Welcome to Pawprint Academy, your blueprint to
raising better dogs. My name is Ryan and I'll
be your host for this journey. I've got my trusty
co -host here, Brianna. Hello. And together we're
bringing you real -world training insights built
on leadership, structure, and proven methods.
We record this podcast with live clients on the
line in one take with live unscripted questions
and answers. At the end of the day, this podcast
is a lot more than just teaching your dog to
sit or stay. It's about... Building trust, creating
calmness, and becoming the kind of leader your
dog truly needs. We do that with our three pillar
method of trust, obey, and perform. Together,
we'll show you how these three pillars shape
every step of training. Thanks for being here.
Let's get started. Good evening, episode 8, Potty
Training Made Simple, Structure Over Frustration.
Good evening, everybody. This is, there you go,
you're back on. Yeah, hello, hello. Right, we're
back. It has been a long two weeks. Yeah. Had
a couple of technical difficulties, and we have
overcome, and we're moving on. Yep, moving on.
So today we are talking about potty training
and I recognize that this isn't going to apply
to every one of our clients because a lot of
our clients are past that stage. However, it's
highly likely that one dog owners love dogs and
you're probably going to get another dog someday.
Someday. Yep. Go ahead and shake your head. Shake
your head. No, it's never going to happen. We
see it over and over and it keeps happening.
It even happens to us. Right. No more dogs. No
more dogs. No more. Right. And then we get a
plus one. So it's natural to have more dogs.
And this is a recurring issue. Something that
happens. It's just a natural part of owning a
dog. And so we're going to talk about it tonight.
What is, I guess. Every trainer has a method.
I don't think this is a top dog trainer method,
but we're going to talk about best practices.
And we're going to relate it back to leadership
because that's really the core principles of
this podcast and really our entire company. But
Pawprint Academy is based on the premise of increasing
leadership in the home that then translates to
better communication. then translates to better
consistency and eventually a um like a clearer
picture for the dog yep so the main idea that
we're going to talk about is that potty training
is not about luck right definitely not luck and
it's also not about punishment uh and and it
eventually reverts back to leadership it's about
structure supervision and consistency And when
the rules are clear, accidents disappear. Ooh.
You like that? Yeah. Nice little rhyme you put
together there. Thank you. Love that. So we're
going to talk about clear, definitive rules.
And remember that dogs are pattern -based. So
we've got to create patterns that the dog can
recognize and then can kind of live and they
know their left and right limits. And that relieves
a ton of anxiety. All right. First up, structure
is the foundation. So accidents happen when dogs
do not know the rules or they don't have enough
supervision. We talk about this probably every
week. But when dogs don't have enough supervision,
they make their own choices. And crazy enough
that when dogs make their own choices, oftentimes
it's not the decision that you would want. Yeah.
They're like, never really. It's pretty convenient
to just go to the bathroom over here. That way
I don't have to go out in the rain. Right. And
today on recording day, it's the 29th of October
and it has been raining solid for like three
days. Yeah. So ask me how I know that they don't
like to go out in the rain. Dogs notoriously
don't like to go out in the rain. So if, faced
with an obstacle they may just make their own
decision and go inside so um what can we do we
can we can do a couple of things so i've got
a couple of things listed here right we can set
predictable feeding and potty times we can limit
the freedom uh until the dog proves that they
can be reliable and we can use crates and leashes
to control access in the home so we're going
to talk through those three things um as we talk
about this i like to when i break it down for
a client we talk about this triangle and the
triangle is the concept of um before we actually
before we even get to the triangle you must accept
some level of confinement for your dog as being
healthy for your dog right if you let a eight
week old puppy run around your house they will
for sure make a mess yeah there's no version
of this that they're just going to know that
they need to go out and they need to go outside
in order to do that yeah so we got to teach them
we have to teach puppies everything that they
learn Everything that they know, everything that
they learn has to be taught. So how do we do
that? Number one, we teach them to be okay with
going in and relaxing in a crate. Yep. The confinement
of a crate is not a punishment. The confinement
of a crate builds structure in the dog's mind.
It decreases anxiety because you teach a dog
that this is a safe place. So when everything
else in the world is going crazy, they know that
they are safe and they will not be, you know,
yelled at or punished or hurt or anything will
happen to them in this crate. And by doing that,
you create this like foundational security blanket.
That then you can build off of. Yep. And so what
we recommend is that we teach a dog to go and
relax and spend time in a crate. The other reason
that we use a crate specifically for potty training
is that if we size the crate appropriately, a
dog will naturally not want to soil themselves.
If we put a dog in a great big crate, it's very
easy for the dog to pee or poop on one side and
then live on the other. And that is the opposite
of what we want. So we want to size the crate
appropriately. The size that we're talking about
is big enough for the dog to walk in and turn
around. As well as large enough for the dog to
sit up all the way without their head touching
the top. By doing that, you can have a dog that
can sit very relaxed inside a kennel. They can
lay down. They can usually lay on their side
because they were able to go in and turn around.
So it's appropriate sides for the dog to lay
down and not touch front or back of the kennel.
And that's as big as we want it. You don't want
it larger than that because the dog will take
advantage of that space, right? And they won't
learn to hold it. So last thing here that I'll
bring up and then I'll pass it over to Brianna.
The muscle that controls their bladder is a muscle
that we've got to build. And if they never get
forced to build it, and we just let the dog out
every 30 minutes, it'll take a lot longer for
them to build that process. So the crate allows
us to control their movement so that they can't
just willy -nilly run around the house. But on
top of that, it helps to give them some structure
that, hey, you have to hold it in this area.
Otherwise, you're going to lay in your own excrement.
What are some other things that go into this
like triangle? So I know one big thing is like
keeping a leash on your puppy inside, right?
The puppy should pretty much be with you at all
times unless it's like in a crate. Supervision.
And so one thing that a lot of owners get sidetracked
on is they'll start moving around the house and
just have the puppy following them around until
the puppy gets curious and just kind of like
wanders out of the room and then it takes seconds
for something to happen. Right. Yeah. And typically
we're not paying attention because we're doing
the dishes or we're folding the laundry or something
like that. But if you just get like a simple
like clip and put it on your side with the leash
attached to it, the puppy still has six, ten,
however long you want to give them for distance.
But, you know, if you feel some some pulling
intention that the puppy is trying to go somewhere.
Typically, if they're trying to go somewhere
away from you, it's probably to go to the bathroom.
or to chew something or to get into something
that it shouldn't be. And you're going to be
much more aware of that if the puppy is kind
of attached to your hip per se. And yes, we want
to do some place time, some crate time and things
like that. But if the puppy is just free roaming
the house, there's just so many things that they
can get into. So that is one of my favorite ones.
Another one is like keeping a log. I think a
lot of people like don't ever think to do that.
But if you have a puppy, it's like a newborn,
right? And I know if you're a first time parent,
you're a tracking bathroom and food and all of
the things that like your new baby is getting,
right? So it's the same thing with a puppy, right?
Mark their food times. Mark the times when they
go to the bathroom. And 100 % puppies are going
to fall into this rhythm where you can usually
correlate how long after they eat do they need
to go to the bathroom. So keeping a log will
really, really help. And sometimes you can pick
up on their pattern from that. Crates, leashes,
you already went over that. Both super important
tools to use to make sure that you know where
and what your puppy is doing at all times. And
then I know when we say supervision, people always
are like, well, I don't have time to stare at
my dog for 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Right. It doesn't mean that you have to stare
at the dog. Right. Because if you don't, then
you have to have time to clean up after them.
Right. Right. It's one or the other. But you
have to be aware of what they're doing. Right.
Because if you're not even aware enough to like
interrupt that you see them like sniffing the
ground, then the puppy's making the calls. And
they're like, well, I got to go to the bathroom.
I'm going to go right now. But it comes down
to the triangle. Right. It's like have some sort
of structure. And it doesn't have to be the exact
same times of things every day, but it can be
a pattern of cool, food, great, five minutes
of like rest in the crate. And then we're off
to outside. And then we come back in, we can
have a little play session. And then it's back
into the crate to relax for a little while. Just
some sort of rhythm to the day will make a huge
difference. Nice. So you jumped into the triangle,
right? So let's, let's highlight it for everyone.
So they understand what we're talking about.
When we talk about the triangle, the top of the
triangle is the crate, the crate time. So let's
say that the dog is going to spend one hour in
the crate. Initially for puppies, we recommend
there are the generally the general recommended
guideline is one hour per month old that the
dog is. That's how long. supposedly, a dog can
hold it. Now, it's going to depend on the dog.
It's going to depend on a lot of factors. But
let's just say that that's accurate. Every dog
is going to be a little bit different. So an
eight -week -old puppy is two months old, right?
So we can go about two hours during the daytime
that... They can hold it before they need to
go out. Well, they can hold it, but that doesn't
mean they will hold it. Right. So the top of
the triangle is the crate. We put the dog in
for one hour. Now we take one additional hour
and we break up that other hour to the bottom
left and bottom right of the triangle. Bottom
left of the triangle is going to be. Going outside.
Yep. And that might be for two minutes. It might
be for five minutes, might be for 10 minutes,
but we're going to go into the crate for one
hour. We're going to come out of the crate and
go straight outside, straight outside. And we're
going to observe and supervise the dog to go
to the bathroom. Right. That is another thing.
If you just let your dog out and you don't know
if they went to the bathroom, how do you know
that they went? They could have just eaten rocks
the whole time. Correct. Hopefully not, but maybe.
So one hour in the crate, five to 10 minutes
outside, however long it takes. We need to see
the dog go to the bathroom. We need to get them
onto a schedule. At the end of that, we then
come inside and now statistically, we are at
the highest statistical probability that the
dog will not go to the bathroom inside. Because
they just went. Right. It's not 100%. All dogs
are different. But highly likely. But highly
likely that they won't go inside. So at least
we stacked the cards in our favor. Now we come
inside and for the rest of that two -hour block,
whatever it is, right, starting at minute one
that they went into their crate. Yep. For that
rest of that two -hour block, they are on supervised
house time. Yeah. At the end of that, right,
they go back into the kennel. And they go back
into the kennel for that one hour. The goal being
that they spent about one hour in the house.
Then you put them back in the kennel and they
are forced to hold it for that one additional
hour. So you are instilling in them. a need to
hold it and with that need comes the muscle control
that they need to learn in order to complete
that task yep at the end of that hour then they
go back outside then they've got supervised house
time then they go back in the crate then they
go back outside and so on yeah makes sense for
the triangle kind of like a like a prison schedule
right to a certain degree yard time yard time
right gotta get it in so it's important though
that we stay really strict with it because with
that build structure that the dog can predict
right we've all been outside like freezing cold
at like one o 'clock in the morning and we're
like hurry up hurry up hurry up go to the bathroom
go to the bathroom go to the bathroom but i promise
you the more structured you are with it the less
time consecutively you will have to do it overall
it's like the night feedings with babies right
and like diaper changes and all that and it's
like oh my gosh but you just got to get through
it and on the other side it feels a lot sillier
and a lot less painful than it will feel in the
exact moment right and just remember it's not
forever it's not forever all right so It can
feel like forever. I got it. I got it. I'm with
you, but it's not forever. Yeah. And honestly,
you're going to look back and you're going to
miss the puppy stage because it's so fun. The
little puppies, they do the craziest stuff and
they're so fun. So, um, and I think that pretty
much anybody who has had a dog will look back
and be like, yeah, yeah, it was pretty fun when
they were little puppies. All right. So now you're
faced with what happens when they have an accident
in like the house time. Okay. So now we just
cut off 15 minutes of house time and we put that
15 minutes over on crate time. And we increase,
we keep the same ratio where the dog's still
eight weeks old. So we keep the two hour time
block. The whole triangle adds up to two hours.
And we take 15 minutes away from the house time
and we put that into the kennel time. That's
it. At the point where the dog is showing us
that they can do it and they're doing it regularly,
we add 15 minutes to the entire cycle. So that
means we add maybe 10 minutes to the crate and
five minutes to the house time. Something like
that. And so we just use those rules to modulate
and add additional time. For every three, four,
five days that they continue to hold it without
an accident and they continue to build their
endurance, we just add an extra 15 minutes to
the entire triangle block. At the point where
they have an accident because every dog is going
to have an accident. That's totally normal. Yeah.
We just take away the 15 minutes. Right. And
we if we can't trust them in the house, then
we reduce that time and we put that time in the
crate. If we if they have an accident in the
crate. Well, OK, then we reduce that time and
we let them out that 15 minutes a little earlier.
We just. be heads up. There's no perfect rule
here. You kind of just got to be an athlete about
it. Figure out what works for your dog. If you
have questions about that or something wasn't
clear, reach out. You guys can leave a comment.
You can reach out. Most of the clients and things
that are listening to this, you guys can text
me directly or you can Email us at Ryan or Brianna
at TopDogTrainingNC .com. We'd be happy to help
you. All right, next point. So we talked about
the triangle. We talked about the timing. We
talked about limiting the freedom and using crates.
So the next part, major point number two, marking
and rewarding the right spot. Or did you want
to answer questions? Um, I'm happy to answer
questions. Um, have any questions for me? One
question. Okay. So how, how do you explain to
a client the role of supervision in preventing
accidents? I go back to my classic, uh, baby
strategy. It's like, do you leave in an eight
month old baby, like unsupervised? Most of the
time, not unless they're in their crib. Right,
unless you put proper control measures in place.
Right, because it's the same thing. If your baby's
crawling around and stuff, they're going to start
grabbing things that you don't want them to grab,
right? And how do we teach a kid not to grab
things? Ew. you put them in something that constrains
them right from from touching things i know like
when they start walking they have those little
seats and they can handcuffs was the wrong answer
yeah not the right one i don't think we're supposed
to do that um or you strap them into one of those
like bouncy seats or you put them in their crib
for a nap right look at it like that it's healthy
like puppies need way more sleep than awake time
when they are young and growing and developing
and that will help them in the long run not be
anxious dogs that just feel like they can never
relax yeah but if you build that in early the
dog feels way more comfortable way more relaxed
because it knows oh this is the time i do nothing
i'm just going to go ahead and take a hard nap
i like it and also one more thing to add is a
lot of times we don't consider water intake when
we are talking about potty training right you
have to be watching how much water that your
dog is drinking also because some dogs will just
gorge themselves with water right that's a really
good point and if you don't know how much water
they're intaking cool but for reference like
generally dogs need like one ounce of water for
each pound of body weight right so if you have
a 10 pound puppy they generally during the day
need like 10 ounces of water so If you need to
measure that out, measure that out. But don't
just let your dog like free range drink water
like in their kennel or something like that.
Because one, they're going to dump it. Two, they're
going to just drink it all because it's available.
Right. I'm laughing because I'm picturing the
some previous experiences that I've had where
it's like, well, my dog just loves to drink water
right before bed. Right. And then they're also
like. talking about how they have to get up at
3 a .m. because otherwise their dog has an accident.
And you're like, well, they're kind of related.
Right. The two things. Right. The French bulldog
we have, she'll drink a ton of water right before
bed if you don't cut her off because she's like,
I'm just going to drink it right now. But you
can't you can't do that. It's just not allowed.
It's like you don't have the bladder for it.
Right. Where's it going to go? The kid's not
drinking like a whole can of soda right before
bed or at least probably shouldn't be because
I bet they're not sleeping great. But it's it
comes down to like. Right. You would never let
a child chug an entire like a 20 ounce. Right.
Like Red Bull. Yeah. Whatever. Anything. That's
not what I was thinking. That's all I could think
of right then. Okay. Water. 20 ounces of water.
Also that. They're not going to chug 20 ounces
of water right before they go to bed. And you
expect that they're not going to have to get
up and go to the bathroom. And if they're not
old enough in order to manage that whole process,
that's for sure going to be an issue. Yeah. But
that was all I had. All right. The red bull got
me. All right. So now let's break down. Ridiculous.
So marking and rewarding the right spot. So when
we take the dog outside, what does that look
like? Let's break that down. Because inevitably,
the next question is like, well, how do I get
my dog to actually go in the spot they're supposed
to go? So here's the main topics of this, right?
to the right spot, we want to designate that
spot and always go to the same one because dogs
are going to do what they're patterned and learn
to do. Okay. So when we, uh, we took in a, uh,
a pair of Frenchies that did not know. And they
were peeing inside and they were peeing on their
own volition and their own schedules and doing
their own thing. And what we found was every
time we would go outside, they were so distracted
smelling and chasing and moving around and doing
things that they weren't concentrating on the
task at hand. And so taking them to the same
exact spot, take them out on a leash and just
stand there. Of all the times when we deal with
clients and we're constantly telling them, you
got to be more exciting. You got to be more exciting.
You got to hold your dog's attention. This is
the time to do the opposite. Right. Be sober.
This is the time for you to just be boring. Be
a tree. Gargoyle. Yeah. A tree. Statue, tree.
Tree. Something that doesn't move. I like gargoyle.
That was a good one. There you go. So just stand
there. Stand there. Be a statue. And just let
your dog check out from you and be like, gosh
darn it, what are we going to do? That is how
we get the dog to realize, oh yeah, I actually
do have to pee. And then go. Because remember,
we're talking about puppies that don't have the
muscle control and they don't have the thought
process or the maturity to know their bodily
processes. Even older dogs, like we have two
dogs that as soon as you let them out, they turn
around and look at the door. They're like, I
don't have to pee. What are we going to do? Like
throw the ball or something. Play with me. Right.
But if you close the door and walk away from
it after about 30 seconds, they're like, I'm
outside. I have to go pee. I'm going to go pee.
So we want to mark. The next thing is that when
they do what they're supposed to, it's just like
any other behavior that we want to encourage.
Mark it. reward it throw a party right but don't
mark it and reward it while they're still going
so also true that's super important a lot of
people right a lot of people as soon as the dog
starts going they're like yes but what you're
doing is you're interrupting the dogs like process
and what you'll notice or may notice not all
dogs but some dogs will stop going to the bathroom
To engage with you or to get the reward because
you've you've just marked it and you've gotten
so excited. And so then you get a dog that's
not expressing its bladder fully. And that in
and of itself can be a really big annoyance.
But I think that's my number one tip for like
timing of the reward is wait until your dog finishes
and then mark and reward. Yeah, definitely. Absolutely.
Um, that's a really, really good point. So, um,
and then right, you crush it. That, uh, that's
perfect. So what, what would you recommend? Food
rewards, praise, both like throw it, throw a
ball. I mean, I'd go with whatever your dog prefers.
Like, honestly, I, I don't think I have a preference.
I mean, so here's how I think about it though.
I want to relate that praise or that. that reward
to the event right and so what i don't want to
do is is distract the dog away from that event
right so if i can reward with a treat if the
dog's food motivated right i want to reward as
close to the one as close to the the timing of
the event as possible and two as close in proximity
to the event as possible so where i go with that
was praise cool so kneel down close to where
they just peed close to where they just pooped.
Those things relate the praise and relate the
reward to their action. Whereas like taking a
ball, there's some dogs that just crazy drive
for a ball and there's nothing wrong with that.
But if you chuck the ball across the yard, there's
not always a direct understanding. that the ball
was related to the right i've never thought about
that because yeah i've never used a toy as a
reward but yeah yep and i think so it just depends
on your dog right and i think traditionally people
probably use praise right because not a lot of
people go out in their backyard for a bathroom
break and have like a bag of treats on them for
sure i just want to cover it yeah yeah but i
think most commonly probably praise would be
used with that instance what What do you think?
So, I mean, you kind of covered it. Would you
say that that's the most common mistake that
owners make is rewarding the potty breaks in
the middle? Yeah, because they just, like, they
start going and the owners are like, yeah, good
job. Yeah. And I'd say probably, like, seven
times out of ten, the dog's going to stop going.
At least a little bit. Yeah, because they're
going to be so excited that you're so excited.
They're like, oh, you got food? Oh, yeah, cool.
What? I did great? Heck yeah. you're super interrupting
that and then you get dogs that like the most
annoying potty training problem probably is like
dogs not expressing their bladder all the way
and then coming back in and having an accident
and then you're like right you're like i just
went out right and you're like well i they just
went and they come back in and they do it again
you think you're doing it wrong right but you're
not yeah i mean there's there's some things we
can do a little bit better but you're not you're
not doing it wrong You just have to adjust a
little bit. So the last question I wrote down
with that was how do we handle dogs that get
distracted outside and forget to go? I kind of
handled that like right off the bat with I go
out on a leash and I get super boring and I just
stand there and the dog can't go anywhere. And
eventually the dog gets real tired of just smelling
the same six foot radius of grass. And eventually
they're going to be like, all right. I got to
go to the bathroom. Right. That, and I like to
start off with like go potty. It's like when
you're going outside, you get to the spot. Oh,
is that what you meant by marking? Well, no,
not really. I guess I did mean marking like as
a reward, but mark the behavior that you want
with a command. Right. Right. Yes. Yeah. Yeah.
Big on just like go potty. Right. And then it's
like, you just stand there. But what you don't
want to do, another thing that I see a lot is
you, you get frustrated. and so you just are
like go potty no go potty come on go potty go
potty and it's like come on right so you're weakening
that cue right you just say it once by saying
it over and over and i think i'm real big on
like you give the dog like two to three minutes
and if they're not going to go cool then we restart
the triangle that's where i was going back into
the kennel yep because you don't get freedom
inside if you're not going to go to the bathroom
yep So how long are you? So I'm, I'm not taking
them in though and restarting the entire two
hour trying. No, no, no. We're just going like,
I don't know. It really depends on the dog, but
five to 10 minutes, it doesn't have to be like
a huge window, but it's enough for them to understand.
Okay. When I come back out, if I don't go potty.
I'm going to have to come back in. And then you
build that pattern. Cool. You don't go, you go
back in the kennel, you go, you get freedom and
you get to get to have some fun. Perfect. And
so then the dog builds its own pattern of recognition
where it's like, cool, if I don't go potty, I'm
gonna have to go back on the kennel. So let me
just go potty. Correct. And then I can have freedom
inside. That's exactly right. Supervised freedom.
Very nice. Yep. Yep. That's the process. All
right. Um, responding to accidents. So inevitably.
We are going to have some accidents. No matter
how beautifully perfect you time this and do
this, sometimes you're going to have accidents.
And when that happens, we've got to maintain
fairness. Fairness doesn't mean that I'm going
to congratulate them for peeing on the rug. We
are, by definition, we are rewards -based balanced
trainers. So keeping that in mind, we are not
positive only, which would kind of tie my hands
into being like, great job. You peed on the rug.
Let's go outside. Right. And and remaining very
upbeat through this whole process. I think that
there is there is some value to establishing
a negative some sort of negative stimulus to
doing the wrong thing and massively encouraging
and rewarding the right thing. That way we automatically.
Turn the dog's attention towards how they want
to reinforce their behavior with those good things
rather than, you know, experiencing any type
of negative stimuli. Where we draw the line is
that we highly encourage every owner to be one,
highly ethical and two, completely fair in how
that works out. And so that's what we're going
to talk about. If caught in the act, if caught
in the act, we're going to calmly interrupt the
behavior. We're going to firmly mark no. And
we're going to guide the dog outside. And we're
going to move him outside. And then. We're going
to reward and throw a party. We're not going
to let our emotions dictate the entire interaction.
What we're going to do is we're going to be mature
and we're going to flip our emotions from that
super frustrated, I can't believe you peed on
the rug, to huge party, so proud of you, we're
best of friends, this is the greatest day of
our lives. Once they go potty outside. Once they
go potty outside, right? The behavior run your
emotions. Right. Number one question that everybody's
going to have. If they just went potty inside,
what if they don't go potty outside? Then we
resort back to that same timeline. Yeah. Right.
We can't, we, they don't go outside. Cool. Then
they come inside. They go right into their crate.
Five to 10 minutes. We go back outside. Yep.
And then we continue until such time as we. Get
them to go potty outside. Then we throw a party
and then we reset. Yep. Okay. Never punish the
dog after the fact. The dog's not going to understand.
The concept that you can go out for two or three
hours, the dog has reign of the house, it poops
on the rug, and then you come back two hours
later and scold the dog for pooping on the rug
is not a fair interaction. Because it happened
Lord knows when. Right. You can't assume that
the dog is going to fully attribute your correction
or your frustration to their act. Right. They
may. I agree that they may. But they also may
not. And anytime that I question the fairness
of my correction, I'm going to error on the side
with the dog. Right. And also it's a fact that
one, maybe they do attribute it to that. Well,
you have a whole different problem because now
you're going to have to seek out the pee and
poop because they're going to hide it. Right.
They're going to do it in places that like aren't
as apparent if they do tie it back to that. And
two, if they tie it back to that, maybe they'll
go in an obvious place. But when you come home,
they're going to hide from you. Right. They're
not going to come to you for you to scold them.
they're for sure going to be like, I'm going
to go under this couch or under this bed or something
and I'm going to hide. Right. It's the number
one thing like with people when they scold their
dogs for finally recalling after they don't like
10 times and they've like run up to 12 people.
If you come back, if they come back to you and
you scold them, they won't do that again. Right.
Meaning they won't come back to you again. Yeah.
There is another technique that this one came
from Brendan McMillan, who's a like a famous
celebrity trainer, does a lot of show dogs and
stuff that like are in movies and things. He
recommends. Right. And and I've used this successfully
with some dogs. My dog specifically as. Dexter's
growing up and actually as the Frenchie. Yeah.
I had to do this one time and she never had another
accident in the house. And so what that looks
like is dog pees and you reckon that you see
it happen. Right. This doesn't happen 20 minutes
later. Dog pees. And instead of me going. grabbing
her moving her outside scolding her and doing
all this process i take something very very heavy
i've got these really heavy kettlebells i take
a kettlebell and i put it right next to the p
on the floor and i take a leash and i tie the
leash off pretty short about two to three feet
and then i leashed her right next to the p now
this was without any major verbal correction
at all yeah i just calmly grabbed her by the
collar leashed her up put the kettlebell there
tied it off and walked away now she had enough
leash to not be in the pee but she couldn't get
very far away from it that gave her an opportunity
to have a consequence that was directly related
to what she did that had nothing to do with me
scolding her. There was no fear involved. There
was no anything other than inconvenience involved.
I left her there for about 10 minutes. She just
laid down next to it. Dogs don't like to be near
their own excrement. And at the end of that,
I unleashed her, took her outside. She went outside,
praised her, brought her in. And I cleaned it
up and went about our day. And we never had another
issue since. Yep. So it can work. It can work
very successfully. It's a tool for your toolbox.
It's not for every dog. Right. But some dogs
will respond really well to it. All right. The
last thing that I had on how we deal with accidents
is you have to, this is non -negotiable, you
have got to clean it with an enzyme -based cleaner.
Yeah. You've got to remove and break down and
remove that smell. Otherwise, the dog's going
to pick up on that. They smell hundreds of thousands
of times better than we do. They're going to
smell it. They're going to pattern it. They're
going to be like, this is where I peed last time.
And they're going to continue peeing in that
spot. Yeah. You've got to clean it and you've
got to clean it really, really well. Yeah. Otherwise,
you don't have a hope. Right. And like Fabuloso,
like Lysol, none of those are like. It doesn't
get the smell out. Right. It's not the right
kind. Correct. So you can clean it with Lysol
for sure. Right. But you've got to use an enzyme
cleaner to break down. All of the scent that
goes into that. That's what's going to set you
up for success. All right. So we really talked
through, I had a couple of questions here, but
like we really talked through most of that. What's
your go -to advice? What's your go -to advice
for cleaning and preventing spots? I already
covered that. An enzyme cleaner. It's super,
super important. Clean it for disinfectant, right?
Disinfect the area, use your Lysol, use your
whatever. Yeah, absolutely. But you also need
to use an enzyme cleaner to break down the actual
scent. Have you ever seen, here's a good one,
have you ever seen an owner's response make potty
training worse? And I don't know that I've seen
it, but I've heard it. Right. You used to hear
like the people like rubbing their dog's face
in it. Right. And it's like, I don't even know.
Right. How's that working for you? Because then
you have to like bathe the dog because then the
dog smells like pee. I don't even understand
that one. Seems backwards. Right. Definitely
for sure. Not going to do that. I don't recommend
that one. Putting them in the kennel as a punishment.
That's a really big one. I feel like people don't
really like click together. Really good example.
Yep. That one we see a lot. Right. So we see
that one a lot with crate for other things, right?
Dog is aggressive. Dog growls at something. Dog
does this. Dog does that. And we like put them
in the crate, slam the door. We're like, ha,
that'll teach you. What we just taught the dog
was that like sometimes the crate is punishment.
And that is going to shoot yourself in the foot
for sure. um scolding is the the like biggest
one i think any kind of scolding is going to
just like break your trust with the dog right
not yelling at your dog right and it's not like
going no if they're doing it right then but yelling
right at a lot out of at an extremely loud volume
is something that the dog cannot match yeah because
the dogs aren't verbal creatures so yelling getting
really loud noises there are two things that
science says that mammals are born with for fear,
right? It's falling and loud noises. Those are
the only two, supposedly, that, right, I didn't
make this. It's just in a study. Those are the
only two fears that you were born with as a mammal.
Every other fear is learned or patterned. Spiders
is on there. Spiders is learned. Yeah, no. You
were born with it. If you're not born with that.
Weird. Okay. So anyway, I don't even know how
to respond to that. Falling and loud noises.
But loud noises is what I'm talking about. So
if we immediately increase our volume by like
10x, you are creating an event for that dog to
be very worried about like what is going on.
How is their world imploding right now? And that
can take away from the concept of what they just
did and focus in on why is my dad so loud right
now? Ooh, ooh, I thought of another one. What's
up? Puppy pads. Puppy pads. Puppy pads inside.
Okay. We can get into it real quick. Real quick.
But puppy pads inside don't teach your dog that
it's okay to go on them. It teaches them that
it's okay to go inside. Okay, so there is one
example that I have heard from clients that I
was like, all right, I can't argue with that.
Let me hear it. Okay. They're on the road 270
days out of the year and they stay in hotel rooms.
and they don't always have access to taking the
dog out. So they train their dog to go on puppy
pads, and I'll follow that with the dog successfully
goes on puppy pads. So I was like, okay, well,
I mean, if that works for your lifestyle. Right,
I think there are some dogs that are. Okay, I
got you. I think there are some dogs that could
probably understand that. It's not best case
scenario. Most of the time. For sure. Most of
the time, the dog is not going to understand
the difference between going on that puppy pad
and going two feet away on the rug. So, and I
would say there's probably a better way of explaining
it, which is that typically, and I would say
this is like pretty much 97 % of clients. When
they try to teach their dog to go on puppy pads,
they inadvertently teach their dog to go inside.
I think that's the better way of saying it because
there are some dogs and some owners, they're
like, no, no, no. I am vehemently opposed. I
must have my dog going on puppy pads for whatever
the reason. Okay, cool. Train your dog to go
on puppy pads. But that's not our normal owner.
Right. And our normal owner is like, hey, I taught
my dog to kind of go on the puppy pads. And they
pretty much go on the puppy pads except when
they don't. And then they just pee inside. Right.
And they're like, okay, guys. Well, maybe. Yeah.
But you have a fenced in yard. Yeah. Why are
we training the dog to go on the puppy pads?
There are plenty of. I don't want to go off in
this elitist mindset, which is like, no, no,
you must do it this way. We support owners making
whatever decision that they want. But this is
a similar concept to the dog sleeps in the bed,
but then growls at me when I try to take their
food away. Well, okay, maybe we need to not let
them sleep in the bed. But another owner is like,
my dog has no behavioral issues and I let them
sleep in the bed. Well, cool. Right. Good on
you. Right. Every dog is different. So different.
Where we're going with this is that puppy pads
or the concept of teaching a dog to go in puppy
on puppy pads. Rarely works out the way that
owners want it to. Right. And typically owners
only teach that. Because it's convenient while
they're tiny little puppies and eventually they
want them to go outside. And that whole process
sets them back. Because once you finally are
like, all right, now we're done with the puppy
pads. Now go outside. They're like, why? Right,
I've been peeing inside this whole time. I've
been inside, yeah. I don't want to go outside
in the rain. Exactly. I'm going to pee in here.
Yeah, it's way better in here, guys. Yeah, way
better inside. No thanks. No reason I want to
go outside. Why would I pee in my grass? That
is the situation that usually we get the call
about. And it's like, I can't get my dog to stop
peeing inside. And you're like, well, how old
is your dog? And they're like, a year and a half.
And you're like, oh, Lord. Well, that is a different
issue. So I just wanted to highlight the actual
differences there. All right. So we will come
back to our listener projects. At this point,
we want to open it up for questions from any
of our clients that are live on the line. I don't
see any questions that are typed out there. So
we will go to our Jeopardy theme here. And if
you've got any questions, now is the time. Going
once. Going twice. I don't think we have any
clients with puppies. Right, I know. They're
not young either. Right, it's going to be the
random person that jumps on and is like, oh my
gosh, I have so many questions. Yeah. If you're
listening to this after the fact and you do come
up with those questions, once again, we've got
Ryan, R -Y -A -N, at TopDogTrainingNC .com or
Brianna at TopDogTrainingNC .com. Nobody's going
to get the spelling right of mine. B -R -E -A
-N -N -A. You can reach out to us on our website.
You can leave us a comment on the show. Or you
can call the phone number, 910 -777 -4175. Happy
to talk to you about your problems. Related to
dogs. Yeah. Okay. Just dogs. I can't really handle
any other problems. I have plenty of problems
myself. All right. Listener projects. Project
number one. The potty log. Brianna alluded to
this. A log. Copying all my stuff. Very important.
For one week, write down every meal, water intake,
and potty break. What that's going to do is it's
going to help give you clarity. to what is going
on here with your dog. Track the timing patterns
so you know when accidents are most likely, and
then use the log to anticipate and prevent those
mistakes. All right, project number two, reward
zone routine. So choose one outdoor spot for
your potty breaks. Take your dog on leash to
that same exact spot every single time. Mark
with yes. That's the marker that we use or your
own marker, whatever it means that is like, yep,
this is good. And reward immediately after they
finish, not during. All right. That's all we
got for today. We're going to close it out here.
Thanks for tuning in. I want to encourage everybody
to take the opportunity to leave us a comment,
leave us a like, leave us a review. Thanks for
tuning in tonight for our episode, our eighth
episode. We are kind of cruising right along
and we'll just keep bringing you new episodes
here week after week. Thanks for tuning in tonight.
Lila, thanks for being here. Thank you. Thank
you. All right. Lila's always here. All right.
I'll talk to you guys later. Have a great night.
Good night. Thank you. Record.