Potty training is an important part of housebreaking any pet! If you have a Rottweiler puppy, you’ll need to begin this training as quickly as you can so that they can assimilate well into your home.
Here’s how to potty train a Rottweiler puppy!
When Should You Start Potty Training A Rottweiler Puppy?
Rottweiler puppies should begin receiving potty training at the age of five to eight weeks. This allows you to hone good potty habits at a young age.
This is also a wonderful age for lots of different kinds of training, as young Rottweiler puppies are sponges and soak up information quickly!
Tips To Keep In Mind For Potty Training Success
1. Take Your Puppy Out Frequently
Rottweiler puppies, like all puppies, have small bladders that can’t hold much in them. This means they’ll need to use the bathroom pretty frequently.
Puppies up to the age of 9 months can hold their bladders for as many hours as their months of age.
This means a 2-month-old puppy can hold it for 2 hours and a 6-month-old puppy can hold it for 6.
2. Restrict Access to Food
Free food access means more frequent needs to use the bathroom, which means more risk of accidents.
Restrict your puppy’s access to food. It’s best for them to only eat during scheduled mealtimes, anyway!
3. Monitor Water Intake
Just like with food, unrestricted water access means more need to go potty, and this can worsen the risk of accidents.
Monitor how much your puppy is drinking so you can better gauge when they may need to head to the toilet.
If you won’t be able to monitor your puppy for a certain period of time, limit the amount of water you leave for them – within reason!
They should have enough to stay hydrated, but not so much that they might need to go too quickly.
4. Remember That Excitement Can Loosen the Bladder
When your puppy is extremely excited, they might feel the need to pee more quickly, often in an uncontrolled way.
Try to schedule potty breaks right after playtime and monitor your puppy in overstimulating or exciting environments and situations.
5. Stick to Routines
Puppies are creatures of habit! Routines can help to establish when a potty break will happen.
By association, your Rottweiler puppy will start to only want to go according to the routine. The routine must be consistent and easy to discern and follow for this to be effective.
6. Use Lots of Positive Reinforcement
Puppies love to please! When your Rottweiler uses the bathroom the way you want it to, praise them, give treats, and act extremely excited!
You should also be encouraging and gentle during the process of teaching it to go, especially if your puppy is a little confused at first.
7. Handle Accidents Well
The way you handle accidents can make or break potty training progress. Scolding your puppy is unlikely to garner any good results.
Simply redirect the behavior by bringing your puppy outdoors quickly and praising it if it finishes its business in the right place.
You should also clean the area where your puppy accidentally went quickly and thoroughly to prevent repeats.
Step By Step Potty Training Guide
1. Crate Training
If you’re a first-time dog owner, you might feel a little uncomfortable at the idea of confining your dog in a crate.
However, crates, when used correctly, are amazing tools for potty training.
This is because all dogs are naturally denning animals. This means that they recognize when a space is “theirs” and naturally want to keep it cozy, clean, and comfortable.
As such, getting a puppy accustomed to being in a crate can help with potty training, as it won’t want to mess it up so its environment is clean.
If your puppy isn’t naturally comfortable confined, then you might need to do some positive association training for the crate first.
Only leave your puppy in the crate for a few minutes, rewarding it each time you let it out, at first. Gradually increase the amount of time you leave it in the crate until it’s comfortable being in there for longer periods.
Once your puppy is relatively happy in its crate, they won’t want to soil it. So when they need to use the bathroom, they will let you know by whining to be let out or otherwise communicating this need.
This is your signal to immediately let your Rottweiler puppy out of its crate, bringing it out to do its business.
This will teach your puppy that there’s a dedicated process to using the bathroom.
They inform you of their need and you bring them outdoors, so they don’t need to go indoors. This gets the whole process of potty training started!
2. Scheduled Potty Breaks
The best way to get a Rottweiler puppy into the swing of potty training is by creating a schedule for potty breaks. These breaks should be very regular, especially when your Rottweiler is very young.
Scheduled breaks give your puppy the chance to perform the desired behavior in a way that is predictable enough for them to work with.
Just make sure that you’re properly timing breaks based on your puppy’s age.
It’s a good idea to develop a schedule that has a clear routine to it, marked by daily events.
For example, you might take a Rottweiler puppy out first thing when you wake up, after each meal when they wake up from naps, and during other obvious points of the day.
This helps to get your puppy into a routine that they can understand and prevents the need for going at more inconvenient times.
3. Determine a Potty Location
A lot of potty training with a Rottweiler puppy involves association.
So the next step, therefore, is to determine a specific location where your puppy should use the bathroom.
This requires consistency. Whenever you take your puppy out to use the bathroom, do it in one specific location.
If your puppy is indoors-only, set one specific corner of the house with potty pads and only let them go there for their business.
This is extremely important, as it tells your puppy that there is a “correct” place to use the bathroom. When a puppy knows this, it automatically wants to go there when it needs to empty its bladder or bowels.
You’ll have fewer accidents as your Rottweiler won’t want to go in other locations.
This repetition will also be remembered because of your puppy’s strong sense of smell.
They’ll be able to smell the remains of their previous eliminations in that desired area, so they’ll begin to associate that with the correct bathroom spot.
4. Potty Commands
Rottweilers aren’t too difficult to teach commands to, especially in puppyhood. You can teach your Rottweiler puppy a potty command that they can associate with bathroom breaks.
A word such as “go” or “potty” is often sufficient, though some owners may use other words for different kinds of elimination.
To teach your puppy the command, simply use it every time you take them to the designated potty spot for them to use the toilet.
Eventually, they will learn to associate the command with the act of elimination, so they’ll understand what you want them to do when you use it.
Be consistent with this command and only use it when appropriate! If you mix up the command with other words or places, you’ll confuse your puppy and render the training moot.
5. Praise and Positive Reinforcement
Rottweiler puppies, like all puppies, learn best by positive reinforcement and praise. When your puppy exhibits the potty behavior that you want them to, praise them generously.
In the beginning, a small treat or two can also help reinforce the desired behavior, though some puppies may get distracted by it.
This is also why it’s important to make potty-going a relaxing, rewarding time for your puppy. This can help to encourage smoother, faster toilet breaks in the future.
The more tense and stressful the environment and situation, the less inclined your puppy will be to relieve themself!
6. How To Deal With Accidents
Accidents are inevitable when a puppy is being potty trained. They don’t know the right behavior yet, and they are young enough to have trouble holding it in sometimes.
If you handle accidents poorly, you may accidentally reinforce bad bathroom behaviors!
When you catch your Rottweiler puppy in the middle of an accident, use a simple word like “No” to indicate disapproval. Then, redirect them by bringing them outside or to the designated potty location. If they finish in the correct location, praise them and carry on as usual.
You must also wipe up and clean accidents immediately. This prevents your puppy from developing a “bathroom” association with the wrong place because of the smell.
Use an enzymatic cleaner to thoroughly get rid of the smell.
Remember, do not punish a Rottweiler puppy for its accidents! They don’t know that they are doing anything wrong.
Negative reinforcement will only cause anxiety that will worsen the frequency of accidents and ruin training progress.
Conclusion
Potty training can take a lot of effort and dedication, but the results are well worth it! Be patient, encouraging, and consistent with your Rottweiler puppy, and it will learn the right bathroom behaviors quickly!