5 steps to teaching your dog to pee on cue

“Behavior is happening all the time.”

I say this sentence in almost every lesson or class I teach. Unless your dog is dead, he is engaging in some kind of behavior. Most of the behaviors we “train” dogs to do are behaviors they do anyway. The “training” involves communicating to them to do the behaviors where and when we want. The more often a dog partakes in a behavior, the more chances you have to “train” him to do that behavior where and when you want him to. To put this in human learning terms: If you're teaching someone a foreign language, you'll probably have an easier time of it you start of talking about things he does every day, like doing the dishes or getting groceries, rather than attempting to teach words relating to balancing the federal budget or nuclear disarmament

Peeing and pooping are behaviors like any other…

…so “training” them is simply a matter of teaching a dog to do them using cues you pick. It's likely your dog is already using environmental cues to figure out if and when it's time to go. The smell of pee on a tree could be a cue, or the feel of a weewee pad under foot, for example. So, all you have to do is introduce a new cue, and then tell your dog he's a genius for understanding it.

This can be done in three easy steps.

1. Pick a word you’re going to use that will mean “go pee” to your dog.

You could use the classic “go potty,” the police dog cue “empty” or my go to, which is “business time.” Honestly, it doesn't matter. Feel free to get creative. I have one client who says “Manchester” because it's his soccer team's nemesis. Another says her sister's name. Another says “Trump.” Technically, peeing and pooping are two different behaviors, so you can give them different names. But in practice, I find you can say the same word for both bodily function and the dogs seem to not get confused. So, your call!

2. Figure out when your dog is most likely to go.

If your dog has just gotten up from a nap, just finished a bout of playing, or you're letting him out of his crate for the first time in a while, there is a good chance he will have to go. Setting a feeding schedule for your dog you can help you predict when he will need to go outside, and that can certainly be helpful when you were working on house training. Some of my clients use an app called Puddle and Pile — if you put in when you feed your dog and when he goes, it starts to learn his schedule and will give you reminders. When in doubt, more walks are always better than fewer walks. Keep walks short; if your dog doesn't go in the first five minutes, bring them inside and try again. In addition to teaching your dog to pee using a verbal cue, it's also nice to teach them that when you go out, they should go right away. The longer you stay out without going, the more they're learning that they can taken their time!

3. Figure out where your dog likes to go.

Dogs definitely have preferences about where their pee and poop should go. If you already know where your dog like to eliminate, than head straight there. If not, try walking them on different textures, and in areas with as few distractions as possible. If you're doing this exercise with your dog in an enclosed yard, rather than on a leash, stay near him while he finds his go spot.

4. Wait for your dog to go.

The moment your dog starts to go, say your cue word. You're only going to say it once, and in the beginning, you're only going to stay it AS your dog is starting to go, or you can say if you would bet  $20 that he is going to go in the next five seconds. With time, you're going to start taking this gamble more and more by saying it earlier and earlier. Most dogs give some kind of indication that they're going to go. Some will spin, others will start doing some really intense sniffing. The more you work at adding a cue to the behavior, the better you'll get at judging that they're about to go, and the earlier you'll be able to say the “cue.”

I know what you're thinking: But Annie, what you're explaining ISN'T teaching him to go when I want him to, it's just saying the cue word when he is about to do it anyway! Yes, this is true. But this this is the process of learning any language. The way I think of it, this initial process of adding your “go potty” cue is like saying to your dog, “Hey, that thing you're doing, this is what we're going to call it now, okay?” Let's again bring it back to the way we learn language. If you didn't speak English and I wanted to teach you that the room with the refrigerator and sink is called “kitchen” I'd probably bring you to that room and say “kitchen.” Then I might say the word “kitchen” when I knew you were going into the kitchen. It might look like I was telling you to go into the kitchen, but I really just knew that's where you were headed and thought I'd use the opportunity to remind you of the name of that room. After enough repetitions of this fun game, I'd probably be able to bring you to any other room in the house and send you to the “kitchen” by saying that word, even if you weren't planning to go there anyway.

5. Give your dog some bacon. 

The second your dog finishes going, give him some bacon. Okay, it doesn't have to be bacon, but I always suggest bacon when working on potty training because when we're trying to teach a dog something important, I think it's worth paying them really well. And bacon, in my experience, is big currency with most dogs. You don't have to give a big piece; one slice should last you the better part of the week.  Make sure that you don't present the dog with the bacon as he is going. You don't want to distract him. You won't always have to give bacon. Once you're feeling pretty sure your dog has made the association between the word and these particular bodily functions, you can start to use other kinds of rewards, like praise or different treats, or quick game of tug. Whatever the reward is, just makes sure it is presented quickly after the deed is done.

dog training peeing on cue by annie grossman

As soon as you have a dog who is eliminating in a spot you want, you can begin giving a verbal cue each time he goes.

A couple of notes:

Only two treats per walk.

During any given walk, only use a food reward to reward the first pee and the first poop. You might choose to say the cue the rest of the time anyway, just to help solidify the association between the word and the behavior, but if your too liberal with the rewards, you can get a dog who learns that it pays to pee and poop multiple times during a walk in order to load up on the yummy stuff. (In the book ParentonomicsJoshua Gans falls into this trap when he starts “paying” his toddler with jelly beans every time she went on the toilet).

Evaluate whether your dog wants to stay out or not after he goes. 

If you have a dog who loves going on walks, don't accidentally punish him by returning inside immediately afterward he pees or poops; if you have a dog who would clearly rather be inside rather than outside, then head inside right after he eliminates–don't accidentally punish him by making him continue to walk after he's gone.

Give the treats right away. 

If you're working on teaching your dog to pee and poop on cue and your using an enclosed outdoor space, you need to go be with your dog while he is going, so that you can give him his edible reinforcer right away. Yelling the cue word across the Yard might be doable, but if has to come back inside to get his treat, your reinforcing him coming back inside more than your reinforcing the eliminating.

Take your dog to the weewee pad as if you were taking him on a walk.

If you're using a weewee pad with your dog inside, you can take him there as if you're taking him on a walk and give the cue when he starts to go there. If you're using a weewee pad as an interim method, I suggest giving the cue but using verbal praise as opposed to bacon; this will help forge the association with the cue word without overly reinforcing the going-on-pad behavior, which is something you are going to be phasing out. If you're going to be using a pad in the longer term, remember that the pad can become a cue, and that's usually not a bad thing. I say “usually” because some dogs can mistakenly think that any square-ish soft thing on the floor is okay to pee on, which can be a problem. For this reason, I usually avoid weewee pads as much as possible, or move away from them as early as possible. Or, I teach a dog that they can go on the weewee pad when I put it down. This can take a bit of work, but the process of teaching that the weewee pad on the ground is a cue is really the same as the process of teaching that a word is a cue: You just want to present it when you are pretty sure your dog is about to go anyway, and then reward them when they do go.

For more on this topic, make sure to check out our podcast episode on house training! 

Illustrations by Annie Grossman

Annie Grossman
annie@schoolforthedogs.com