How to Teach Your Puppy to Poo Outside the House

Teaching dogs to urinate outside the home is one of the tasks that worries owners most, especially when they decide to adopt a puppy. Even so, it's also possible you'll need to get an adult dog used to relieving themselves on the street.

Like everything to do with canine training, it can be achieved, but it takes time, patience and a good attitude on our part, since it needs to be taught without shouting and, of course, without violence.

How Do Puppies Relieve Themselves?

Puppies are comparable to babies when it comes to relieving themselves. This means they don't control their bladder and bowels, and they pass both faeces and urine far more often than adult dogs.

Our aim is for them to do it outside the house, but there are several things to consider before starting this training. First of all, we need to be fully aware, before adopting a puppy, that they don't wee at home to annoy us. It's because physiologically they're not able to hold either their faeces or urine.

This is a process that takes time and that they'll gradually manage as the months go by. That's why they'll wee and poo at home during the night, or while we're out at work or doing the shopping. Simply because they can't hold it that many hours.

Where Do Puppies Relieve Themselves at Home?

Even if we spent the whole day keeping an eye on the dog to take them out every so often, if they haven't completed their vaccination schedule, they can't walk just anywhere. Contact with dogs whose vaccination status we don't know, or even just their droppings, is a source of parasites and very serious illnesses.

That's why, unless we have a safe spot, we'll need to set up an area at home. Newspaper has traditionally been used for this. A pile would be put in the chosen spot, the dog would wee or poo, it would be thrown away, and clean newspaper put down again.

Nowadays there are also training pads, which serve the same purpose with the advantage of keeping the floor safe, since newspaper soaks through. They need to be put somewhere out of the way, but somewhere the puppy can always reach and that's relatively close to where they spend most of their time.

Teaching the Puppy to Relieve Themselves on the Newspaper

When the dog arrives home, we should have everything they need ready. So, the newspaper/pad corner will be set up. If we notice the puppy starting to sniff around as if looking for something, or taking up a position to wee or poo, we can move them to the toileting spot. It's not a problem if we don't notice or don't have time.

We can simply cover a good part of the floor with newspaper and gradually reduce the area until only the spot the dog uses most is left, or dampen a piece of paper with their urine and put it on top of the clean newspaper. The puppy will look to wee again wherever they can smell it. The floor is cleaned with enzymatic cleaners or vinegar, with no comment made.

If we catch them, we'll praise them right at the moment they're doing it. Otherwise they won't understand what action they're being rewarded for. This way, by ignoring them when they relieve themselves elsewhere and rewarding them when they do it in their spot, they'll learn to always do it where they should. The second step is moving the toileting spot to the street.

Teaching Your Dog to Relieve Themselves Outside the House

It's common for the puppy to sniff the trails of their own kind on the street, which acts as a good incentive for them to leave their own scent too. Again, as soon as they wee or poo on the street, we'll praise them enthusiastically, right at that moment. Even so, remember puppies will relieve themselves more often than adults.

That's why we'll need to take them out more too. At first we can do it after feeding them, when they wake up after a good nap, right when we get up ourselves and before we go to bed, if we notice they're looking for a spot and so on. For the youngest puppies, we're talking about outings roughly every 3-4 hours.

That's why they'll likely wee at home during the night. As they grow, they'll manage to hold it for longer without relieving themselves, so outings can happen every six hours until we reach the adult pattern, which is usually every eight hours, that is, around three times a day.

Why Does an Adult Dog Urinate Inside the House?

Most adult dogs, even if we adopt them already grown, tend to avoid relieving themselves inside the house, so we shouldn't have problems getting them to wee outside. It's enough to give them the chance, taking them out for a walk at least three times a day. Even so, it depends on the life circumstances each dog has been through.

So we may come across adults with toileting problems. In these cases it's best to start from scratch and apply the same guidelines set out for puppies. That is, giving them plenty of chances to relieve themselves on the street and rewarding them whenever they do it right, ignoring mistakes. It shouldn't take them long to understand what we want.

Even so, if the problems don't get fixed, we need to see the vet to rule out any health condition. If the dog is healthy, urinating at home could be down to a behavioural problem that needs solving by an expert in canine behaviour or an ethologist.

Problems That Cause a Dog to Urinate at Home

Lastly, if our dog used to urinate outside the house with no problems but starts doing it inside, we need to see the vet. There are various health problems that can show up as an increase in how often they relieve themselves.

Fairly common examples are cystitis, kidney disease or cognitive dysfunction syndrome. If the dog is healthy, the next step is to consult a canine behaviour professional.