As you probably know I failed miserably when I potty trained my older dog (misty) when she was a puppy. I never got any puppy potty training advice and so I was doing it blind. It’s no surprise that Misty was still not potty trained when she was a four year old adult!
So when the new puppy came along I got the proper puppy toilet training advice and decided to potty train the puppy, and Misty the adult dog, at the same time.
Misty is now fully potty trained but I warn you potty training older dogs is not easy, so you will need some expert knowledge to help.
When you are toilet training an older dog you need patience as it can take a long time, although with the techniques I’ve learned it took me a little over three weeks.
Some older dogs can take a lot longer as their behaviour is already formed. Formed behaviour is difficult to break even with adults. How many of the guys out there still leave the toilet seat up, despite your wife nagging you for years?
Your behaviour is formed so it’s hard to break, dogs are no different.
So How Do You Potty Train Older Dogs?
One of your first tasks is to take notice when your dog usually goes. This is much less often than puppy and this should help you keep track. Once you know the times your dog is likely to go, you can keep an eye out for their pre potty routine of sniffing, circling and restlessness.
Still use the verbal communication “outside” as you would with a puppy and praise them when they go outside. Again don’t scold them unless they are caught actually in the act. Scolding an older dog after the act can make them more likely to eliminate in the house in sneakier places or to simply hide themselves.
Stopping an older dog from going inside takes a lot of time and effort. You really have three options.
- You can keep the dog outside until they understand that this is where they should go. I’ve not tried this method and it is not one I would use.
- You can use the hands on method which involves you staying very close to the dog at all times especially when it is one of their normal times to go. Whenever you think they are going to go, you command them outside and praise them when they have been. There will be more mistakes with this potty training method, but given time and patience it will work.
- The final method is Crate Training. This works well, dogs do not like to go where they sleep, so they are more likely to either hold on or let you know when they want to go.
But my biggest two recommendations when potty training older dogs is to have patience and get some more advanced toilet training strategies and help as I did. If you want to speed up the potty training of your older dog I suggest you check out the website I used by CLICKING HERE. Without that program I would never have got Misty trained.
As a final recommendation when training an older dog try not to get frustrated and you will get there in the end with the proper potty training techniques.
