Sit Means Sit Hawaii’s Secret Steps to Housebreaking Your Dog By Ashton Fitzgerald Sit Means Sit Master Trainer

What this report covers:

✓ Developing and using a management system ✓ Considerations for feeding and watering ✓ The role the dog owner plays in success ✓ Establishing a solid routine to enable success ✓ Using patterning to take the guesswork out of housebreaking ✓ Getting your dog to use a specific spot outside ✓ To cage or not to cage ✓ What to do in the event of an accident ✓ Your dog’s nose knows. How to properly clean up accidents ✓ Get your dog to eliminate ON COMMAND! ✓ Scheduling template lays out exactly what to do on a daily basis ✓ Convenient housebreaking tracking charts are included

Plus, we discuss dealing with problems beyond just basic housebreaking cases such as:

✓ Fixing problems with adult and rescue dogs ✓ Considerations for pet store and puppy mill dogs ✓ Territorial marking in males ✓ Regression and possible emotional triggers ✓ Housebreaking a puppy or dog is a straightforward but often challenging prospect for pet owners. Housebreaking ranks as one of the most common dog problems pet owners experience along with controlling barking and leash pulling.

There are a number of considerations when it comes time to tackle a housebreaking problem, including:

✓ Your dog’s age ✓ Your dog’s health

✓ The expectations placed on the dog

Some problems that appear to be housebreaking issues aren’t truly housebreaking problems. Sometimes the dog can be experiencing health-related issues such as a bladder infection that causes them to urinate frequently and in small quantities. In cases such as this, it’s best to consult with your veterinarian to address potential health-related issues and administer treatment where necessary. If you have an adult dog who normally is quite continent but is having accidents, this could be an indicator of a health problem.

Some dogs also take to marking behaviors, which is less of a housebreaking problem and more of a behavioral issue. We briefly address issues such as these in this report. However, a more involved behavioral training program may be necessary to resolve problems of this nature.

First, let’s figure out what you’re dealing with.

How old is the dog? If he’s under 6 months of age, then it’s probably a standard case of puppy-potty training. Older than 6 months, and it may be just housebreaking that your dog needs (maybe he’s a rescue dog who has never lived inside a home before). Younger dogs often require more frequent feedings, which will affect your housebreaking schedule.

When do the accidents occur? When he wakes up? When he’s playing? After eating or drinking? At night or when you’re at work? You get the idea... Using the tracking logs at the end of this report, keep a log of his accidents right down to the actual time it happened. In many cases, keeping a log will allow you to see trends. This is a huge step forward in anticipating accidents.

Where do the accidents occur? In his kennel/crate? In a spare room? In the same corner? Behind the couch? Again, use our convenient tracking charts to keep a log of his accidents not just when, but where and even how.

To Control What Comes Out, We Must Control What Goes In

One of the first things to evaluate is your current feeding and watering schedule. Remember that your dog is a closed system, and when something goes in one end, it’s likely to push something else out the other end.

It’s because of this hydraulic system of digestion that professionals recommend a schedule for food and water. If you can control when something goes into your dog’s system, you have a better chance of controlling when it comes out.

Food is digested (for the most part) at the same rate, so if your dog regularly eats at the same time each day, he’s more likely to eliminate at the same time each day. Free feeding can work, but remember if your dog is eating dozens of small meals throughout the day, he’s likely to leave dozens of Easter eggs lying around throughout the day.

Controlling water intake can also help get control over tougher housebreaking problems. Note that we’re talking about CONTROL, not RESTRICTION. The key here is to provide enough clean and fresh water to your dog to satisfy its needs, but during windows that you dictate. Providing unlimited water access for 15 minutes, twice a day (mealtime) and during exercise is typically adequate for the average dog. If your dog is active, it’s advisable to offer water every 15 minutes or so depending on weather. Remember, though, as long as your dog is drinking, it’s filling up the reservoir. If your dog drinks a quart of water during exercise and has yet to urinate, prepare for several elimination events within an hour of drinking.

If your dog is an outdoor dog, then continuous access to fresh liquid water during outdoor periods is crucial to help them stay safe and comfortable.

It advisable to time your puppy or dog’s last watering about 3-4 hours before you retire to bed for the night (perhaps with his evening meal). The activity and time before his last potty break before the longer night stretches will help to set him up for success as he sleeps. Imagine yourself drinking an entire Big Gulp right before laying down to sleep. You’d probably be waking up rather frequently to let it out.

Likely Accident Times

Puppies will likely have accidents after eating, drinking, playing, sleeping or pretty much any other time of the day. A good rule of thumb with puppies is to provide potty opportunities every fifteen to twenty minutes. The more active your dog is, the more often he will have to urinate. In general, food will be passed twelve to sixteen hours after consuming, but you can expect one to two movements for each meal your puppy eats. Three meals a day can mean a symphony of excrement. Be ready.

Adult dogs tend to follow the 1:2 ratio of meals to colonic events as well. Like their human counterparts, you can expect an adult dog to have to urinate first thing in the morning and typically every hour afterwards. During times of activity or exercise, usually every 20-30 minutes is common. As far as daily constitutionals go, this depends on your dog. Most dogs will require some activity to “loosen things up” so to speak. They may not produce anything until their first

playtime session of the day.

Remember that these likely accident times are just guidelines, which is why we recommend you keep a log of ALL events (both #1 and #2). This will allow you to look back and see the trends develop.

Developing a Management System

All good business owners and managers know that having a strong management system in place is key to developing trustworthy employees and ultimately a business that is efficient and “hands-off”. So, too, do good dog owners.

It’s crucial to realize that until your puppy or dog is trustworthy and capable of either properly acting on their ‘instinct’ or holding in their business, they need a manager or management system to keep them from making mistakes.

Simply put, a management system is a system that enables your dog to have success on a near-constant basis, even if you’re not around.

Examples of tools to bring into your management system are:

✓ Kennels or dog crates ✓ Doggie doors ✓ Potty pads ✓ Potty Patch ✓ Baby gates

The purpose of these tools is either to provide an appropriate outlet for your dog to go potty (doggie doors, potty patch or potty pads) or to prevent your dog from having freedom to have accidents outside of a confined area.

Dogs and puppies instinctively have a knack for wanting to be clean. Some dogs have this to a higher degree than others. (I have memories of a certain shepherd mix that would finger-paint with his ‘creations’). There is, however, hope in that even so-called “dirty dogs” can learn to enjoy being clean. Providing your dog with ample opportunities to experience the contrast between being clean and dirty makes the simple matter of “it takes time” move more quickly.

We can tap into this instinctive cleanliness using confinement such as baby gates, dog kennels/crates, or exercise pens. The key is to size the area of confinement properly to your dog’s body. In general, a pen should be sized large enough that your dog can turn around without strain, but not so large that they can defecate in one end then curl up clean and dry in the other end. For crates, a good rule of

thumb is to take the length of your dog from snout to the base of their tail, and add about five inches. This should be the length of your dog’s crate. The standard “width times length” of dog crates are usually gauged by the manufacturers fairly accurately.

Your dog may try to bury accidents in their bedding. If this is an issue for your dog, then try using in a single layer of terry cloth or flannel material instead of bedding or removing the bedding entirely. Obviously if you have a puppy who likes to chew and destroy bedding, remove the bedding for safety. Also, a terry- cloth towel is much easier to toss in the washing machine than dismantling and cleaning a larger dog bed. Remember, you may be doing this daily.

As your dog progresses through housebreaking you can begin to expand the area of confinement by using baby gates to give access to the room that contains the crate. Eventually, the dog can have freedom of the entire floor of the house.

A crate or exercise pen can be combined with a doggie door to further facilitate your dog’s learning to use the dog door even when you’re not around. Simply leave the door of the crate open, but slide that open door up against the doggie door. This will allow your dog to have access to the house via the crate (albeit restricted access), and yet he can still have access to the doggie door outside.

Building on the desire to keep a clean ‘den’, your dog will use the crate as his ‘den’ and go outside in order to eliminate. This setup is ideal for dog owners who work long hours away from home and/or don’t have access to a dog walker.

If you choose to use potty pads or a Potty Patch to help housebreak your dog, then it’s advised that you use these permanently. The long-term expectations you have for your dog’s housebreaking should be the short-term focus too. It’s unadvisable to use potty pads if you plan to have your dog eliminate outside. These are simply an intermediary step which will end up confusing your dog in the long run.

If you do wish to use potty pads because you live in an apartment or condo, then set up your management system in the same manner as a dog door setup. Place the pads or potty patch within the confined area you’ve set aside for your dog. Note that a dog crate will have to be expanded to allow for the potty area AND a sleeping area.

One of the biggest challenges you will encounter with potty pads is the “near- miss” effect. This is when the dog goes to the potty pad (or patch) and urinates on it (sort of). They end up urinating half-on / half-off the pad, creating a mess. Unfortunately, this is part of the challenge with pad training. Sometimes putting the pad inside a large litter pan (meant for cats) can work to contain inadvertent

spill over. In the past, I’ve even used the bottom half of a plastic airline style crate. With no lid or door attached, the bottom half of the plastic airline style crate acts as a large litter pan with high sides.

Another challenge with pad training is with dogs that have a very high desire to remain clean. Don’t be surprised if your dog decides that potty pads are a single- use only type of thing. Personally I hate using a restroom when the previous tenant neglected to flush. Imagine how it is for your dog staring at it all day. It’s no wonder some dogs bury things in bedding.

Developing a Spot

A top-secret professional technique to accelerate your dog’s housebreaking is developing a spot or potty area for your dog to eliminate in. With consistent use, this spot serves several purposes:

1. It acts as a tactile and visual cue to your dog to eliminate. 2. It provides a concentrated area of scent that will trigger your dog’s instinctive urge to eliminate. 3. It provides a controlled area of elimination, which in turn aids in clean up for you.

The spot you teach your dog to eliminate can be anywhere. If you live in a suburban house with a large backyard, you could easily dedicate an inconspicuous, out-of-the-way area for your dog to eliminate in. Not only will this save your lawn from those unsightly brown spots caused by urine burning, but also contains your dog’s ‘number twos’, keeping the yard clean and safe for human use. Nothing is worse that your kids playing in the same area that your dog eliminates in.

Some dog owners will even go to the extent of building a dedicated ‘potty bed’ for the dog. This is a raised area much like a flower bed that, instead of being filled with flowers, is topped with pea-gravel or artificial turf and acts as a physical spot for your dog to eliminate in. The visual boundary created by a raised bed helps your dog clearly identify this spot as the ‘potty spot’ and further accelerates your dog’s independence in seeking out this spot to eliminate.

This spot can easily be deodorized by filling a garden hose-mounted fertilizer sprayer (like this one) with an enzyme cleaner like Nature’s Miracle or even household bleach. If you’re using bleach, let it sit for 15 minutes then rinse thoroughly with clean, fresh water before allowing your dog near the area. Also,

thoroughly rinse the sprayer inside and out after use. Be sure to fill the sprayer with fresh water and run the water through sprayer. This will extend the life of the sprayer.

An apartment dog living in an urban setting could easily learn to do something similar on a balcony or even (if you’re gutsy) a bathtub. Personally I feel that teaching a dog to eliminate in a bathtub (as unsanitary as it may seem) makes for easier cleaning than with carpeting. There are products available now (like the Potty Patch) which act as an indoor spot for your dog, much like a litter box for a cat. The applications of these products do have a place, but any potty training regime that encourages your dog to eliminate inside the home carries potential for problems (like your dog getting a near-miss).

Ideally it is best to teach a dog to hold everything in until you are able to walk the dog outside to its elimination spot.

Patterning for Success

It is important to realize that dogs (like people) are creatures of habit and routine, especially when it comes to their day-to-day lives. Recognizing this will greatly enable your dog to gain success with housebreaking. The key is simply to establish a routine for every part of your dog’s day-to-day life, and doing your absolute best to stick to that routine.

A great thing to realize is that successful housebreaking begins more with patterning and conditioning than trying to remember to make on-the-spot choices. A puppy usually doesn’t even recognize the urge to pee until it is much too late to stop. As the dog grows older, its bladder matures somewhat, and so the dog begins to recognize the urges and acts on them.

At a young age, puppies will typically stop whatever they are doing and eliminate on the spot. There isn’t normally a big lead up to the event. In the case of defecation, some puppies will often perform a slight song and dance when the urge hits. You usually get a few more seconds warning with a number two (solids move slower than liquids).

As the puppy’s digestive system matures, it becomes more efficient and will often pull more moisture out of your dog’s defecation, thus slowing the release of a bowel movement. This means that some dogs need activity and time to get inspired. Their bladders will of course grow, and the muscles that control the release will become more toned with time. This will allow your puppy to hold more in for longer periods. A good rule of thumb is that your puppy’s age in

months + 1 is the number of hours it can hold it in ideal circumstances (sleeping). For example, a 3-month old puppy should be able to go 4 hours at night between bathroom breaks. Remember this is just a guideline. If you awake at hour 4 and your puppy has eliminated, you should trim back the interval some more.

Success is dependent on creating a combination of supervision and confinement (using your management system), a structured feeding and watering routine, and establishing a solid schedule of events for your dog to successfully eliminate. Success breeds success, so the more often your dog eliminates when and where it should, the more likely it is to repeat those actions.

Enabling success is not just about preventing accidents, but teaching in a positive and constructive manner, which builds trust between you and your dog.

Think of your dog as a child at school. A good teacher teaches what the child should do to have success, not just focus on what the child is doing wrong.

Remember the goal here is training through patterns, not choices. By continually showing your dog where to go (whether the dog intends to perform or not), it will develop an uncanny dependence on that routine. Some dogs may even become obsessed with following that routine.

By creating a daily routine that encompasses waking, feeding, watering, walking, potty breaks, play time, nap time and everything else your dog or puppy needs, you will be ensured of success. Every part of your puppy’s life should be structured. Structure doesn’t mean being strict. It simply means having guidelines laid out that your dog should follow.

A great example would be:

If your puppy has yet to eliminate his morning constitutional, is it wise to leave him playing loose unattended in the house while you shower?

Common sense would tell me: No. Puppy has a loaded weapon, why leave him unattended to play target practice? Perhaps the best place for the puppy during my shower is his crate where he is already quite good at holding it in.

A typical daily routine for a young puppy might look like this: As you start to see, there is a pattern h

6:00am: Wake up. Out of its crate, immediately to its spot for a quick potty break. 6:10: Back in the crate. Food and water offered for 15 minutes ONLY. 6:25: Out of the crate, immediately to its spot for another potty break. 6:35: If Puppy has eliminated #1 & #2: some supervised free time.

If Puppy hasn’t eliminated: Back in the crate for 10 minutes. 6:45: Back to the potty spot for quick break. If Puppy eliminated: 15 minutes more supervised play time. If Puppy didn’t eliminate: Back to the crate for another 10-15 minutes. 7:00: Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

Any time the puppy comes out of the crate, it gets a potty break. If it doesn’t eliminate, it goes to the crate to hold in whatever small amount until the next break that’s just around the corner. It’s best to always feed your puppy in the crate as this encourages them to hold in their elimination when the urge is strong. Remember the more active your puppy is, the more likely it is to eliminate spontaneously. The crate controls its activity so you can eat your breakfast or shower without worry. Of course it’s critical to enable success, which is why your puppy is provided with so many potty breaks. After a week or so of this type of routine, you will be able to review your housebreaking logs and see some patterns and trends in your dog’s eliminations. Let’s say for instance that every day for the last week you took your dog out at 7:30am and he NEVER eliminated. Perhaps he doesn’t need that elimination break. Perhaps you’ve noticed that on five out of the seven days, he had an accident at around 10:00am shortly after his morning walk. Perhaps you should anticipate this and add in another break. Remember that you are simply working to figure out your dog’s schedule, while at the same time teaching him to adapt to yours. This WILL require time and some adjustments to the routine.

Potty On Command

You have a dedicated spot for your puppy, he may or may not be actively registering it as such just yet, but you can still start teaching him to potty on command. This is really cool, and very simple to teach. Here’s how:

For each and EVERY potty break your puppy gets, establish a pattern of events.

1. Clip a leash to your dog. Yes, this is necessary even for a dog that listens well. Here’s why: We want to keep this a black and white learning experience, as free from distractions as possible. You WILL NOT talk to your dog except when you cue him to eliminate, and when you praise him for eliminating. We want to remove all the superfluous stuff that we say to

our dogs, and make this a crystal-clear interaction of cue, behavior and reward. 2. Using the leash, lead your dog straight to their potty spot. As you do this tell them once ‘Time to go potty’. Stand in the middle of your dog’s potty spot and adjust the length of leash so that your dog can move around their potty spot, but not leave the area. 3. Ignore your dog completely until you see him begin to show signs of ‘inspiration’. This could be sniffing, pacing, circling, or the obvious: squatting or lifting his leg. 4. When those signs start, calmly and quietly give your dog a command like ‘Go potty’. Note this is more of a cue than a command. He doesn’t know the word, so the expectations should be not about comprehension, but overlaying the word and the urge to eliminate. 5. When his is in the process of eliminating, calmly praise him verbally. 6. Once he is finished eliminating, you can praise him more lavishly. This involves petting, massaging or giving him treats for his action. If this is a time of day when he probably has a load on deck, then save the lavish reward for after he has completed both tasks. Too much praise in the middle of the main event can work to distract him from his job and get him too excited to eliminate again. In fact, any distraction can prevent him from going, even if he has to. This is another reason a consistent spot helps. By the fourth or fifth visit to that spot, your puppy will have already smelled everything interesting in that spot. Boredom will encourage him to get down to business faster.

Dealing with Accidents

Accidents are an inevitable part of housebreaking any dog. I’ve never known a single dog that was housebroken without ever having an accident. Some dogs are cleaner than others and are much better about holding things in until the cows come home.

It’s important to remember that most of the time, accidents are the owner’s fault. We neglected something. Perhaps we forgot to pick up the dog’s water, and he drank a lot without us realizing. Perhaps we didn’t crate him while we were busy making dinner and unable to properly supervise him. Maybe the kids took the puppy out to play, but didn’t give him a chance to go potty on his spot frequently enough while he was active and playing (every 15 minutes to start). Regardless of the reason, accidents happen.

Here’s what to do and what not to do:

DO:

Try to catch your dog in the act. This is where supervision comes into play. Though being proactive and getting the dog outside at the first signs of (or prior to) the urge is best. Sometimes that doesn’t happen. When you catch the dog going, try to get the dog to hold some of it in and get the dog to finish outside ON ITS SPOT.

DO NOT:

Yell at the dog, spank her or scare her. This will usually just create distrust between your dog and you, and lead her to eliminate out of sight next time.

DO:

Clean up the spot with an enzyme-based cleaner designed to eliminate (not just mask) pet odors. Nature’s Miracle is one such product which is designed exactly for this purpose. If carpeting is involved, then you may have to thoroughly treat the area multiple times. Portable carpet deep cleaners like the Little Green have proven to be indispensable to dog owners. Also note that if an accident has sat for a while, it may have gotten into under-padding and/or sub-flooring leaving residual scent. This residual scent can trigger your dog to eliminate in the same area again. If you see your dog go back to the same spot several times, this could be part of the issue. You may want to consider restricting access to that area until your dog has a better grasp of self-control.

DO NOT:

Rub your dog’s nose in the accident. This is confrontational, affects trust and could even lead to coprophagia (fancy word for poop eating). Furthermore, now you have a dog whose face smells like pee or poop. Pucker up for pooch now...

Structured Free Time

Free time is an important part of any puppy’s or dog’s life and development. The problem with unstructured free time is that the dog is left to its own devices for entertainment and left to its own whims as to when and where to potty. Not only could this greatly affect how quickly your dog is housebroken, it could mean your dog learning other unwanted bad habits such as digging, chewing, excessive barking or worse: aggression.

Providing structure during potty training is as simple as a follow-me game. The object of the game is simple: have your dog or puppy follow you wherever you go. The purpose is really just to have your dog nearby so that you can spot and interrupt any unwanted behaviors as they happen. My recommendation: Put your dog on a leash, and tie that leash around your waist or belt. When your dog is attached to you, he won’t get away with much without you noticing.

Another example of structured free time is playing with your puppy. Again it’s a good idea to keep a leash attached to your puppy, but have him drag that leash around. This way he has more freedom than if he’s tied to you, but if the urge strikes, it’s easier for you to pick up the leash and lead him outside. Secondly, if you’re playing a game of fetch and he doesn’t want to bring the toy back, you can simply use the leash to guide him to you.

By structuring your dog’s free time, you begin to take greater control over the games your dog develops for entertainment. Once again, the idea is to create lasting habits through repetition. By playing ‘Follow me’ on a daily basis, you’ll quickly find that your dog will start to follow you around of his own free will.

Troubleshooting Problematic Cases

Every so often we get tossed a curve ball. You’ve done everything right, you’re super diligent and attentive, you’ve kept logs and records and yet still your dog is not housebroken. What do you do?

Marking

Sometimes, you have an issue that is fueled by your dog’s personality, such as dominance marking in your house. The symptoms of this are usually pretty obvious: your dog is lifting his leg on objects around your house, sometimes even on people.

In this case, it’s important to realize that this is NOT a housebreaking issue, but a behavioral issue. Resolving problems like this usually requires extensive human- dog relationship management through obedience training and day-to-day exercises designed to diffuse the perceived power struggle your dog is experiencing.

Tactics such as random obedience training exercises, controlling where your dog eliminates, and just overall structure often go a long way in addressing problems with dogs who mark. A tool often used by many dog training professionals in persistent marking cases is a ‘Belly Band’...nothing more than a length of fabric that fastens over the dog’s belly (and, er... package.). Most dogs will only mark once, and realize they’ve marked themselves. It’s unpleasant enough that it often

works to stop sneaky markers. Obviously leaving a belly band on an unattended dog could mean coming home to a chewed belly band and a marked up house. Use discretion and common sense.

We further address the marking problems in our section on difficult dogs.

Emotional Upset

It’s not uncommon for an otherwise trustworthy dog to unexpectedly go through a period of regression. This could be true not just of housebreaking problems, but also of other sudden often unexplained behavioral problems. Changes to your dog’s household routine, perceived pack status or other family structure, or even changes in your dog’s territory such as renovations or moving to a new house can create regression.

Examples of changes could be: moving to a new house, new family members (spouses, children, babies, etc), renovations, new dogs or cats, a new job that requires more hours away from home. The list is virtually endless.

Typically, problems such as these are emotional, and caused by a lack of security on your dog’s part. Addressing issues such as these are usually straightforward as long as the new routine becomes consistent. It’s really just a matter of time for your dog to adjust. Things that can aid in your dog’s adjustment period are things like making a concerted effort to maintain some sort of routine and schedule throughout the turmoil. Daily walks or exercise periods can help your dog adjust through these periods, as can something as simple as providing your dog with its personal den space such as a crate which remains unchanged throughout all the turmoil.

Multiple Eliminators

It’s not uncommon to encounter a dog that has a need to eliminate more than one time in a given potty break. You’ll quickly learn whether or not your dog is one of these ‘multiple eliminators.’ For example, you’ll take the dog out for a potty break; it will eliminate and then soon after coming back inside, you’ll find that it has eliminated again. Simple solution: get wise to the pattern and keep your dog on its spot for longer until it eliminates the second (or third) time.

Daily Housebreaking Schedule:

Print this page and, in the first column, print the times that fit with your daily schedule and routine. Use this schedule as a jumping off point. Remove potty breaks as necessary.

Time Activity Wake Up. Potty Break for 5 - 10 minutes. Offer Food & Water in Crate. (15 minutes) Potty Break. If elimination occurs, supervised play time, otherwise Crate. (15 minutes) Potty Break. If elimination occurs, supervised play time, otherwise Crate. (15 minutes) Repeat throughout morning. Mid-Day Offer Food & Water in Crate. (15 minutes) Potty Break. If elimination occurs, supervised play time, otherwise Crate. (15 minutes) Potty Break. If elimination occurs, supervised play time, otherwise Crate. (15 minutes) Repeat throughout day. Evening Offer Food & Water in Crate. (15 minutes) ~ 3 hours before bedtime. Potty Break. If elimination occurs, supervised play time, otherwise Crate. (15 minutes) Potty Break. If elimination occurs, supervised play time, otherwise Crate. (15 minutes) Repeat throughout evening. Bed Final Potty Break. (5 - 10 minutes) Time +/- 3 Potty Break (5 minutes) back to crate. ~ Age in months + 1 hour nightly hours interval.

Weekly Event Log:

Print out three copies of the log sheet on the next page. Dedicate one sheet specific to tracking accidents, one sheet specific to successful peeing and one sheet specific to successful pooping (circle one on the sheet). It’s a good idea to log the details of accidents (when & where, etc) on the back side of the accident sheet.

Feel free to adapt these sheets as you see fit. The purpose of recording these events is to enable you to spot the trends. The most frustrating thing about housebreaking a dog is when it is making mistakes. Lack of progress can sometimes seem like it’s happening for no reason, until you spot the trend and realize how simple it can be to adjust your dog’s schedule to compensate.

Remember that regression is normal throughout housebreaking. If this occurs, simply go back to tracking the events and see if there are trends in the accidents. Weekly Housebreaking Event Log: Accidents / Peeing / Pooping

Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri Sat Sun