Training dogs to relieve themselves in a fixed place
This kind of training is best started with young puppies. Because puppies before 3 to 4 months old have poor control over their bowel and bladder, they will urinate anywhere when their bladder is full or when stimulated and disturbed. Normally, puppies urinate 10-20 times a day, and defecate more than 4-5 times.
The training method is: place a sheet of newspaper in a fixed place, smear it with dog urine, and when the dog wants to relieve itself (sniffing around), bring it to the newspaper. Upon smelling the urine, it will urinate on the newspaper.
During training, pay attention that the newspaper cannot be moved, nor should the floor be cleaned with disinfectants that have strange smells, so that the dog can find the designated spot through scent. For those dogs that cannot always relieve themselves in the designated spot, punish them whenever they are caught once. Additionally, dogs have the habit of urinating on the roadside to mark territory, which is their nature and should be distinguished from random urination, but on city streets, this habit affects hygiene.
Therefore, when taking a dog out, the owner must bring a collar and lead the dog with a leash. If you can train the dog to relieve itself in the toilet, that is ideal.
Indeed, teaching a puppy to use the toilet is difficult to explain briefly! Especially for puppies bought from pet shops, it is a long-term task.
Actually, puppy behavior depends entirely on learning from the mother’s actions, so for dogs born in pet shops, either they no longer have their mom to teach them or they have learned messy toilet habits from other older dogs. New owners who buy them need to be mentally prepared to spend several months training them well!
First, understand that basically all puppies are born clean. A puppy will know how to choose its living and resting space in a new environment. If one space is for feeding and playing, another space will be chosen for resting, and the remaining corner will be used for urinating and defecating!
Here are three tested methods. You can try them according to your home environment, but the key is not to scold or beat the puppy, otherwise it may never succeed! But you must be determined and more persistent than the dog. This is better than long-term damage to your relationship! (These methods have been experimented with painstakingly.)
Method One (teach it to relieve on the street)
The secret is to take the puppy out quickly after dinner at night, be punctual! And do so daily! Running will make it want to go to the toilet more!
(Of course, be ready with newspaper or plastic bags to clean up!) Actually, puppies know how to hold it in. Like babies, puppies have poor endurance, but they get better as they grow!
Method Two (mainly teach it to relieve in a specific home area, suitable for dogs alone at home during the day)
(1) Lock it in a cage at night. The cage bottom cannot have holes. The principle is to let the puppy soil itself inside the cage after urinating or defecating, causing discomfort overnight so it will never relieve itself where it sleeps again.

(2) Before going to work in the morning, let it out to play. It will likely look for the toilet at once. When it is sniffing around in the wrong place, quietly pick it up and place it in its toilet. Make your actions natural, not nervous, as your nervousness can affect its toilet mood (^.^)! If it doesn’t look for the toilet when released, it usually will after breakfast! Remember to exaggerate praise when it uses the toilet, give toys or treats as rewards, pat it, and hug it if possible!
(3) Lock it again before leaving for work but give it at least one toy to accompany it! Feed it treats through the cage before you go!
(4) When you come home from work and let it out, it will find the toilet right away, so you must teach it again~ (If possible, come home earlier to let it out! Even if you have plans at night, try to come home first to let it walk around and use the toilet, 10 to 30 minutes is better than none!)
(5) Locking the cage is a last resort because if no one is home for a long time during the day, the dog will get angry from loneliness, causing destruction. If it plays with electrical appliances or other dangerous items (medicine), it’s even more dangerous. Puppies don’t know better! When the dog grows up with good habits and is familiar with the home environment, you can gradually let it out and eventually not need to lock the cage!
Method Three (teach it to recognize a dog toilet—mainly two types: one with an iron cage bottom with a “tray” for newspaper or dog pads, and another Japanese-made with clips on four corners to hold dog pads)
(1) Use iron bars to enclose the puppy’s free activity area, not too big, just enough for three purposes: a place for the dog toilet, next to the puppy’s bed, and a walking space no larger than two to three body lengths.
Feed the puppy inside this activity area. The purpose is to let the puppy know that if it relieves itself outside the toilet area (for example, on the bed area when the owner is not home or at night), it will lose the bed or walking space, forcing it to be uncomfortable! When you are home and see the puppy about to relieve in the wrong place, quickly pick it up and place it in the dog toilet.
If the dog uses the toilet, immediately pick it out of the enclosure and exaggerate praise, give it toys or play with it, and let it walk outside the enclosure. After one or two times, it learns that using the toilet means rewards!
(2) The benefit of this method is that the puppy has a more flexible activity space during the day than in a cage! And even if you move the dog toilet later, since the puppy recognizes the dog toilet, it will still go to the new location (of course, you have to tell it where the toilet moved to first)!
Finally, emphasize again: When the dog uses the wrong toilet, don’t harshly scold or hit it, because it will then avoid relieving in front of you, making training even harder! Many puppies know where the correct toilet is but sometimes get angry and mess around. To prevent returning from work to a house full of “landmines,” don’t give it the chance to cause damage and address the root cause:
(1) Insufficient playtime—always reserve time to play with it before bedtime or before going out. When it’s tired it won’t have the energy to cause destruction!
(2) Insufficient activity space—usually small home environments cause this, so take the puppy outside more to places where it can run around!