Potty training service dogs
This is the hardest part of service dog training. Your puppy must learn to go anywhere and everywhere on command. This must be worked on every time your dog goes potty. Steps listed below are the most common ways of potty training service dogs. If you are having trouble let me know and we can figure out a way your pup can learn this important task.
From 8 weeks to 4-5 months or for the first 2-3 months of starting potty training dogs have very limited control of their eliminations. During this time we won’t expect the dog to go on command or even truly understand why you take them out at certain times of the day. Things you will do during this time will begin conditioning them during eliminations.
The key is observation! You will start to notice a routine your dog does prior (etc. circling, pacing, whining, sniffing around) this will be your warning signs to respond to
Keep track of water and food intake
Always take your dog to a new spot to go potty (very important!)
Keep your dog on leash when going potty
Don’t take them out too often as this will condition them to go potty often
Use the tethering method when you can’t keep an eye on your dog inside
Crate the dog when you are out of the room or out of the house
The above list all has one thing in common.. How the handler prevents unwanted eliminations! That is because it is up to you to observe and understand when your dog needs to go potty. It is not your dog's job yet to know when and where they can go. You are just conditioning your dog to only feel the need to go when outside.
Now you know how to prevent unwanted eliminations and have learned your dogs warning signs you will also need to do some training each time they go potty. This training can start from day one.
While your dog is going potty you are going to repeat the phrase “good potty, good potty”. It can be whatever command you want it to be just make sure it’s one word and you keep it consistent. You're saying this in a soft voice, don't yell it at the dog but don’t whisper either. You want to say it in a normal volume but pleasant.
Reward your dog instantly after they are done going with a treat, lots of pets and verbal praise.
While you're rewarding after the fact you're just going to say good boy/girl. You don’t want to say your command after they are done
After two- 3 weeks of saying the command during eliminations only you will have figured out when they are just about to start going. You will start saying “go potty” or whatever your command is moments before they are about to go. Then follow it with “good potty” repeatedly during eliminations.
Again you will follow that with rewarding with food, pets, verbal praise but don’t repeat your command after going potty
Once you have worked with your dog on that for 2-3 weeks you will start to say “go potty” or whatever your command is as you reach an area you want your dog to go and wait till they go potty and reward instantly after with lots of verbal praise, food and pets.
When you can tell your dog is having the urge to go every time you say the command you have successfully conditioned your dog to go on command! Good job! Now you move on to the maintenance phase of this command. You want to always reward still each time whether it be verbal praise, pets or a treat but just start to make the treats more sporadic.
Some things to keep in mind while potty training is mistakes will happen. Don’t think your dog has regressed if they go inside randomly. They could have had an upset tummy or you just didn’t read their body language correctly. The important part is to think about what you observed happened prior to unwanted eliminations to help prevent this in the future.
Taking your dog to a new spot each time is the most time consuming and difficult part of this. You can walk your dog down the road a bit to go potty and Ideally you want the dog to take your dog somewhere rather far away from your house once daily. This can be during a socialization trip to a store or a park or just drive down the road and stop somewhere random. When they are going on your property make sure it’s a different part of the yard each time. Even when its your own yard try to keep them on a leash so they get used to going on leash too.