You probably want your puppy to go potty outside, but instead, they keep having accidents in the house. If you’re wondering how to stop your puppy from peeing indoors, this article will address that, while also answering common questions like why puppies have accidents, how long the housetraining process takes, and how to fix common issues.

It’s important to understand that it’s completely normal for younger puppies to have accidents inside the house. It takes time for them to learn to go potty outside. Think of human babies—we don’t expect them to use the toilet right away. Instead, we use diapers to manage the mess until they are ready to learn. A similar approach applies to puppies.

Never Punish Accidents: Punishing or scolding your puppy for accidents is counterproductive. Puppies don’t potty indoors intentionally. Punishment can lead to fear-based behaviors, such as hiding accidents or avoiding you entirely.

Why Do Puppies Pee Inside?

It’s natural!

When puppies are very young, they stay close to their mom and their nesting area. They feel safest in this familiar space, which makes them hesitant to leave it. As a result, they often pee in the same area where they sleep and play.

As puppies grow and become more adventurous, they start to explore beyond their initial environment. This is when they begin to learn where it’s appropriate to go potty, but until then, accidents inside are a normal part of the process.

Too young to control the bladder so they pee very often!

Puppies have limited bladder control. An 8–10-week-old puppy may need to potty every hour. They’ll also need to go after eating, drinking, or playing, so unless you take your puppy outside frequently, accidents are inevitable.

They still lack impulse control to be able to reach a potty area in time.

Puppies lack self-awareness and impulse control. They usually potty where they’re standing at the moment. Instead of expecting your puppy to warn you, you’ll need to watch for signs and proactively take them outside.

How Long Does It Take to Housetrain a Puppy?

Most puppies are fully housetrained by 9–10 months, though the timeline can vary:

• Primitive breeds (e.g., Shiba Inus, Akitas): Often housetrained earlier, around 4–5 months.
• Many other popular breeds: Typically housetrained between 6–8 months.
• Toy breeds: May struggle with housetraining and sometimes take over a year.

Important Factors

1️⃣ Breeder Practices

• Puppies from responsible, ethical breeders are often easier to housetrain. These puppies may already be partially housetrained or trained to use a potty pad.
• Puppies from mass breeders (e.g., those sold through random online ads) often come from caged environments and may never have learned to potty outside, making housetraining more challenging.

2️⃣ Daily Walks Are Essential

• Walk your puppy several times a day to establish good habits.
• Note: A potty pad is not a substitute for regular walks.

3️⃣ Playpens Over Crates

• Avoid keeping your puppy in a crate for extended periods, as it can slow down housetraining.
• Use a spacious playpen area (at least 100 sq. feet / 10 sq. meters) to allow more movement and a designated area for a pee pad.

4️⃣ Consistency Speeds Up Training

• Follow a structured housetraining routine to minimize accidents and build positive habits.

5️⃣ It can be health-related!

• If your dog is still struggling with housetraining beyond normal, they may struggle with urinary tract infection (UTI), talk to your vet. If no medical issues are found, consider working with a behavior consultant or a dog trainer (hire me!).

How to Stop Your Puppy from Peeing Inside

Housetraining takes time, especially in the early months. In order to reduce accidents, follow these actionable steps:

1️⃣ Supervise and Limit Freedom

• Set up a dog-proofed area (use baby gates or an exercise pen) with pee pads.
• Don’t allow unsupervised roaming in the house.
• Remove rugs in accessible areas, as puppies often prefer peeing on soft, fluffy surfaces.

2️⃣ Respond to Potty Signals

• Watch for signs: sniffing, circling, or disengaging from play or training often means your puppy needs to potty. Take them outside immediately!
• If your puppy is about to potty indoors, pick them up and carry them outside immediately—don’t walk, carry!
• Take note of what your puppy was doing before the accident to better anticipate their needs next time.

3️⃣ Take Them Out Often

• There is almost 100% chance your puppy will pee/poop after these activities, so just take them for 5-10 minutes after those activities:
  • After intense play
  • After drinking water
  • After a meal
  • After a training session
  • After a nap
  • First thing in the morning or before bedtime

4️⃣ Block Access to Undesirable Indoor Potty Area

• Prevent access to areas where you don’t want your puppy to go potty (use doggy gates, expandable pens etc)
• Alternative: cover these spots with a pee pad

5️⃣ Clean with enzyme cleaner

• Clean accidents thoroughly with an enzymatic cleaner (e.g., Nature’s Miracle®) to remove lingering odors that will attract your puppy to go there again.

Best Approach To Speed Up Puppy Housetraining

A general guideline: puppies can hold their pee for about 1 hour per month of age (e.g., a 2-month-old puppy can hold it for 2 hours). To train them to go potty outside follow these guidelines:

1. Take them out often and regularly: Take your puppy every few hours to prevent accidents and prevent indoor pottying becoming a habit.
2. Reward Success: Praise and reward your puppy with a treat every time they potty in the correct place. (Note! Praise is not a reward, always use a food reward).

Practical steps:

• Decide how often you need to take your puppy out. (E.g. a 2 months old puppy should be taken every 2 hours or after activities described above.)
• Schedule: Create a schedule of when you feed, train and plan with your puppy. Schedule a walk or a potty break (a short 10-minute walk) after each activity or every 2 hours.
• Gear Up: Always bring a training pouch with a high-value treat rewards when taking your puppy out.
• Potty Time: Take your puppy on a leash to a designated potty area. Wait 5–10 minutes. If they don’t go, bring them inside and try again later.
• Reward! Is they successfully go outside, praise with happy voice and reward with treats. That will speed up the process.

This training is a long-lasting approach, it’s okay for a puppy to have rare accidents here and there, taking them out will eventually teach them to go potty outside. Be consistent and be patient!

When your puppy consistently goes outside, start introducing a “go potty” to train them to potty on cue. (See below)

Should you use potty training pads?

Although they are called “training pads,” they don’t actually train your puppy. In reality, a pee pad serves as a designated spot for your puppy to relieve themselves, making cleanup easier. Use pee pads as a short-term solution for very young puppies or small breeds that need to potty frequently when you can’t take them outside often enough and they are not house broken yet.

Keep in mind: Relying solely on pee pads without teaching your puppy to potty outside may just prolong the accidents in the house. Don’t skip the training! Potty pads are okay if your puppy still young, but if they are reaching to mentioned above house training age, you should be already slowly getting rid of potty pads.

Where to Place the Potty Pad:

• Use Familiar Spots: Choose an area where your puppy has already peed or pooped.
• Start with Multiple Locations eventually reducing to one: If puppy misses the potty pad, lay out several ones, but if you notice they only use one pad, strat slowly removing the ones they don’t use.
• Designated Area: Place pads in a specific area, such as a playpen, to limit accidents elsewhere.

Harmful advice about potty training

“Punish them so they learn the lesson”

• If you punish them after they pee or poop inside, they will learn that you are scary person and they better not potty in your presence. This will create problems in future when you take them outside and they refuse to poop since you are too close. Or they go and poop in a random place in the house, trying to hide the accident from you.

“Yell at or scold your puppy after an accident.”

• Puppies cannot understand why you are mad with them doing something absolutely natural. It only confuses and scares them. In future they may be reluctant to come to you when you call them.

“Rub your puppy’s nose in their mess to teach them a lesson.”

• This creates fear and damages trust between you and your puppy, without teaching them where to potty. Puppy may start avoiding you or run away from you, when you try to get a hold of them even in other situations.

“Your puppy should be fully housetrained in a week.”

• This will build a wrong expectations or make you feel that something is wrong with your puppy. In reality absolutely all puppies have accidents in the house, it is part of puppy raising process. Housetraining takes time and consistency, especially with young puppies. Unrealistic expectations lead to frustration and unfair treatment of the puppy.

“Just teach them to hold it, no matter their age.”

• Puppies’ bladder control develops gradually. Very young puppies truly have limited control of their bladder. Expecting them to hold it too long increases the chance of accidents and stress for the puppy.

“Limit your puppy’s water to avoid accidents.”

• Restricting water can lead to dehydration and other health problems. Accidents should be addressed through proper training, not by withholding water. Witholding water from your dog is considered inhumane and is an animal abuse. Dogs should have access to fresh clean water 100% of time.

Teaching Your Puppy the “Go Potty” Cue

1️⃣ Use the Cue at the Right Moment:
Every time you take your puppy outside and notice they’re about to go, say “Go potty” clearly and calmly.

2️⃣ Reward Immediately:
Once they finish, praise them enthusiastically and reward with a high-value treat to reinforce the behavior.

3️⃣ Be Consistent:
Repeat the process every time you take them out. Consistency is key—use the same phrase (“Go potty”) and reward every successful attempt. (Remember: reward drives the behavior!)

4️⃣ Gradual Learning:
Over time, your puppy will associate the phrase “Go potty” with the action of relieving themselves. When they grow older, you’ll be able to use the cue to prompt them to potty on command. Continue to reward them occasionally to keep the cue working.

💡 Training Duration:
Teaching your puppy to recognize and respond to the “Go potty” cue typically takes 1–3 weeks, depending on your dog’s personality and how consistent you are with the training and rewards.

🐶 If you are struggling with puppy training, join my private puppy training program or book a single consult. Hire me in person in San Francisco or book a remote consultation.

Should you teach your puppy to use potty bells and how to do it?

Many pet parents buy potty bells as soon as they get the puppy. One of the most common training requests I receive from my clients is “how to teach my puppy to use bells?”.

Unfortunately, this is not the proper order of things. First you teach puppy to potty outside and when they become somewhat consistent with it, you may start potty bells training.

So if your puppy is only 2-4 months or you are still relying on potty pads, forget about bells for now, work on potty training instead.

When your puppy is old enough and you are ready to start potty bells training, here is how to do it.

1️⃣ Set Up the Bells:
Hang the potty bells near the door you typically use to take your puppy outside. Ensure they’re at a height your puppy can easily reach.

2️⃣ Pair Bells with Outdoor Trips:
Each time you take your puppy outside to potty:

• Put them on a leash.
• Ring the bell yourself before opening the door.
• Say your potty cue (e.g., “Lets go potty”) and take them to their potty area.

💡 Tip: Using a leash ensures the trip is for potty time only, not playtime, which reinforces the purpose of the bells.

3️⃣ Keep Potty Breaks Short:
Limit potty breaks to about 10 minutes. If your puppy doesn’t go, bring them back inside and try again later.

4️⃣ Repetition and Consistency:
Repeat this process for at least a week. Ring the bell yourself every time you take your puppy outside to potty. Over time, your puppy will associate ringing the bells with asking to go outside.

5️⃣ Wait until one day your puppy rings the bell themselves
Eventually, your puppy will learn to ring the bell to signal they need to go outside. When they ring the bell:

• Praise them immediately.
• Put them on a leash and take them out for a short 10-minute potty break.

💡 Important: Avoid letting your puppy roam freely outside after ringing the bell. Otherwise, they may associate the bells with playtime instead of potty time.