How Do I Stop My Puppy From Peeing Inside?

by Dr. Wendy A Shiao, VMD
May 20, 2016

One of the biggest challenges when raising a puppy is house training. It's not a pleasant job but it must be done, unless you don't mind your home being turned into a giant toilet.

Puppies are born with the natural instinct to keep their den clean by eliminating away from it, and that is how we are able to house train puppies at all. However, in their mind their den might just be the small area where they sleep, and they could just walk 10 feet away to pee in a different room in the house. Our job is to teach them that the entire house is the den and peeing should be done outside.

When Can I Start House Training My Puppy?

Most puppies have enough bladder and bowel control by 8 to 16 weeks to begin house training. Some puppies are ready sooner than others, as they develop at slightly different rates much like human babies might reach their milestones at slightly different times. If you try to start before a puppy is ready, it'll most likely just be an exercise in frustration.

Should I Punish the Puppy for Accidents?

When house training a puppy, rule number one is that you never, ever punish the puppy for peeing inside the house, whether or not you catch the puppy in the act. Punishing the puppy will only make house training much more difficult because the puppy will associate the punishment with the act of peeing, not with WHERE he's peeing. It will make the puppy not want to pee in front of you next time. He'll either pee when you're not around, or find a hidden place such as behind the couch to pee. Now you are more likely to miss those accidents and if they are not cleaned up quickly, the odor will remain and reinforce to the puppy that he should go back to that spot to do his business again in the future.

Not to mention that if the puppy's afraid to go whenever you're around, he'll try to hold it when you take him outside where you do want him to go. This might not seem like be a problem if you have a fenced yard and don't need the puppy to go outside on a leash, but someday you could move somewhere without a fenced yard or take a car trip and need to leash walk your dog at rest areas or whatever. There might also come a day when your veterinarian asks you to catch an urine sample, which will be next to impossible if your dog is afraid to pee in front of you.

How Often Should I Take the Puppy Outside?

Rule number two is to take the puppy outside frequently enough that she has plenty of opportunity to pee outside. Puppies generally need to be taken outside as soon as they wake up, before they go to sleep, after they play, when they're excited, after they eat, and after they drink water. If you're taking the puppies outside at all these times listed, you'll basically be taking them out every hour or hour and a half.

Like babies, puppies have small and immature bladders and simply cannot hold it very long at all. You need to get up to take the puppy outside even during the night, like you need to get up to feed a baby and change the diaper. Luckily, a puppy grows quickly so you should be able to sleep through the night again in a few short months, usually by the time the puppy is 6 to 10 months of age. You don't need to wake the puppy up at night to take it outside, but you should let the puppy sleep close to you so you can hear him if he starts to whine at night when he needs to go outside.

What if you are like most of us and can't be home during the day to take the puppy outside every hour or at least every couple of hours? You can either hire a puppy walker to let the puppy out when you can't be there, or you can set up an indoor potty area that the puppy is allowed to use in your absence.

Puppies develop what's called "substrate preference" during their house training process, meaning they'll get used to relieving themselves on whatever kind of surface they're taught to use, and will prefer and seek out that kind of surface. If you have access to grass, that's usually what you'll want your puppy to go on. Inner city puppies, on the other hand, might learn to go on concrete. When you choose the type of indoor potty system to use, keep in mind that if you can have the same type of surface you want the puppy to use outside, that will make the training process a lot easier. There are indoor potty patches made of real grass, for example, which will reinforce to the puppy that grass is where he should be doing his business.

What to Do When the Puppy Is Inside

When the puppy is inside and not being supervised, you should keep her confined to a small area. Due to the puppy's natural instinct to keep her den area clean, the small area will be too small for her to pee far enough away from where she sleeps, so she'll try to hold it until she's let out of that den area. Keep in mind, though, that a young puppy is physically able to hold it for only 2 to 3 hours at a time.

For some puppies, a crate works well for this purpose. But this only works if the puppy has been trained to like the crate and accept it as her den. If the puppy doesn't like being inside the crate, she might become upset and anxious which will make her more likely to soil in the crate, thus defeating the purpose of putting her in the crate for house training. In that case, until you are able to teach the puppy to like the crate, you're better off confining the puppy to a small room (such as a mud room or laundry room) or a small area within a room that has been cornered off using baby gates or play pens.

Reward the Puppy's Successful Potty Trips Outside

Whenever you do catch your puppy peeing outside where he should, reward him generously. The reward can be anything the puppy likes, including verbal praise, attention and petting, scratching his favorite spot behind his ears, food treats, or anything else he likes. If the puppy likes to play outside, allow him some time to play after he pees.

Some people have problems house training their puppies because they rush the puppies back inside as soon as they pee. The puppies want to stay outside longer so they learn that if they don't pee outside, they're allowed to stay outside longer because as soon as they pee playtime is over and they're forced back inside. Those puppies will often pee as soon as they are back inside because they had been holding it while outside and now they really need to go.

What to Do When the Puppy Has an Accident Inside

When the puppy has accidents inside the house, try to stay calm and not react to it. You simply clean it up as soon as you see it, that's all.

Besides their instinct to eliminate away from their den, puppies naturally learn where to pee by following their dam and peeing where she pees. This instinct means that they like to find previously used spots and go back to them. We can use this to our advantage by picking up some of the pee or poop when we clean up the accidents, taking it outside, and leaving it where we DO want the puppy to eliminate.

After you've cleaned up and taken what you need for the outside, the spots inside must be cleaned with an enzymatic cleaner, otherwise the puppy will still be able to smell the urine or stool that was there and will return to that spot the next time he needs to go. Enzymatic cleaners make a huge difference when house training a puppy because they break down the urine or fecal materials and eliminate the odor completely. Cleaners that simply use strong scents to mask the odors do not work. Puppy noses are much more sensitive than human noses and are not fooled by those cleaners that merely try to hide the odors.

How Long Should It Take to House Train a Puppy?

It generally takes a few months to completely house train a puppy. During that time they will typically get better gradually but still have some accidents. Small breed dogs usually take longer to house train than larger breeds. Some puppies might need a full year until they're completely housebroken.

Keep in mind that puppies of any breed that came from a pet store or a puppy mill will be much more difficult to house train and will require a lot more time and patience on your part. This is because they spent their earliest weeks of life being confined to a tiny cage where they were forced to eliminate inside the cage, so they become used to that and lose their desire to keep their den area clean.


If after following these general guidelines for some time your puppy is not making any progress, you should mention this to your veterinarian to make sure there isn't an underlying medical problem. If your veterinarian doesn't find any medical issues, and you're still struggling to house train your puppy, you might need to hire a veterinary behaviorist who can look into your specific case and offer help for your specific situation.¹ You might be dealing with something more complicated than simple potty accidents, such as urine marking (a social/territorial behavior), submissive urination, or anxiety issues. If you can find a good dog trainer near you, that would be another option, though keep in mind that trainer credentials vary widely and some might do more harm than good. The American College of Veterinary Behaviorists provides a free guide for finding a good trainer if you do decide to look for one.²


Shopping List - specific product recommendations for items listed in this article

---

References

1.	Find a Board Certified Veterinary Behaviorist, American College of Veterinary Behaviorists
2.	How to Select a Dog Trainer, American College of Veterinary Behaviorists