The training of your Frenchie starts right from the moment you bring him or her home. Let’s see the steps of the effective potty training explained by the expert team of TomKings Puppies.
Potty training step one: remove carpets
As we wrote in a previous article, the best is to prepare for your first day with your puppy. Remove carpets from all the areas where your baby is allowed to go. As some accidents might happen at the beginning, the best is to create nappy-carpets: stick together a few nappies, and lay them down across the house. These have to be removed once your Frenchie can safely go out to pee.
Frenchies designate their pee area by peeing there first. If you are not careful enough and he or she pees on the carpet or on the floor, you will need to have industrial cleaning to stop your pup from smelling it and peeing there again.
Step Two: Take your Frenchie out
Right from the beginning, take your Frenchie out as often as you can (every 2-3 hours), especially after feeding times, before going to bed, and after waking up. Once outside, use a keyword like “Pee-pee” or “Potty” that you consequently use going forward.
Stop him or her from playing, make it clear that it’s pee time.
Extra tip
A trick that one of our dear clients uses is hanging bells at the door which she always rang when her Frenchie went out to potty, apart from using the keywords “Go potty!” Later she removed the bells, but by that time her puppy associated going potty outside with the front door.
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Step Three: Reward your Frenchie
When he or she pees or poos, give them a lot of recognition, and initially you can give them treats as well. Gradually remove treats but always give them positive affirmation.
Extra tip:
If your puppy pees or poos in the wrong place, never punish them by pushing his or her nose into the urine or poop. This will scare them and they will find the whole process disgusting.
Step Four: It gets automatic
Normally in 3-4 days – if you are consequent and always take your pup out – he or she will get used to pee and poo outside. Use gestures to show your Frenchie to go out, and later this will be enough for them, and eventually, they go to the door by themselves.
Extra tip:
If you have a pet door and teach your puppy to use it, it becomes even more convenient for you. First, you have to train your pup to use the little door. Show them treats on the other side of the door to make him or her go through. (Make sure the door doesn’t hit them.)
The article was written based on the experience of the TomKings Puppies Team. TomKings Puppies have been breeding French Bulldogs for 10 years on their farm. All the pictures in the post belong to them and show a puppy from their breed. Check their available puppies here, or if you have any questions or comments let us know below the article.
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2 thoughts on “Step by step guide for a successful potty training”
My Frenchie is 4 months old and if I don’t pick up her poop right away she will eat it. How can I discourage this?
Hi Melly! We have another blog post which can help you with that:
https://tomkingskennel.com/how-to-stop-frenchies-from-eating-their-poop/
I hope it will help you with your puppy. 🙂