out her crying would wake me), but that wasn’t the norm. Every puppy is different though, so you might want to set alarms the first few nights and see how it goes.
Now, I’m sorry if anyone doesn’t want to hear this, but your baby puppy must be crated at night. I know you may want to cuddle with your cute little puppy. I understand. And I highly recommend you take some naps together during the day—those are the best. But bedtime is crate-time.
Once your dog is housetrained, you can do as you like. Delia is no longer crated at night. She spends part of the night in my bed, part of it in her crate, and part of it under my bed. But when you bring that puppy home, you must crate it at night for a few reasons:
- When used properly, dogs love their crates. They feel safe knowing they have their own space to retreat to.
- Even if you plan to ditch the crate at home, being able to be crated is a vital skill for vet visits, travel, going to the groomer, and many other scenarios.
- Being crated encourages the puppy to settle and sleep, even when they’re in that “I’m not tired!” cranky-toddler mode. (Eventually I’ll do a post about dealing with puppy biting, and this will be a major theme.)
- Puppies naturally do not want to eliminate where they sleep, so being crated at night encourages them to hold it, or to let you know if they do need to go.
- It’s really not safe for a puppy to be loose in the house unsupervised. They could get hurt, eat something harmful, or otherwise get into trouble.
I’m not interested in doing an entire post on crate-training because I don’t have much to say about it really, other than that you should do it. So if you want to learn more, I highly recommend the Pandemic Puppy Podcast’s episode on this. And actually, you should just binge-listen to all the episodes.
What If My Pup Does Have An Accident?
If you are able to catch it, you can try to softly interrupt your pup. Very softly, without startling him, you can say “no, no, no, outside.” Keep your tone matter-of-fact, not scolding. Once he stops or pauses, usher him gently outside. He is likely finished, but if he finishes up out there, you can give him a treat. Even if he is finished, taking him outside helps make the connection that this would have been the place to go.
In the troubleshooting section, we will get into why it’s so important not to startle your puppy. And if you find the accident after the fact, there is no point addressing it with the puppy at all. Obviously the puppy shouldn’t have been out unsupervised, and that means you need to tighten up your management.
The most important thing to do is to clean the spot very well with an enzymatic cleaner—not just any cleaner. You want to completely erase the smell so that it no longer seems like a place to go.
How Do I Know My Pup Is Ready for More Freedom?
This is the tricky bit. This is why we finally had our first accident in the house. It’s very tempting, especially if you have thus far avoided accidents, to assume that your puppy is further along than they are. So, maybe you no longer have to take them out on such a regular schedule. And maybe you can let them out of the playpen—you’re in the room paying bills or watching tv, so they’re kind of supervised. It’ll be fine, right?
No.
Or, it might be. But proceed with caution. How long has it actually been? In my case, it felt like it had been a long time, but in actuality it had only been a couple weeks. Delia was still very much a baby, successful in large part due to the management strategies I described, not because she had truly mastered potty training yet. And so, of course, my zero-accident record was dashed. We flew too close to the sun, and we paid the price. Don’t be a statistic.
Seriously though, take time and repeat to yourself as many times as you need to hear it that this creature is still a baby. Even if he truly grasps the concept right now that outside (or on potty pads etc. if that’s your situation) is the “right” place to go, that doesn’t mean that he has the skills to let you know when he needs to go out, or the bladder muscles to hold it until he can get to the right spot.
The time to give more freedom is going to be different for each and every puppy. But if you’re questioning whether your pup is ready or not, it’s probably a good idea to just stick with the containment plan for a little longer. It can’t hurt, and the longer you wait the more likely your puppy will be successful.
Training the puppy to alert you when he needs to go outside is a whole different subject which I’ll leave for another post.
Troubleshooting
Of course, the ideal situation is to avoid problems before they arise by setting yourself and your puppy up for success from day one, as outlined above. But that’s not always how life goes, as we all know. And sometimes we just have to pick up the pieces, learn our lesson, and move forward.
I’m not a professional; I’m still in the process of educating myself and there is a lot I don’t know. Depending on the severity of the situation, you might benefit from hiring a professional to assess the situation and give you some tailored advice. In the meantime, I do have some tips I can share for when things go awry. I’m not going to address every possible problem in this post, just in the interest of time, but if you want me to do a follow-up post with another specific question, let me know. You can leave a comment below, or reach out through email.
My puppy won’t pee outside, but she pees the second we get inside. Is she being stubborn?
Okay, hypothetical human, I need more information on this.
The first question I would have is whether you’re taking the pup out on a leash. That’s going to be number one. Pop a leash on, put some yummy treats in your pocket, walk the dog outside, and just stand still and wait. Be very boring. And just wait for the puppy to go.
The second question I have is whether the puppy will eliminate when you’re watching. If you’re standing right there when she pees inside, then my advice will be much more straightforward. If, on the other hand, she sneaks off or waits until you leave the room, then that’s a different problem. There are (at least) two reasons this might happen. One is simply that the puppy just hasn’t ever gone potty in front of a human before and isn’t used to it. In this podcast episode, the example was given of a foster puppy who had never gone to the bathroom in front of people. The puppies were raised in their foster home with a dog door in the puppy-raising setup, and would just go outside. So in cases like this, the puppy then comes home and the human takes them out and just stares at them, and it’s not normal or expected for the puppy. And that’s going to be tough, but I think you can proceed with the advice I’m about to give, and then just reward very heavily to show the puppy that going to the bathroom in front of humans is awesome. Be consistent and develop a pattern. The sooner you can do this (the younger the puppy is) the better. I’ll get to the advice after I discuss the other thing that might be going on. So you can skip to the advice heading if you want.
The other thing that could be going on, which is quite common, is that the puppy has become fearful of eliminating in front of a human. This happens frequently when the puppy has been scolded or startled upon eliminating inside the house. So here’s something important to know about punishment—and first, punishment doesn’t just include rubbing the puppy’s nose in what they’ve done or something nasty like that. Depending on the puppy, simply shouting—which is a very natural response upon seeing a mess on our floor—can be extremely punishing. Especially if it startles the puppy. Everyone is different, but for me being startled is one of the most aversive things. It takes my body a long time to recover. So I understand the many dogs who feel that way.
The important thing to know is that when an organism encounters a stimulus that they find punishing, they immediately need to identify what predicts that punishment so that they can avoid it. If you touched an unfamiliar fence and got shocked, you would immediately try to discern why that happened. You’ve touched fences before and not gotten shocked. So what is the difference here? There are so many things in the environment, but they aren’t all equally likely to seem relevant to what just happened. You aren’t likely to assume that the reason you got shocked for touching this fence is because today is Monday, or your socks are mismatched, or there are exactly 5 visible clouds in the sky. No, you’re most likely to assume that since the shock came from the fence, it must have something to do with the fence itself. And maybe you’ll notice that there is a wire running along it held up by little yellow plastic insulators. Out of all of the things in the environment that you could assume would predict that shock, the fence is the most relevant. The shock occurred when you touched the fence, and so you can presume it originated from the fence itself. So touching that fence is something you’re going to avoid going forward. But if you fail to learn that the first time and you do it again, you will likely learn very quickly. Hopefully that example makes sense.
So when your puppy starts to pee right in front of you in the house and you react by yelling (it happens—we’re human), if the puppy finds that particularly punishing, what we would hope is that the puppy will associate those negative feelings with peeing + environment (inside). But what is actually much more likely is that the puppy is going to associate peeing + human-is-watching. Because the most relevant thing to them getting yelled at wouldn’t appear to be that they are inside. The yelling came from you, so you are the most likely to be relevant. This is confirmed when they go to the bathroom inside without you watching, and there is no yelling. So then we get into the problem where you take them out to potty and they won’t go. They’ll hold it until you are no longer watching, and that ends up being inside the house.
The good news is that there is a concept called associative weight. I don’t want to get into that too-too deeply in this post, but if from day one you have heavily reinforced the puppy for going in front of you, then one experience where you accidently yell upon seeing the puppy have an accident in the house is much less likely to result in learning. The positive reinforcement they’ve already gotten for going to the bathroom in front of you outside is likely to hold much more weight. That’s why it’s so important to do a lot of reinforcing early and often.
But! —I hear you saying, — my puppy sneaks off to pee and then looks guilty when I find it! So she knows it’s wrong! No. And I think most of you know this—your puppy is simply engaging in appeasement behaviours because she has learned that human + puddle on the floor = yelling, and she’s trying to defuse that situation. The relevant thing is still your presence + pee, not the fact that going to the bathroom indoors is somehow morally wrong. But again, I think this has been said often enough that most people know it. If you’re interested, we could go down the whole rabbit hole of what “guilty” behaviour actually means a different time.
As far as what to do if your puppy has become fearful of going to the bathroom in front of you, it’s going to be tricky. I would say that you can proceed with the advice below, but just be extra patient and very conscious of not associating anything negative with going to the bathroom in front of a human going forward. And be willing to consult a trainer if you get stuck.
The Advice
We need to undo the pattern that has developed. Go back to very strict management. At all times, the puppy should be attached to you with a leash, in a pen but closely supervised, or in his crate. Preferably on a leash, so that you don’t risk accidents in the pen or the crate. Whenever you’re at home, go back to taking the puppy outside every fifteen minutes. If the puppy has gone recently, you don’t have to wait out there very long. But if you are pretty sure the puppy has to go, don’t give up. Just stand there for as long as it takes. I guarantee you that the puppy’s bladder will give out before your legs do. You can out-stubborn a corgi. I believe in you!
But I will caution you: the entire point is that you’re able to heavily reinforce and start forming and strengthening a positive feeling around going to the bathroom outside with the human standing there. So do whatever you need to do to stay in a good mood while you’re standing there. Don’t get frustrated. Your corgi is going to pick up on that. It’s going to travel right down the leash and continue to further poison your potty-training. So have your headphones in and listen to some calming, happy music, or a funny podcast. Don’t talk to the puppy too much, just stand there like you’re not really paying much attention. Be boring and not scary. She will have to go eventually. When she does, reward her SO heavily with plenty of high-value food, and then some play. Repeat this process enough times, and the puppy should catch on pretty fast. She’s a corgi; she’s smart, and she loves food and routines.
Also, think of it this way: if you had a pattern develop where the puppy goes to the bathroom like clockwork the second you get inside, that shows that it’s possible to develop a pattern, right? Somehow your corgi learned to hold it until you bring him inside the house, and then go. If he can do that, then with a little patience and repetition and lots of good rewards, he can do the opposite.
I hope that helps and I explained it well. You guys can let me know if I didn’t, and I can edit to clarify. Again, if you get stuck on this, it’s well worth it to hire a qualified trainer. Frustration and negative emotions around potty training can put your relationship with your dog on such a bad foot, so it’s good to address it so that you can focus on having good times with your pup.
Some Resources
There are so many good resources on potty training! Here are just a few:
- Way to Go! How To Housetrain a Dog at Any Age by Karen London, PhD and Patricia McConnell, PhD (book for purchase)
- After You Get Your Puppy by Dr. Ian Dunbar (free eBook)
- “Potty Training Basics for Puppies” – The Pandemic Puppy Podcast (podcast episode)
- “03 Housetraining 101” – Dog Talk With Dr. Jen (podcast episode)
Obviously there are so many more, but that’s a good list to get you started, and I’m ready to wrap this up!
That’s all for today! I hope you enjoyed and that I was able to make sense. I have some upcoming plans to announce that I’m pretty excited about, but I’ll save that for another time.
If you found this post helpful, that makes me so happy! You might like to subscribe to my blog so that you’re notified of future posts. You can also follow us on Facebook for links to all future posts and occasional cute pictures of Delia and other randomness.
And have a lovely day!
