April showers: potty training in a wet month

April sits in the middle of spring storm season in Houston, and a spring litter puppy that came home this month will learn to potty in the rain or not at all. We hear it every year: the puppy was nearly there, then three days of storms, and suddenly it is going on the rug again. The puppy did not forget. It was never taught that outside includes wet outside, and a lot of families quietly stopped taking it out when the sky opened.

The rule that saves April

The puppy goes out on a leash, to the same spot, every time, in every weather. Not into the yard alone to sniff around and come back to the porch, and not carried out under an umbrella and set on the step. Leash on, walk to the spot, stand there, say the word once, reward the second it finishes, and walk back in. The leash is what makes it work in the rain, because a loose puppy in a wet yard heads straight for the dry porch and you have no way to stop it.

The schedule, storms or not

• Out the moment the crate opens in the morning, before anything else.
• Out after every meal, every nap and every ten minutes of play.
• Out every hour on the hour while awake, on a timer, until the puppy is reliably going to the door.
• Into the crate whenever you cannot watch it, because a puppy that is loose and unwatched is a puppy about to go on the rug.
• Last trip out at bedtime, and one in the night if the puppy cries, with no play afterward.

A rainy day does not shorten that list. If anything it lengthens it, because a puppy stuck inside drinks more and moves less.

The spot, the porch and the word

Pick a spot with drainage, not a corner of the yard that floods, and if the yard is a swamp after a night of storms, a strip of grass by the driveway works. Reward outside, within two seconds, before the puppy has taken a step back toward the door. A treat handed over on the porch teaches the puppy that coming back in is what gets paid. Say the potty word as the puppy starts to go, not before, and within a couple of weeks the word itself will start the process, which on a stormy night is worth more than anything else we teach.

Thunder nights

A young puppy is usually not afraid of thunder yet, and April is when it decides whether it will be. Stay calm, keep the routine, take it out between cells, and do not fuss over trembling or you pay for it later. A puppy that potties in a storm at ten weeks is a dog that goes out in a storm at ten years. If the puppy panics, that is a conversation to have with our team early, because storm anxiety gets worse every spring it is left alone.

The bundle for a spring puppy

For a puppy under four months, the bundle is four private lessons, $550 with us in Cypress or $750 at your house, and potty and crate guidance fill the first one. In April our trainers run it in whatever weather the day brings, because that is the weather the puppy has to learn in. Book the free consultation before the puppy is sixteen weeks old.

Written by

Best Dog University Team

Board and train trainers in Cypress, Houston. 16+ years, 900+ dogs. About our team