There are a lot of different commands you can teach your dog. Some are useful, like “stay”, and some are potentially life saving, like “come”. There are other commands that aren’t as important, but are very convenient. My favorite is to teach my dog to pee when I ask him to.
Why would I want to do that? I used to compete in obedience and agility competitions, and if my dog urinated in the ring, we were heavily penalized. I taught my dog to urinate on command, and before we went in the competition ring, I’d take him for a walk, ask him to pee, and I’d be confident he’d not cost us points by doing it at the wrong time.
There are some other times it is useful. For example, late at night, when you’re tired, the last thing you want to do is wait for your dog to eventually empty his bladder. If he can pee on command, you’ll be back inside and in your bed very quickly.
You may be visiting your vet, and they may want a urine sample. No problems, take your dog outside, ask him to pee, and come back in with a freshly voided sample for testing. It really is a useful behavior for your dog to learn.
While your dog may not always pee immediately on command, he’ll go to the toilet quicker than if he hadn’t been trained.
You can train your dog to urinate when you ask him to at the same time as you are toilet training him. It’s easier for him to learn at the same time as he learns where his toileting area is when you’re potty training a puppy. However, older dogs are just as capable of learning this command.
Take your dog outside to his toileting area, and as he urinates, give him whatever command you’ve chosen - it could be “toilet” or “pee” or even “tinkle”. It doesn’t matter, as long as you’re consistent, and use the same command every time.
When he urinates, give him lots of praise and cuddles. That way, while he’s learning where he’s allowed to pee, he’s also associating it with your command.
You’ll need to give him this command every time he urinates, and reward him when he gets it right. This means you’ll have to do it while you’re out walking, or at the beach. You may get some odd looks from other people, but don’t let a chance go by to reinforce what your command means.
Unlike “sit” or “drop”, which are very quick to teach using food, training your dog to urinate on command is a slow process. It takes time, repetition and lots of patience, and in some cases, dogs don’t ever “get it”. Dogs are clever though, and in most cases, they eventually learn. When your dog does figure it out. providing he has something in his bladder, he’ll be very willing to do as you ask. Taking him to the toilet last thing at night will be so much more convenient.
This guest post is by Dr. Susan Wright, who spends most of her time caring for her own dogs as well as those of her clients. She is the staff veterinarian for Dog Fence DIY.![]()
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Standing outside in the freezing cold or pouring rain waiting for your dog to pee is no fun. Learn how you can train your dog to go on command.
How to pottytrain a puppy, all the essentials in a 4 minute video. For more, visit my page at http://training-dogs.com/potty-training-dogs.html
From Karen Pryor’s Puppy Love (available at http://www.clickertraining.com/store), Carolyn Clark gives you an overview and some tips on potty training your puppy. To learn how to teach your puppy to ring a bell when it needs to go potty, check out How to Teach ‘Ring the Bell’ for Potty Time by Virginia Broitman and Sherri Lippman. From the ClickFlicks Learning Center. http://www.clickertraining.tv
