Is My German Shepherd Potty Trained
This is the question that many owners ask too quickly. Potty training doesnt happen overnight. You will need to consistent and alert. After several days of teaching, your puppy will start to learn.
- If your pup stands in front of the door and looks back at you, know that it wants to go out and poop.
- If your dog scratches the door, know that it is nature calling.
- To confirm the effectiveness of potty training schedule, you will need to wait a few days to check your dog. If your dog doesnt poop inside the house even when it really needs to, youll know it is trained.
- Do not stop the process until your dog has truly learned to potty in its designated area.
Don’t Let Your Pup Out Of The Crate Until It Knows The Rules
A crate is supposed to be a safe space that mimics the feeling of a den and teaches your pup to control its bladder and bowels to avoid soiling its sleeping and eating area.
While your German Shepherd is learning that the entire house is out of bounds for elimination, the crate is a useful tool to avoid accidents. Once this has been achieved, you can gradually allow your puppy more free rein indoors.
Training Goal #: Begin Obedience Training
The German Shepherd Dogs work ethic is legendary, and you can encourage your dogs best working traits with early and ongoing training. GSDs excel at obedience, so begin teaching your puppy basic commands like sit, down, and stay, as well as loose-leash walking, from an early age. Enrolling in a puppy obedience class can be extremely helpful both for teaching these commands as well as socialization, and its not too early to begin thinking about CGC training as well.
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Training Them To Go Outside After Using Pads Indoors
While I generally use a crate to house train my German Shepherd puppy I also totally understand that you might prefer to learn how to potty train a German Shepherd puppy using a puppy pad .
Im not here to judge and I love that you want to help your pup learn his potty routine quickly by reading up on this training!
Important Things To Consider In Potty
Effective GSD potty-training will depend on you as the owner. You need patience, time and dedication. Some training methods are quite confusing for owners. Here are a few things that owners might want to consider.
- To crate or not to crate
Crate training is a good way to train your puppy not to make a mess in your home. Some owners dont approve of crate training simply because they think it is inhumane. If you opt to crate train your dog as part of potty-training, make sure that the crate wont be too large for your puppy where it can sleep on the other end and treat the other end as a toilet. GSDs in general, dont like doing business where it sleeps, so a large crate will just provide it a space for relieving itself.
For some dedicated pet owners, aside from potty times after meals, they choose to give their puppies early morning and late evening potty time They are also especially alert when their puppies are crying or making sounds at night. This approach might make you feel a little sleepless at first, but consider the benefits you will gain.
- Dog training pads
- Leash
It is but natural for GSD puppies to wander around the house and leave traces of their accidents. There are a number of pet owners who choose to keep their puppies in their house on a leash instead of crate training. It might be effective in preventing accidents but it might also affect your puppys behavior.
- Time
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Understand Your Puppys Limits
Your puppy is growing and learning every day. It has a small bladder and colon, and its world revolves around eating, sleeping, and playing.
Between 2 and 4 months, your puppy can hold its urine for half an hour which increases to about 4 hours from 3 months.
Take your puppy outside every hour until they reach 4 months and every 2 hours thereafter up to 5 months. By this age, and up to a year old, take them outside to the same spot every 5 hours.
Once your puppy reaches a year, you can take it outside once every 8 hours and it stays this way for adult dogs.
Create A Strict Training Schedule
Your puppy will want to go to the toilet within approximately 15 minutes of mealtime.
Feed your puppy its dog food at at a regular amount of time throughout the day so that you can take it outside within this timeframe.
Using a strict eating schedule will help you understand your puppys needs better and support a routine that they can get used to.
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Praise Immediately When Your Puppy Eliminates In The Right Place
After your German Shepherd puppy eliminates in the right place, you will want to reward them immediately so that they know what they did was correct. When your puppy goes potty correctly, let them know with a phrase like good job! or yes. You can also encourage them verbally by saying things like thats right or youre such a good boy.
If you are training your puppy using a bell, be sure to ring it and then reward them immediately so that the association between ringing the bell and getting rewarded is strong.
Easy Ways To Potty Train A German Shepherd Puppy Faster
You probably already know that learning how to potty train a German Shepherd puppy can be a stressful time.
Therere lots of things to remember and plenty of room for accidents.
But
once you know these easy steps, great things happen!
Give me 10 minutes of your time and Ill show you the easiest ways to conquer potty training your German Shepherd puppy.
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How Long Does It Usually Take To Potty Train A German Shepherd Puppy
How long does it take to train a German Shepherd puppy will depend on y our puppy and your method of training. In general, after just a few days of consistent house training during crucial times, your GSD will understand the basics of what to do. However, that doesnt mean you have an officially potty trained pup on your hands.
There will still be accidents, but your German Shepherd will be able to get the hang of things within a few weeks. The time between potty breaks will gradually lengthen over time as your puppy gets older.
Make Peace With Lack Of Sleep
You will need to sacrifice some sleep for a while. We can’t expect our pups to keep it in’ for longer than they can.
If accidents are happening at night, you should take your pup out more often.
Accidents will happen, but the more your pup has potty accidents in her personal space, the more comfortable she’ll become doing it. You really want to avoid this at all costs.
Does your puppy need a comfy, new bed? Check out the best dog beds for German Shepherds.
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Limit Their Access To The Home
Giving your pup free reign over the house is not a good idea. For one, they’re unfamiliar with your home. They don’t have a good understanding of what’s off-limits and what’s not.
So, they may end up thinking that it’s perfectly fine to do their business on that plush carpet in the living room.
You can show your puppy around the home, but you need to supervise them at all times. If they aren’t having accidents in the home and are doing well with house training, you can slowly open up the areas they can access.
Don’t do too much at one time. Take things slow and keep a watchful eye.
What You Need To Prepare Before Potty Training Your German Shepherd Puppy
Its important to make sure that you have everything you need before you begin house training your GSD pup. Here are some things you may want to be sure and have on hand for the potty training process:
- Collar or harness
- Plenty of wipes and toilet tissue
- Lots of patience, a positive attitude, and lots of love!
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Train Your Puppy To Potty On Different Surfaces
Most people train their dogs to potty only on certain kinds of surfaces. Do not make this mistake.
For Example, If you train your German Shepherd puppy to potty only on hard surfaces, then your puppy will not know what to do when he finds himself in a different situation.
You should teach your puppy to defecate on grass, sand, rocks, dirt, etc.
If you feel nervous and you are forcing your puppy to relieve fast, then you can stress out your puppy and stop him to relieve.
How Do I Stop My German Shepherd From Peeing In The House
Is your German Shepherd still having accidents in the house due to potty training or is your male GSD starting to mark the house and lift his leg? Spaying and neutering problematic marking and peeing in the house is a common solution recommended by vets and trainers.
If you have trained your GSD with puppy pads from a young age, then marking and peeing with his leg raised in the house will be less likely. This is because even male dogs at a young age do a little crouch to urinate, and it is a tendency they wont break inside the home once theyre used to it.
It is still possible that he will have the urge to lift and pee, but if you gently dissuade him, your dog should be able to understand that lifting his leg to urinate indoors is not allowed.
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What Happens When You Dont Train Your Pup Early
Potty training your GSD puppy might seem a little too much at first, but with time and continuous efforts, your dog will start to learn. However, many owners make a mistake of letting their GSD pup enjoy its first days in the home without making it learn important behaviors and discipline.
A GSD puppy doesnt have control over its bladder or bowels.
Thats why as owners, you need to take full responsibility of keeping an eye on their behavior. If you see your pup getting uneasy or arching its back, know that it is time to take it outside. If you leave the puppy alone, it will make a mess inside the home, on beds, and floors. This will be a lot of work and a dirty one, so it is always better to adopt a preventative approach.
Another issue with GSDs that dont get trained in the initial days is that they tend to become dominant and disobedient. If you dont want your GSD to get control over you, make sure that you potty train it from the first day. When a GSD knows that it is not being stopped, it will develop it as a habit that will be hard to get rid of once it grows.
How To Potty Train A German Shepherd Puppy: 13 Tips To Do It Right
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Learning how to potty train a German Shepherd puppy does not have to be stressful or worrisome but it does take time and persistence.
When you bring your puppy home the first house rule she should learn is not to poop and pee in the house. If you do it right you’ll see it’s easier than you think.
I’ve had the pleasure of potty training many German Shepherd pups. Today I’d like to share my techniques and tips with you
The key is to teach your puppy that eliminating inside is out of bounds. If you don’t do this, you’ll have a half-trained dog that will eliminate inside when it’s convenient.
Learn exactly how to do this! Get your hands on my Flawless Potty Training Guide. Just click the purple button below.
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Training Goal #: Impulse Control
Learning to control their impulses is important for all puppies, and for the GSD, it can be one of the most important ways to curb problem behaviors to which this breed is prone if allowed to become bored: behaviors such as excessive barking, digging, aggressive chewing, and inappropriate chasing .
The key to impulse control is getting your dog to focus on you. This will have beneficial effects for all the rest of your training efforts, especially in AKC dog sports like Obedience and Rally.
Require that your puppy sit before getting food, playing with an exciting toy, going outside to play, or any other favorite activity. As your GSD puppy advances in obedience training and knows more commands, you can require more advanced commands or tricks in order to receive treats or play.
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Choosing A Zone For Potty
When doing potty training, its essential to choose a zone for potty business. This potty zone can be an area with grass or a natural surface. After every meal, take your pups to their potty zone and wait till they do their potty business. If they dont do it after ten minutes, take your pups inside, wait for about half an hour and take them outside to the zone again. Wait again for about 5 minutes. If your pups dont do their business again, take them inside and do this while they do their potty business at the right time.
When you are doing this, keep some treats with you and make sure you praise your pups and give them treats every time they do potty business at the right place. This will help your pup realize that doing potty business at the right place is the right thing to do. Also, use your potty command for your pups every time you take your pups to the potty zone.
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Train Your Pups To Tell You When They Need To Potty
This is also a crucial step, and it would really come in handy if your doggo has a way to tell you if they need to do potty business. Since your doggo cant talk, the easiest and most practical way for this is to teach your pups to use a bell when they need to go potty. For this, get a potty bell and hang it on the door you have to open to go outside. After that, whenever you take your German Shepherd puppy outside to do potty business, before you open the door, ring the bell yourself. Make sure that your pup follows you to the door before ringing the bell. After that, take your pups outside and let them do their potty business. Do this all the time you take your pups outside for potty business, and eventually, your pups will understand that ringing this bell means its time to go potty. Then they will ring the bell themselves when they need to go potty.
Some signs indicate that your pups need to poop. For example, if your pups start to lick their paws, constantly start to sniff and pace around, or starts whining and walk around circles, it means they need to poo. You can look for these signs before they accidentally do their potty business inside the house. In a scenario like that, quickly take your pups outside so they can do their potty business in their potty zone.
Know Its Not An Instinct
You might have seen a cat dig up poop and fill it with sand. However, dont expect your pup to do it!
Till puppies are six weeks old, the mother is taking care of their hygiene, just in case you are wondering why the kennel doesnt smell? The mother dog might be potty trained, but the puppy wont ever learn from her, neither will it naturally occur to your pup! This is why you need to train your puppy to poop only in a designated spot!
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Use Positive Reinforcement Techniques
Positive reinforcement is key with any type of training. As you toilet train, it can mean the difference between constant accidents and success.
Dogs do best when you shower them with praise and rewards. So, give your puppy a treat when they do a good job.
Make sure that you reward them regularly. Your puppy will come to expect a treat after they go outside. They’ve done their part, so don’t disappoint them! Rewards can also include attention and verbal praise. Just do something that makes your GSD puppy happy.