How To Potty Train Your Dachshund Puppy
One thing you may have heard about dachshunds is that they are very hard to potty or toilet train. It was certainly something we had read a lot when we were considering whether to take on a dachshund puppy. However it isn’t impossible, and we managed to fully house train our dachshund by the age of about 5-6 months old.
Should you use puppy pads to toilet train your dachshund?
One of the most hotly debated topics around toilet training and dachshunds is whether to use puppy pads to help avoid accidents on carpets or furnishings in the home. The argument against this is that it can fuel more of what you are trying to prevent, by letting the dog think that it’s ok to go inside. Similarly, they can associate surfaces such as soft carpet as similar to the puppy pads. Therefore many people advise not using puppy pads at all.
We used a puppy play pen alongside Rocky’s crate for the first couple of months with us to give him a good space where we could keep him contained and safe if we had to leave the house at all without him, and overnight. This gave us a space to use puppy pads for any accidents that happened during those times, within that designated area. However we chose not to use them elsewhere in the house as we found actually he wasn’t using them outside of his pen when we did try (in fact was going just about anywhere else!) and we also didn’t want him to learn to go inside if possible. Instead we followed a plan of consistency, keeping an eye on the signals and going outside frequently, in a routine, to get Rocky used to going to the toilet outside. This ultimately had great results and I think even enabled us to transition to full toilet training with our dachshund puppy more quickly than if we had used puppy pads more.
Start with consistent and frequent toilet breaks
When your puppy first comes home, around the age of 8-9 weeks, then need to go several times per hour. This means you will need to take them out frequently to avoid accidents in the house. It is best to aim for every 20 to 30 mins to start with. When you do take them out, let them sniff around for about 5 mins which should hopefully prompt them to go. Be aware that this can sometimes take longer for dachshunds, especially when it’s raining - I can recall times standing outside in the rain for 15 mins with an umbrella trying to shelter puppy while I waited to see if he would go! It can be worth investing in a coat for your dachshund to help on days when the weather is bad. If they don’t go while you’re outside, return back inside but keep your eye on them for any cues they need the toilet.
The time between breaks can gradually be extended as your dachshund gets older and more reliable with going to the toilet outside, instead of inside. There are also some cues you can watch out for as they start needing to go less frequently, to help you spot the signs.
Watch out for signs and signals
Generally your dachshund puppy should give some signs and signals when they need to go to the toilet, although these can be subtle at times. Watch out for cues such as losing interest in their current activity and sniffing around the floor or furniture, circling, and whimpering, as these can all be possible signs for needing the toilet. You typically won’t have long from the time they start signalling to them needing to go, so keeping an eye out for this is crucial to avoid accidents in the house, as you will quickly need to get the puppy outside in these instances.
Use cues and lots of praise
You may want to adopt a cue word such as “go wee” for when you go outside, so the puppy starts to associate the command with the action, rewarding successful attempts with lots of praise of “good boy” or “good girl” to help them associate the action with having done the correct thing. We also tended to give our dachshund boy a training treat when he returned inside after a successful toilet trip, to help him draw positive associations with going outside.
Develop a routine
Alongside watching for the signs and signals, it can also be helpful to develop a good routine so that the puppy associates certain times with going out to the toilet. The most common times that a puppy or dog will need to go to the toilet are first thing in the morning after waking, after mealtimes, after play or exercise and before bedtime. Therefore developing a routine of going out at these times can help build this into their normal routine.
Get a good cleaning spray for dealing with accidents
Even with the best routines, while your puppy is learning to go to the toilet outside, you will invariably still have the occasional accident. Even since our dachshund has been fully toilet trained, we have had the odd accident when he has been unwell, or when the weather has been particularly bad (dachshunds are notorious for hating the rain!). Dogs tend to go again in the same spots, and use the scent to do so, so once your dachshund has had an accident in the house they are likely to sniff out those same spots again. Therefore it is advisable to buy a good enzyme-based cleaning spray that is designed to remove the smell and any stains of accidents indoors. Most good pet shops should sell this, and you can also purchase from online retailers too, like this Simple Solution Pet Stain and Odour Remover which is a great product for this.
Train your dog to alert when they want to go out
Once our dachshund had got the hang of going outside most of the time, the next phase for us was to train him to alert us to needing to go out, so that we didn’t have to watch for his cues or remember to let him out as frequently. This was particularly useful for when we were in a different room or working and unable to keep an eye on him all the time.
Some people choose to use toilet training bells strung up at the door, and train the dog to ring the bell when they want to go out. We were in the process of teaching our dachshund the “speak” command to bark, as well as “enough” or “quiet” to stop barking, so it made sense to combine this training with his toilet training too. Every time he would go to the back door and wait to be let out, we would give the “speak” command until he would bark to be let outside, at which point we would reward him and let him out. Within no time, he learned to bark to alert our attention, and we haven’t looked back from that date.
Although the process can be challenging, it is certainly not impossible to toilet train a dachshund if you develop a good routine and employ persistence, consistency and patience. Good luck!
