Most of us would gladly pay for expert potty training to spare our homes a few puppy accidents.
However, expert training isn’t 100% full-proof. Besides, even the most experienced dogs can shock you with a new pooping behavior.
The truth is, some puppies might suffer from health conditions, like intestinal parasites and UTIs, that prevent them from pooping at the right time.
Alternatively, your puppy may find the outside space unappealing for pooping, or he’s not comfortable with it.
Why Does Your Puppy Pee Outside but Not Poop?
You shouldn’t always blame your puppy’s poop accidents on insufficient potty training.
Here’s a list of possible reasons behind your puppy’s accidents.
1. Health Conditions
Health conditions are the first factor you want to rule out from your pooping investigation.
Therefore, we suggest you visit your vet to ensure your puppy doesn’t suffer from the following issues.
- Intestinal parasites
- Cushing’s Disease
- Urinary tract infections
- Addison’s Disease
- Constipation
Most of them are easily treatable with medications, and the pup should return to pooping normally after.
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Note: Our Health is #1 Priority. It should be no different for your dog. But you need to help him. The Ultimate Guide to Dog Health is the answer. This handy guide will help you recognize the symptoms of the health problems above. Get the knowledge to stay ahead of these terrible issues that can rob your lovely dog from vigor and life. Help your friend make it to 14 yrs+ without pain and suffering.
2. Unappealing Outside Space
Your puppy may not like the grass texture or feels that the weather is too cold outside. It’s also possible that he’s unable to find a secure spot to do his business.
In that case, you might find it helpful to dedicate a sheltered spot for your puppy to poop. Choose a spot that’s far from the main walkway and other noisy places.
3. Lingering Odors
If your puppy poops inside the house, any lingering odors from the poop might encourage him to reuse the spot for doing his business.
Remember, dogs can smell what we don’t smell. Therefore, you’ll need to use an enzyme cleaner to effectively clean the mess.
4. Lack of Potty Training
Aside from the previously mentioned factors, lack of potty training is one of the most common reasons puppies poop inside the house.
Even if your puppy has already received his training, you might need to reset the rules every now and then, especially if you moved to a new house.
How to Make Your Puppy Poop Outside?
If your puppy can’t poop outside because of a health condition, follow your vet’s instructions.
However, more often than not, your puppy does his business inside the house because he lacks proper potty training. Here’s how to fix that.
1. Set a Schedule
The key to potty training is organization. Every day, feed your puppy at the same time and take him out for a walk afterward.
Additionally, try to take note of how long it takes your puppy to poop after a meal. You can expect him to poop within 20-30 minutes after eating, but it differs from one breed to another.
In the event of an unexpected accident inside the house, record the time of the day your puppy did it and take him out before that time in the coming days.
2. Go Outside
When you go outside after a meal, wait for 5-15 minutes for your puppy to do his business.
It’s better not to look at your puppy during it so he won’t feel vulnerable. Give him some private space and a secure spot to poop.
If your puppy doesn’t poop within 15 minutes, take him for a walk.
Walking is crucial to get things flowing, especially if you’ve fed him something that may cause constipation.
If you don’t go for a walk, keep your puppy in his crate inside the house. Then, take him out again after 30-60 minutes.
Keep repeating the process until your puppy poops outside. Remember that you shouldn’t allow your puppy to run freely inside the house until he poops.
On a side note, don’t wait too long outside; your puppy might think it's playtime and start wandering around. Keep him focused on doing his business.
3. Supervise Your Puppy Inside the House
For the upcoming two weeks of potty training, pay extra attention to the puppy while he’s inside the house.
Look out for signs that he wants to poop, like squatting or sniffing around a spot on the floor.
Some puppies also keep scratching the door when they’re ready to poop.
Keep doing this until you know the signs that indicate your puppy is ready to go. That way, you’ll know when to take him outside.
4. Keep Your Puppy in the Crate
The crate is a dog’s safe haven, at least for crate-trained dogs. Since your puppy is inherently civilized, he won’t make his mess where he sleeps.
So, the crate is where you can keep your puppy when you can’t monitor him inside the house. However, the key here is to ensure the crate is the right size.
The crate should have just enough space for your puppy to sit, lay, stand, and turn around. If it is too spacious, your puppy might do his business there.
5. Ignore Home Accidents
Now that there’s no way your puppy can escape your supervision, your task is to catch him red-handed.
The moment you notice your puppy is squatting to do his business, give a stern “go” or “no.” Then, immediately take him outside and wait for him to poop.
If you stumbled upon your puppy’s mess at home without catching him on the spot, just do the cleaning and ignore it.
Your puppy won’t understand if you yell at him or point at his mess.
Even worse, your puppy might try to hide from you the next time he poops. That’s because he may think you don’t want him to poop at all.
Helpful Dog Training Resource:
For help with training your dog, you should take a look at The Online Dog Trainer by Doggy Dan. Doggy Dan is an expert Dog Trainer based in New Zealand. His online resource contains Hundreds of Excellent Dog Training Videos that will take you step-by-step through the process of developing a healthy, happy well-behaved dog.
6. Praise and Reward Your Puppy
Finally, practice some positive parenting.
When your puppy eventually poops in the right spot, throw a party in his own language. You can praise with a happy voice and reward with toys or candy.
Make sure your puppy understands that this is where you want him to poop. This way, he’ll be excited to repeat the process.
Stay consistent with positivity, and you’ll yield impressive results soon. Dogs are smart, and they understand when they’re doing something praise-worthy.
Paul has been creating content for the dog niche for many years. The information he shares comes his first hand experience growing up in dog lovers household and then owning multiple dog breeds of his own as an adult. Paul enjoys doing the hard research to collect, analyze and present our dogtemperament.com readers with the best answers to their questions.