Continuing With Potty Training At Home 

When you get your puppy from us, he or she will have had a solid start on litter box training, which we think is critical early training for all young Havanese.  Some people assume that potty training is going to be automatic once they get home, especially if it is started by the breeder. It's not. Puppies are still infants when they go home, and everything in YOUR home is going to be new and different. It is still going to take a LOT of work from their new family, even if the puppy was a potty training super star at the breeder’s home.

Even tiny puppies, of two and a half weeks old will try to get out of their nest to keep it clean if given the opportunity. Good breeders give their puppies the opportunity to develop good habits at every step, so that they are set up for success as you continue their training in your home! The photos below show our puppies and their litter trays and boxes from 2 1/2 weeks on. The last photo shows them out on our back deck, a new space to them. I moved a litter box out there with them, and they were successful in using it at about 8 weeks!

Why a litter box trained dog?

You may decide that eventually you want your dog to go only outdoors, although I urge you to think long and hard about that… You bought a cat-sized breed.  Why not take advantage of that? Especially if you live in a part of the country with harsh winters, a dog that can and will use a litter box in bad weather is a godsend.  Additionally, if you need to leave your dog alone for a longer than expected period of time in an emergency, if they are trained to use an indoor potty, your dog will not be forced into having an accident while you are gone! 

At very least, you should keep up with their litter box training for their first year or so. People who insist on trying to train ONLY to outdoors from the very beginning, invariably have the most mistakes and get the most frustrated. It is hard on the people and hard on the puppy. Follow this advice and stick to litter box training to start with.  Let the puppy learn outdoor pottying naturally, and you will have a MUCH easier time!

The goal of “house training” (potty training is a better term, because there is a whole lot more to house training than just potty training!) is to teach the dog where NOT to eliminate. Which means any place OTHER than outdoors or in their potty!

What to expect

 At the point that they are leaving us, the puppy will be solid on pottying in a litter box or covered litter tray in a standard 4’x4’ ex-pen with a bed or crate and a few toys and water supply. They have been 100% reliable with this set-up for several weeks IN OUR HOME.  That does NOT mean, however, that they won’t make mistakes once you get them home.  They might not, but if they do, simply reduce the amount of space they have (usually down to 1x2) until they are getting it right reliably for a few days, then start to slowly expand the space.  They should remember pretty quickly in that small space, and get back on track.  Then slowly expand the space again.

 They have also been doing really well in our large play space.  We are having very few accidents in the big play area, which is most of our family room.  The mistakes we do see are mostly ALMOST in the litter boxes, or right after waking up from a nap and not quite “making it”.  In your home, this should not be an issue, because the puppy should ALWAYS be in his crate or pen to nap unsupervised. If he falls asleep in your lap and you are enjoying the cuddle, make SURE that you enforce pottying when he wakes up. Otherwise he needs to stay in his pen until you see him “perform”!  Remember to expect some regression in their new home!!!

 Your main day-time set-up:

 During the day, your puppy’s main space should be an ex-pen, with either a nice soft bed or a crate to sleep in.  Some puppies are climbers and will use a crate as an “escape route” out of the pen, so be aware of that.  You may not be able to leave a crate inside the pen for them!  Other puppies are “bed chewers”.  In that case, give them an old soft towel that it doesn’t matter whether they ruin!  You will find that there are things worth training and other things that are just better “managed”!

Make sure the pen is placed on a waterproof, easy-clean surface.  A tile kitchen floor is OK, carpet of ANY sort is NOT!!!  Hardwood, and even laminate can be a poor choice, as urine can get between the boards and be impossible to completely remove.  In most cases, I think it makes sense to get a piece of rolled vinyl flooring from Lowes or Home Depot, large enough to fit your ex-pen.  These are very durable, and super easy to clean.  If you need something even cheaper, you can use Marine Vinyl, also sold on the roll at JoAnn Fabric, meant for upholstery on boats.  It is easy to work with, light-weight and very inexpensive.  The down side is that in my experience, some “sharky” puppies can get their teeth into it, pull it up and ruin it.  Replacing it makes it more expensive and less convenient, which has made me less a fan.  But some other breeders really like it!

 In the pen should be the litter box, and water.  I prefer water bottles for young Havanese puppies, because they tend to over-turn or play in water bowls, just making a mess.  But that’s up to you.  I prefer litter pans with grates, because the puppies often play with, and make a mess with, the pellets.  I HATE stepping on them in bare feet!  But many people like open boxes better, and they do hold more pellets.  These puppies are accustomed to both types of box, so it is your choice!  I gave links to both types of box on the puppy supply list.

 This is the day time pen we use for our “keeper” puppies. Remember that the pen is a place to be calm and settle it should have room to move around, but not so much room that they can ever be far from their potty. Nor does it need a lot of toys or enrichment. (a few are fine) When it is “play time” the puppy should be out and interacting with you.

Bed time has some options.  Here, our dogs sleep in the bedroom with us, in their own crates.  All our puppies have slept through the night with very little trouble from 10 weeks on.  Maybe needing to get up to let them pee once or twice during the first week, and hardly ever after that.  We keep a litter box upstairs so that we can take a puppy to the box, potty them and go back to bed, practically in our sleep, but that is up to you.  You can also take them to their pen or outside.  But you MUST listen for them, and take them outside as needed if they are crated overnight when they are very little.

 The other option is to simply set them up with a pen and bed or crate left open at night, in whatever part of the house you plan to be their permanent sleeping quarters.  With this arrangement, you have no need to lose any sleep at all…. The puppy will potty himself if he needs to! (this has enormous appeal on lazy Saturday mornings!)

 This was Kodi’s “Sleeping pen” for the first two years, before Dave decided that the dogs could sleep in the bedroom!

The puppy’s main ex-pen should be set up in the area where the family spends the most time.  You may also find that it makes sense to have another pen in another part of the house or else have a “portable pen” that is easy to move around.  I like either plastic Iris pens or SeaBreeze pens for portable use.  They are very light-weight and easy to move and there is no danger of scratching floors or woodwork with them.  That and a piece of light weight marine vinyl a little bigger than the bottom, and you have a safe, light weight “containment zone” that you can take just about anywhere with your puppy!

The important thing to remember is that any time your puppy is out of the ex-pen, he must have EYES ON, total attention supervision.  This does not mean someone can “watch the puppy” while simultaneously surfing the internet or watching TV.  This means time engaged with the puppy.  Playing with the puppy.  At very least, following the puppy around, but better yet, spending meaningful, interactive time with the puppy.  Puppies, in general, are only awake one hour out of four.  So it is not as huge a job as it might seem. 

Part of your job as a new puppy owner will be to teach your puppy how to rest and entertain himself during down-time too.  It is NOT your job to be his 24/7 play thing.  So the ex-pen will help you teach him that too! 

If your puppy can get out of your sight to have a “accident” behind a piece of furniture or around a corner, you have not been watching him closely enough.  Puppies CAN have accidents very quickly, and it can take a while to learn their “tells”.  They can stop from a full out run to squat and pee.  You WILL miss sometimes.  That’s to be expected.  But your GOAL should be as close as possible to “errorless” potty training as you can manage.  When the puppy does make a mistake, simply shrug your shoulders, clean it up thoroughly, and go on with careful supervision and confinement when you can’t supervise!

When your puppy wakes up from a nap, make sure he potties before taking him out of his pen if at all possible.  Play with him on a hard, easy to clean floor, with easy access to a potty tray, VERY nearby. It helps to have at least a couple for this reason.  If you see signs of the puppy seeming distracted or sniffing the floor or circling, put him on the potty.  If he performs, praise, praise, PRAISE!!! 

Over time, as the puppy shows that he can reliably find and use the potty REGULARLY in the room where you normally play with him, add another room. Do exactly the same process.

Over a period of time, you will SLOWLY introduce the puppy to playing in every room in your home that you would like him to have access to.  This will take MONTHS before you give him free access.  Take your time with this.  Don’t expect to give him full “freedom” much before he is a year or so old.  If he does better than that, great! But don’t count on it!

During this time, of course, you will also be taking him outdoors in an organic way.  Do not make a big deal about trying to get him to potty outside, just let it happen.  All the puppies have been pottying outside on a regular basis when they play outdoors, weather dependent.  They all understand that it is a an “OK” place to go!

If, at any point in the potty training process, you feel that the puppy is back-sliding, you need to tighten up your confinement and supervision.  If you are still in the beginning stages, that might mean making your ex-pen half as big.  Later, it might mean gating the puppy into just the kitchen if you know he can be successful in that room for a few more weeks.  While you gate him OUT of the areas that are problematic when he can’t be supervised, make an EXTRA effort to play with him in those areas when you know he has just pottied and is unlikely to make a mistake. 

This was “Puppy Jail” for Panda when she back-slid during training due to a UTI. A week in “Puppy Jail, and we were back on track!

One particularly troublesome area is often carpeted areas, and particularly dining rooms and spare bedrooms, which are generally used less by humans than other rooms in the house.  If you find that the puppy is having trouble in a specific room, one thing that can helpful is “kibble scatters” all over the rug in the area where the puppy has had an accident in the past. (after it has been thoroughly cleaned, of course!). Just scatter a small handful of kibble on the rug, then bring your puppy in and tell him to “search” for the kibble.  This is a really fun game, and dogs are unlikely to potty in an area where they eat.

As time goes on, you may find that your puppy s asking to go out to potty more and more, and using the indoor potty less.  Think hard before encouraging this completely.  We have found that it’s really convenient having dogs who are willing to continue to use the litter boxes.  So, we obviously do let them out when they ask, but we do not praise them particularly for doing so.  We continue to praise them for ANY use of the indoor potties even as adults.  We find that this behavior REALLY needs to be encouraged if you want to keep it, and once it is lost, you will never get it back!