How to House-Train a Puppy

Quick answer

House-training is mostly about timing. Take your puppy outside often, especially after waking, eating, playing and before bed, stay with them, and reward them the moment they finish in the right spot. Supervise or confine them indoors so mistakes are rare, clean accidents properly and never punish. With a steady routine most puppies get the idea within weeks, though the odd accident is normal for months.

Why puppies have accidents

A young puppy simply can't hold on for long and doesn't yet know that the house is off limits. A common rule of thumb is that a puppy can hold its bladder for roughly one hour per month of age, give or take an hour. That's a maximum for a calm or sleeping puppy, not a target. An awake, playing puppy usually needs to go every hour or two, and sometimes more.

Puppies also don't "tell" you in any reliable way at first. Expecting them to bark at the door is unfair in the early weeks. Your job is to get them outside before they need to go, so they practise doing it in the right place.

The basic routine

Key times to go out

Take your puppy out:

• straight after waking, including after naps
• within about 15 minutes of a meal (many puppies wee within 15 minutes of eating and poo within about half an hour, though this varies)
• after play, excitement or a change of activity
• after a training session or visitors arriving
• last thing at night
• at least every hour or two in between, more if accidents keep happening

Feeding meals at regular times makes the poo side far more predictable. Frequent food changes, overfeeding and salty extras that make a puppy drink more all make house-training harder.

What to do outside

Go out with your puppy every time. If you just open the back door and leave them to it, they'll often play, come back in and then go on the rug. Take them to the same spot, stand quietly and let them sniff.

As they start to go, say a calm cue word such as "busy" or "be quick". Once they've finished, praise them warmly and give a small, tasty treat right there, within a second or two. Treating them after they come back indoors is too late to make the link. After a successful toilet trip a short play or a sniffy walk is a good extra reward.

If nothing happens after five minutes or so, bring them in, keep a close eye on them or pop them in their crate or pen for a short while, and try again in 10 to 15 minutes.

Supervision and confinement indoors

Most accidents happen when nobody is watching. In the early weeks:

• Keep your puppy in the same room as you, with doors or baby gates closed.
• Watch for signs they need to go: sniffing the floor, circling, wandering off, or suddenly stopping play.
• When you can't watch, use a crate or a small puppy pen they've been happily introduced to. Most puppies avoid soiling their sleeping area, so a correctly sized crate helps. It should be big enough to stand, turn and lie stretched out, but not so big there's a spare corner to use as a toilet.
• Keep rugs and carpets out of reach for now. They soak up urine much like grass, which confuses puppies.

Never leave a young puppy shut in a crate for longer than they can comfortably hold on. If you're out for long stretches, arrange for someone to let them out. A puppy that regularly soils its crate may be left too long or may be anxious about being shut in; ask your vet or a qualified behaviourist if it keeps happening. The guide on separation anxiety in dogs covers puppies who panic when left.

Accidents: what to do

You will have accidents. How you react matters more than the accident itself.

• Caught in the act: calmly scoop them up or call them, take them straight outside, and reward if they finish there. No shouting.
• Found later: just clean it up. Your puppy can't connect a telling-off with something they did even a few minutes ago.
• Never punish. Shouting, smacking or rubbing a puppy's nose in it teaches them that toileting in front of you is dangerous. They then sneak off behind the sofa to go, and hold on during walks so they can go later, out of sight.

Cleaning properly

Dogs return to spots that smell of urine. Clean with an enzymatic (biological) pet-stain cleaner, then let the area dry. Avoid ammonia-based cleaners, because ammonia smells like urine to a dog and can draw them back to the same place.

Night-time

Very young puppies can't last a whole night. Put the crate or bed near you for the first weeks so you hear them stir. If they wake and whine, take them out quietly on a lead, let them go, praise briefly and go straight back to bed with no play. Gradually the gaps stretch as they grow. Lift the water bowl an hour or so before bed if your vet is happy with that, but always leave water down during the day.

Puppy pads and flats

If you live in a flat and can't get outside within a few seconds, pads or a litter tray of turf can be a stepping stone. Put them in one fixed place and reward use just as you would outdoors. Bear in mind you're then teaching an indoor toilet, so plan to move to outdoor training by taking your puppy out at the key times and slowly reducing the pads. If you can get outside quickly, train outside from the start.

When it isn't working

Look at the routine first: most setbacks come from too much freedom too soon, or gaps between trips that are too long. Go back a step, supervise more and reward every outdoor success.

Some problems aren't really house-training at all. Wetting when greeting people or being told off (excitement or submissive urination) needs calm, low-key greetings outdoors, not punishment. Sudden accidents in a puppy that was doing well, peeing very often, straining, blood in the urine or diarrhoea can all point to a medical problem such as a urinary infection, so see your vet. Accidents only when the dog is left alone may be a sign of separation distress.

For the bigger picture of feeding, exercise and early training, see Dog Care Basics: A Complete Beginner's Guide.

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