How to Potty Train in an Exercise Pen

By Alicia Bodine

Instructions

Things You’ll Need:

Leash
Exercise pen
Treats
Newspapers
Schedule

Step 1:
Make sure you have one week to devote to potty training. During this week you will need someone to be home with your puppy at all times.
Step 2:
Set up your exercise pen in a location where there is no carpet. You don't want your puppy to have an accident in an area of the house that is hard to clean up.
Step 3:
Lay newspapers in one corner of the exercise pen. This is where you want your puppy to go to the bathroom.
Step 4:
Take your puppy to the exercise pen as soon as you wake up in the morning and put it on the newspaper. Wait there until the puppy goes. This may take awhile at first, so you will need to be patient and wait.
Step 5:
Praise the puppy and give the puppy a treat as soon as it goes on the newspaper. This is very important as dogs aim to please their owners. You want the puppy to associate going to the bathroom on the newspapers with something that pleases you.
Step 6:
Ignore the puppy if the puppy has an accident somewhere else. Do not look at the puppy or speak to the puppy. The puppy will then associate this with something that does not please you.
Step 7:
Take the puppy to the exercise pen after each meal. This is a time when the puppy will need to go. Bring the puppy over to the newspapers and wait until the puppy goes. Praise the puppy for going and give the puppy another treat.
Step 8:
Take the puppy back to the exercise pen and the newspapers after each long nap.
Step 9:
Put the puppy's water dish away at night so that the puppy does not have to go to the bathroom until morning.
Step 10:
Leave your puppy in the exercise pen whenever you need to go out. This can be done once the puppy has been successfully potty trained. Otherwise, the puppy will go anywhere inside of the exercise pen, which will leave you with a mess to clean up.

Tips & Warnings

Be consistent in your training or the puppy won't understand what you want it to do.Take the exercise pen outside and teach the puppy that this is when you want it to go to the bathroom.
Never yell, kick or hit the puppy when it has an accident. This will not teach the puppy anything except that you are a cruel owner.

Photo/Video Credit

Lindsey Higgins

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