Potty Training a J&T Puppy

How We Start Our Potty-Trained Puppies

Dogs have a natural instinct to potty away from their sleep area. We set up our puppies for success with potty training from an early age by providing them with a litter box potty area that is separate from their sleep and eating space.

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Why Buying a Properly Started Potty Trained Puppy is Important

If you buy your next puppy from a breeder who does not put in this preparation, the puppy can become conditioned to no longer discriminate between potty and non-potty surfaces.  For example, many breeders will rear puppies on newspaper or blankets and have their bed, feed, water and potty areas all mixed together.  This takes away their natural instinct to potty away from their den.  We instead work with this natural instinct, reinforcing it and making the job of potty training infinitely easier. Puppies that were not started correctly will be more difficult to potty train for the rest of their lives. Potty training failure is a major cause of dissatisfaction by dog owners. 

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Are These Miniature Schnauzer Puppies Fully Potty Trained?

It’s important to note that NO puppy is fully potty trained by 8 to 9 weeks of age!  While our puppies are trained to potty reliably in the right place in our home environment, they need to learn the “lay of the land” at yours before they even understand where the toilet is, and how to get to it.  You will need to be vigilant to avoid accidents, and ensure you help your puppy get to the toilet area regularly through the day.  We provide full advice on this but just be aware that work will be required of you to ensure success.  The fewer mistakes you let your puppy make at this stage, the easier the whole process will be!

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Benefits of a Potty-Trained Puppy

The most obvious benefit of owning a potty-trained Miniature Schnauzer puppy is that it makes it much easier for you to complete potty training.  The chance of messy accidents is greatly reduced and the puppy “gets it” faster.  Potty training can be a challenging task, and with a puppy that has been reared to potty in appropriate places, you will have less stress and enjoy more of the fun parts of pet ownership.

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Transitioning from Litter Box to Outdoor Areas

There are many types of bottled scents that you can purchase that entices a puppy to potty in a specific area. I have found that if your puppy can associate the smell of their litter box with the smell of the outdoor area you want them to use, then they learn very quickly what you want of them. Using the spray scents on their litter box as well as outside helps them to understand that those are the places you WANT them to go potty.

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Find more information on the supplies we use to potty train your puppy by clicking the link below! This will make the transition to your home that much easier.