How Do I House-Train My Newly Adopted Dog?

Unfortunately dogs typically don’t come from shelters or breeders house-trained, and it is important to immediately begin working on the behavior once you get your new dog home. It is also unreasonable to think that a dog coming from rescue, that is stated as house-trained, will immediately come into your home knowing what to do. The sooner you can put your pooch on a potty schedule the higher the success rate will be.

A dog that is not house-trained is the number one reason why dogs are returned or end up in shelters. However, house-training is something with a little structure can usually be solved; it is up to the owner to implement the right tools. When potty training your dog, it is important to keep long term goals in mind, whether your goal is to train your dog to make it a few hours or longer period of time while at work. Once you have a specific goal in mind, you can then put a plan in place to obtain it.

Creating and following a schedule will help them be successful. Dogs tend to do things routinely so a schedule is essential. This means feeding your dog at the same time every day, as well as potty them at the same time every day. When you begin potty training it’s important to notice trends, so for example if your dog eats at the same time every day, chances are they will use the bathroom at the same time as well. It’s important to also realize that puppies will not be able to hold it as long as adult dogs, and no adult dog should be expected to hold it longer than six hours.

Remember that the crate is your friend; a crate can be a great tool that can help facilitate potty training. It gives the dog the capacity to physically and reasonably build their ability to “hold” their urges. However, dog doors are not your friend; they are not the solution to your house-training problem, they might be the reason for it. Dog doors give no structure to your dog’s potty plan and it can be an unsafe situation when a dog is outside unsupervised.

Your dog counts on you to set them up for success. Be realistic about your expectations and understand that adjusting to a new home, new routine, and new lifestyle takes time. Plus, Morris K9 Campus is always here to help!

Three Most Important Things to Know About Housetraining Your Puppy

1. Crate Training***

The crate is one of the most important training tools in the development of your puppy. Some benefits are:

• If used as a training tool combined with a schedule, it makes potty training very easy.

1. It allows you to schedule and monitor patterns of bathroom habits
2. It helps your dog learn where going to the bathroom is acceptable
3. It reinforces housebreaking in such a way that it builds their ability and capacity to “hold it” when they are alone for longer

• A crate helps your dog learn how to self-soothe or gaining the ability to calm themselves and find comfort in being alone.

• It provides essential management during the “chewing” phase. 

Piper is getting the reward of playtime because she went to the bathroom outside successfully.

 2. Feeding Schedule

Having a regular feeding schedule is vital for the puppy and human when trying to housetrain:

• A feeding schedule and bathroom breaks should be timed together - realistically scheduled around the owners life schedule



• It gives you a bathroom “time period”, alternative to a dog that may go to the bathroom at any hour of the day unpredictably

• This helps predict when number two will most likely happen

3. Routine/Consistency

Dogs thrive on routine. Many things that a puppy experiences and learn will carry through the rest of their lives. This is essential because:

• It makes a distinct potty pattern for your dog

• It becomes a method of “accident prevention”


• It takes away confusion of outside vs. inside bathroom habits as to what is allowed and what’s not

• If you live in a multi-person household it is imperative that a routine is followed so that every member can follow it and leave no room for unplanned accidents.

Morris K9 Campus offers a Monday to Friday weekly program to help do this for you. Call us at 973-252-5100 for more information or visit http://www.morrisk9campus.com/puppy_housebreaking.asp.


Caesar taking time out for a quick photo.



***Keep in mind that Morris K9 Campus recommends that no adult dog should be crated for more than six (6) hours. Depending on a puppy’s age, we recommend that you follow the one (1) hour per every month of age method, based on housetraining progress. Adjustments may need to be made based on how well or not your puppy is doing with their potty training.