- Not a substitute for professional veterinary help.
Potty training or retraining an adult dog can feel like an uphill battle—but with consistency and positive reinforcement, even an old dog can learn new tricks. The key? A consistent routine, limited opportunity for accidents indoors, and generous rewards for success.
Adult dogs can find themselves needing potty training for several reasons. You might have a newly adopted rescue who’s never been trained. Or a dog with previous training might need to re-learn good habits after going through a significant change to their environment or routine.
With help from Chitra Walmsley, ABCDT and trainer on Rover, we review the best ways to potty train an adult dog, plus how to troubleshoot and when to get help.
Note: Adult dogs experiencing incontinence may have an underlying medical cause, so make sure to consult your veterinarian before beginning a new potty training routine for a previously trained adult pet.
Steps for Potty Training Adult Dogs
“The core tenet of potty training an adult dog is strict management and preventing accidents before they happen, combined with heavy rewards for the desired behavior,” Walmsley explains. “Supervision and not too much freedom is needed, a rigid and frequent schedule, and high value treats and praise when they get it right.”
And most important of all? A healthy dose of patience.
1. Keep a regular potty routine
First, create a consistent potty schedule and take your dog outside on a leash to the desired potty spot without fail. You can set reminders on your phone to help you remember.
Experts recommend taking an adult dog out every 2 to 4 hours during the day when potty training. You’ll also want to go out for a potty break during other key times, such as:
- As soon as they wake up in the morning
- After every meal
- After any naps
- Before bedtime
Over time, these regular outings will become predictable—key to successful potty training. Once you and your dog have an established routine with no accidents indoors, you may be able to decrease the frequency of your trips outside.
2. Reward your dog for doing their business outside
Whenever your dog pees or poops outdoors, make sure to celebrate and reward them with ample treats and lots of excited praise.
Have the treats available on you, either in your pocket or a treat bag, so that your dog receives the reward within seconds of peeing or pooping. Waiting too long can confuse dogs about what they’re being rewarded for.
Pro tip: If you’re potty training in an apartment with limited access to the outdoors, you may want to consider adding potty pads to your routine. For best results, resist the urge to spread them out all over the home. Placing them only in one location helps your dog learn that there’s only a single indoor potty spot that they should use.
3. Keep your dog on a leash when outside
Even if you have a backyard or an enclosed outdoor space, you’ll want to keep your dog on a leash, at least initially, while they’re learning to potty outdoors. It’s easy for dogs to become distracted and forget the reason they’re outside. A leash can help keep your dog focused on the mission.
For the same reason, it’s best to avoid combining potty time with other activities, like playtime.
4. Limit freedom inside the house
While you’re potty training, consider using gates or play pens to section off a part of your home for your dog. The ideal space has easy-to-clean floors and makes it simple to watch them for signs they’re getting ready to go.
5. Supervise at all times
As much as you can, you’ll want to supervise your dog during the potty training process. This will help reduce your pet’s opportunities for accidents and unwanted behaviors like marking.
Watch for signs like sniffing the floor, circling, and scratching at the door that may indicate your dog is getting ready to go. The goal is to catch your dog before they poop or pee so that you can take them outdoors to the correct location before they have an accident inside.
If you’re away from home during the day, consider recruiting a family member, friend, neighbor, or dog sitter to help keep an eye on your pet and maintain consistency while potty training.
5. Regulate meals to create a predictable schedule
Feeding your dog meals at the same time every day can make potty training easier. Since dogs typically need to go about 15-20 minutes after they eat, a consistent schedule makes it simpler to predict when your dog will need to relieve themselves.
Plus, a regular routine of both meal and potty breaks will help your dog learn the schedule, too, which can encourage them to hold their bladders until the next scheduled time to go out.
Keep in mind that if your dog is a picky eater, it may be tempting to leave their food bowl out and let them graze all day, but this will make it harder to anticipate when they’ll need to go and can slow down the potty training process.
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Carolina Santos Torre via iStock
How To Handle Accidents
Accidents are an inevitable part of the potty training process. Here’s what to do when they happen.
1. Clean up after accidents
Accidents can happen frequently during potty training, and when they do, it’s important to clean up thoroughly with an enzymatic cleaner. Enzyme-based cleaners can dissolve the pheromones that regular household cleaners won’t remove, which is helpful since dogs tend to return to locations where they smell those pheromones to urinate or defecate again.
2. Interrupt accidents and immediately take your dog outside
If you see your dog peeing or pooping in the house, immediately make a noise to interrupt and get their attention (for example, “uh uh!” or clapping your hands). Quickly go to your dog and gently take them to the correct location, whether that’s outdoors or on a potty pad.
Hover in that correct location with your dog for a couple of minutes. If they start going again, celebrate and reward. If they don’t, return inside and clean up the mess.
3. Avoid punishing or scolding
Even though it can be frustrating when your dog continues to have accidents during the potty training process, it’s important to avoid getting angry, yelling, or punishing your dog when you come across an accident or see them in the act. Not only does this not help your pet learn the correct behavior, it can actually backfire and cause your pet to become fearful or hide from you when they need to go.
Instead, redirect your dog outdoors to finish in the right place, keeping your voice and energy as neutral as possible. Then clean up the accident and try to catch the next one.
4. Use belly bands
For rescue dogs who are prone to marking, belly bands, also known as wraps or male dog diapers, can be a helpful tool in your potty training toolkit. Belly bands are made of absorbent fabric that wrap around a dog’s waist to cover the genital area and prevent them from urinating on objects.
While belly bands don’t replace potty training, they can be helpful for protecting your furniture during times when you’re not able to supervise your pet indoors.
5. Use washable pads/carpet
Similarly, if your pet spends time in a room with carpet while learning to potty train, it’s a good idea to use washable pads or area rugs to cover up and protect the carpeted floors.
That way, when your pet inevitably has an accident, the pad or rug can be washed right away to eliminate any lingering scent and pheromones, which helps prevent your dog from returning to pee or poop in the same location again.
Working with a Trainer
Need some help? Working with a professional dog trainer can fast-track your potty training progress.
First, an experienced trainer can often spot underlying issues. “They [may] be able to ascertain whether the dog is having potty accidents simply because of a lack of training or whether it is submissive/excitement elimination, anxiety elimination, or a medical issue,” Walmsley explains.
Next, they can help you put together a customized training plan, taking into consideration your dog’s history, your schedule, and the type of home you live in. “Plus a trainer will look at the size of the dog and advise whether a toy breed with a tiny bladder will need a tighter schedule compared to a medium to large breed dog,” Walmsley adds.
The result is a personalized potty training routine that identifies the ideal reward timing and approach to take for your pet.
To find a trainer near you, learn how dog training works on Rover.
