Every Dog Needs to Know: How to Potty on Leash
This issue’s training tip is contributed by North Carolina resident and AKC GoodDog Helpline Trainer Caroline Currie CPDT-KA. Caroline has been a professional dog trainer since 2012 and currently owns three dogs: Pippin (Miniature American Shepherd) and Chopper and Margot (Border Terriers). She competes in AKC Conformation and Earthdog, AKC Scent Work, AKC Trick Dog, and AKC Fast CAT.
The first dog Caroline had as an adult was an All American Dog rescue. Cassi was easily housetrained, pottying outdoors in the back yard, but Caroline learned that not teaching her to potty on leash made traveling with her difficult. Here, Caroline tells how to start right away with training this skill, which makes traveling to competitions, and anywhere, with dogs a pleasure.
There are a lot of different ways to potty train a puppy, but it is important to know that those early potty habits stick with your dog for life. Puppies don’t come preprogramed to know they’re supposed to go outside. At first, they’re just looking for a soft place to go, like a rug or a mat, because it’s comfy and keeps their paws clean! That’s where we come in. It’s our job to teach them where the “bathroom” is and to make it worth their while with plenty of praise and rewards when they get it right.
Many All American Dogs are adult rescues. Teaching them to potty while on leash can be a challenge, and for owners who plan to enjoy dog sports with their new best friend it’s a must. One thing I stress to the puppy owners in my AKC STAR Puppy class is to take their puppies out to potty on leash, even if they have a fenced in backyard. This keeps the puppy close to you so you can mark and reward the behavior of eliminating outside. It also helps expose your puppy to the leash and gets them used to pottying while on leash, and of course, it will work with an adult dog, too.
I learned this lesson the hard way with my very first dog as an adult, an All American Dog rescue, Cassi. She was the best girl – smart, sweet, and totally house trained in just a week or two. Our routine was simple: in the morning she’d race down the stairs into the backyard, do her business, then sprint back up to grab a cookie. She never had an accident in the house and was rock solid even when we left her out of the crate.
Unbeknownst to us, we had set ourselves up for problems down the road. Cassi simply would not potty on leash. Road trips became tricky, she’d refuse to go at rest stops and would only relieve herself once we reached our destination and she was free to roam off leash. That limitation really narrowed our options for travel, since most hotels don’t have fenced yards where dogs can comfortably do their business.
By always letting her go off leash in the yard, she just never learned that the leash was part of the bathroom routine. Now, with every puppy I raise or work with, I start potty training on leash from day one.