How to potty train your German Shepherd

If you own a young German Shepherd then you’re probably wondering how you can get it to learn to pee and poop outside. This post will show you an easy way to teach it to do just that.

So, how do you get your German Shepherd to pee and poop outside? To train your German Shepherd to pee and poop outside you can go into the backyard with it regularly and wait for it to pee or poop and then reward it for doing so. By doing this regularly your German Shepherd will learn that it’s in its best interest to pee or poop outside.

There are a lot of intricacies that go into training your German Shepherd to go outside and there are also a lot of things that you can do to quickly reduce how much it pees inside.

How to potty train your German Shepherd

There are a number of things that you can do to limit how much your German Shepherd puppy pees inside and to encourage it to go outside.

Keep it in one area of the house to begin with

The first thing that you can do to prevent it from peeing inside is to keep it in a certain area of the house. By doing this you will be able to prevent it from peeing inside since dogs do not like peeing in the area that they live in. So by keeping it in a more enclosed area you will be able to encourage it not to pee inside as much. You’ll also be able to monitor it more easily this will help you to recognize when it needs to pee and you’ll be able to take it outside more quickly when it does.

Since they don’t like peeing where they live another good way to prevent them from peeing inside is to crate train them. By crate training your German Shepherd, you will be able to get it to choose to stay in its crate which will help you because it will be a more enclosed area where they do not like peeing or pooing.

Train it to go outside

To potty train your German Shepherd it will be necessary to take it outside about once every hour. When you take it outside you should wait for it to pee or poo in an uninteresting fashion so that it will do it naturally without your influence. Then, when it does pee or poop, reward it for doing so and become more exciting. The idea is that it will teach your German Shepherd that peeing or pooing outside will get it things that it likes and it will encourage it to want to go outside when it wants to pee or poo.

You can watch the video below to see how

Avoid punishing it

It might be tempting to punish your German Shepherd for peeing inside but you should generally refrain from doing so. It won’t necessarily know why it is being punished and it can cause it to develop other behavioral issues like aggression, destructive behavior and anxiety.

Let it pee right before bed

You can also take measures to control when it needs to pee. You’ll probably want to avoid it needing to pee during the night and one way to do so would be to let it pee right before going to bed.

If you want more tips on how to train your GSD, take a look at The Dunbar Academy Training Program. you can get the first month free using this link.

Things that can cause it to pee inside

There are a number of reasons why your German Shepherd might pee inside and I’ll mention a number of them below. You should make sure to take the time to consider why your German Shepherd might be peeing inside since it can make it easier to get it to stop.

Nervousness

It could be that there is something that is causing your German Shepherd to become nervous that is causing it to pee. It could be that there is an abusive member of the family causing it or, if it’s still young, then it might just be frightened of noises going on around you.

Excitement

Excitement can cause young dogs to pee. When they get excited they can lose control of their bladder which causes them to pee a little bit when this happens. If this is what’s happening with yours then don’t get frustrated as this is something that commonly happens and they learn to control their bladder when they excited as they get older.

A lack of training

If you haven’t trained your German Shepherd to pee or poop outside then it won’t necessarily know that it’s what you want it to do. That is why it is important to take the time to make sure that it gets trained to do so.

Separation anxiety

German Shepherds are not a breed that is suited to being left alone often. They were bred to work with humans and because of this, they can become anxious when you are not around which is known as separation anxiety. One of the things that can come with it is that it can cause it to pee when you’re not around.

Age

If your German Shepherd is still young then it is to be expected that it will pee inside from time to time. To get it to happen less make sure to limit the area that it stays in, crate train it and to train it to go outside.

Things to consider

There are some things to keep in mind when teaching your German Shepherd not to pee inside that I’ll mention below.

Patience

It’s important to have a lot of patience, when you’re training your German Shepherd to go outside, since it is not something that will happen overnight. While they are still young they can’t control themselves so well so even when they’re young accidents will happen. This is why it’s important to be very understanding of them at this stage.

It’s a common occurrence

It’s important to remember that it’s common for all dogs to pee inside while they are still young so don’t be frustrated if it happens with yours. Instead, take reassurance from the fact that many of other people have successfully trained their dogs not to do it so there is no reason that you can’t either.

Now is a good time to start training

Even though your German Shepherd may be hard to handle at this young age now would actually be the best time to start training it. Its habits will not have had the time to become hard wired and you have the chance to set its habits while it is still young.

Related

Why is my German Shepherd peeing inside suddenly? If your German Shepherd has suddenly started to pee inside then it could be because it is ill or injured. If this is the case then you should have a vet take a look at it. Another possible cause could be a recent traumatic event has caused it to become anxious.

How to potty train my German Shepherd quickly? Getting your German Shepherd to stop peeing inside quickly is hard to do. You can make sure to keep it in a section of the house, to crate train it and to train it to go outside as mentioned above to speed up the process.