Potty Training a Goldendoodle

Goldendoodles are fun-loving, caring, and irresistibly cute right from puppyhood. However, like all young pups, you can’t let a Goldendoodle’s sweetness stand in the way of a proper house training routine.

However, potty training a Goldendoodle isn’t simply a case of leading them to the garden whenever they need to go. The responsibility lies on you more than it does on them. It’s about tuning yourself into their eating, drinking, and toileting habits.

Don’t give in to cuteness overload: learn how to properly toilet train your Goldendoodle puppy using the steps presented in this guide! Check out our homepage for more training tips too! 

Are Goldendoodle Puppies Easy to Toilet Train?

Goldendoodles are very easy to train, especially when it comes to potty training. Most Goldendoodle puppies are keen learners and are very eager to please. An ability to pick up commands is due in part to the influence of their parent breeds – Golden Retrievers and Poodles.

Golden Retrievers are extremely loving and will do anything to please the members of their families. Because of this characteristic, Golden Retrievers are often recommended to first-time dog owners who are looking to learn the ropes of dog training. From learning tricks to potty training, Golden Retrievers are very manageable pups.

Poodles match Golden Retrievers in terms of their ability to learn. This dog breed often ranks highly on the smartest dog lists and their high intelligence gives them plenty of employment opportunities. You’ll often see a Poodle serving as a guide or therapy dog. Given their service dog ability, you can rest assured that all Poodle puppies are easy to toilet-train.

Being a combination of the two, Goldendoodles take the best qualities of both their parents, which makes them great for those who are new to toilet training canines.

When Should You Start Goldendoodle Potty Training?

We’d recommend toilet training your Goldendoodle at around 8 weeks old. Your pup should be fully potty trained by 10 weeks old at the latest.

Your Goldendoodle will need to go potty from the day you bring them home. However, that doesn’t mean you can toilet-train them right away. Toilet training is the process of establishing a toilet routine with your pup – not merely taking them outside whenever they need to go.

It can take a few weeks for your Goldendoodle to exhibit some degree of bladder control. Before the 8-week mark, your Goldendoodle may be simply unable to hold it. Unfortunately, cleaning up regularly after young dogs is simply part of the package. You should use this as the main reason to be strict with your puppy’s potty training when the time comes.

Why is it Important to Potty Train Your Goldendoodle Puppy?

It’s important to potty train your Goldendoodle puppy to get bad habits out of the way as soon as possible! You’d much rather only have to clean up after your Goldendoodle for a short period rather than deal with their mess long-term.

If you allow a Goldendoodle to freely go potty wherever they like, bad habits can form, and they’ll likely interpret this as you being OK with them doing it.

Although Goldendoodles can be taught new tricks throughout their life, they are most keen to learn and form habits during puppyhood. As a new Goldendoodle puppy owner, you should take advantage of their keenness while they’re still learning about the world around them.

Potty Train a Goldendoodle Puppy In 5 Steps

When your Goldendoodle hits that 8-week mark, carry out the following steps to get your puppy potty-trained! Consistency is key, so strictly abide by the following steps daily.

1. Establish a schedule

When it comes to Goldendoodle puppy toilet training, creating structure is key.

Establishing a schedule for your Goldendoodle puppy’s toilet habits is easier than it sounds. All you really have to do is feed them at the exact same times daily. When your Goldendoodle eats food and drinks water is obviously going to determine when they’ll need to relieve themselves later in the day.

A Goldendoodle puppy will need to relieve itself around 10-20 minutes after eating a meal. That’s not to say all pups will digest food at the same rate. The best way to find out how long you should wait before taking your puppy outside would be to time how long it takes between them finishing a meal and exhibiting signs of needing to go.

Once you get in a rhythm with eating and potty times, you should be able to continue this schedule throughout their entire puppyhood. Once an adult dog, it’s not uncommon for a Goldendoodle to take slightly longer between meal and toilet times. You should monitor your dog’s activity and reorganize the schedule as necessary.

2. Establish a urination schedule

Organizing your dog’s drinking and urination schedule is slightly more tricky. Of course, you should allow your Goldendoodle puppy to drink water whenever they need to, although it makes it difficult to schedule urination times. When you let your dog out to potty, they’ll hopefully get in the habit of urinating around the same time.

In addition to this, you should let your Goldendoodle out straight after you see them drinking a lot of water. Goldendoodle puppies have much smaller bladders than adult dogs, so will need to pee frequently. Generally, a Goldendoodle puppy will need to pee once every hour.

While still in puppyhood, you’ll likely have to keep an eye on your puppy more frequently and be on the lookout for them exhibiting any signs of needing to potty.

Once adulthood is reached, your puppy should be able to hold it in for much longer. Even at six months, your Goldendoodle should be able to hold it in for around 2 hours. At 8 months, your Goldendoodle will be ready to go 5-6 hours without urinating.

3. Restrict your puppy’s access

To keep an eye on your puppy during the toilet training process, you’ll want to keep it within proximity at all times. To do this, we’d recommend restricting your puppy’s access to just a few rooms.

These rooms should include spaces where you and the rest of your family spend a lot of time. This way, your puppy’s toilet behavior is constantly being monitored.

Whenever your puppy starts scratching, sniffing, or walking in a circle, it may be trying to communicate that it needs to go relieve itself.

Restricting your puppy’s access is a good idea for monitoring purposes, but it also prevents your puppy from sneaking around the house and pottying in random rooms.

Make sure that your puppy has direct access to your backdoor – or, whichever door it exists out of to go to the toilet – so that it can stand at it whenever it needs to go.

4. Introduce command words

Control words are simple command words that you should introduce to your puppy during potty training. It would be best to keep your control phrase short and sweet – something like ‘go potty!’ will more than suffice.

Introduce your chosen command words whenever your pup is due a potty break, i.e., after being fed or watered. Preferably, try to deliver this in an upbeat and friendly voice.

Soon, your puppy will start to associate the command word and the sound of your voice with the toilet. At this point, saying the word will trigger your puppy’s toilet instincts.

Start testing the word out, even before your dog starts exhibiting signs that they need the toilet. After saying the word, your dog should automatically start scratching or running around in a circle – any of the usual signs the dog gives when it needs to go.

By achieving this, you’ve effectively established a means of telling your dog to relieve itself on command. This is very useful for when your dog’s older and you’re heading out for a while. By getting the dog to relieve itself before you leave, you reduce the risk of a potty accident occurring in your absence.

5. Provide positive reinforcement

Whenever your puppy successfully potties – especially after they’ve done so on cue of the command word – be sure to shower your Goldendoodle in praise. Given how much your puppy will be relieving itself during its early stages, physical and verbal praise would be best.

Goldendoodles thrive on pleasing their owner, so will respond well to generous helpings of pats and tummy rubs. After a while, these intelligent dogs start to associate positive reinforcement with the act of doing the toilet outside. Knowing that it’ll make you happy, a Goldendoodle will go outside to use the toilet just to please you.

Once every so often, you could trade positive reinforcement for a nice dog treat – but don’t overdo it!

Goldendoodle Potty Training Tips

To better prepare you for potty training your Goldendoodle, here are some extra tips to help turn your untrained puppy into a fully-trained and obedient dog:

Never punish your Goldendoodle

The Goldendoodle potty training journey should be seen as a bonding experience between you and your pup. Although it can be frustrating at times, you should never berate your Goldendoodle for failing the potty routine.

It’s fine to lift a dog outside whenever they start to relieve themselves indoors, but you should never give them a verbal or physical row for it.

Punishments do not work on dogs in any circumstance as it doesn’t teach them anything – they will continue to do the thing they were punished for. If anything, it will merely cause them to fear you.

Try crate training

When your Goldendoodle is old enough to be left alone for a while, you should crate-train them to prevent any accidents. Crate training is the process of making your puppy comfortable inside their crate, which can act as a safe space for when you’re not around.

Once you’ve set up the crate as a pleasant place for your Goldendoodle to spend time, you can command them to stay in their crate while you’re away. It is very unlikely that your Goldendoodle will go potty in the crate, given that they view it as a burrow-like space.

Use training pads

A puppy pad is useful when your dog finds it particularly difficult to reach the garden in time. However, you need to ensure that your new puppy doesn’t become too reliant on them. Put them down, but still lift your dog outside to relieve themselves whenever you can.

By the time your dog can hold it in for around one hour, avoid using puppy pads.

Stop your puppy from returning to areas they’ve peed in

If your puppy has urinated in an area of your house, they will return to this area to do it again if you don’t prevent them. Even when you think you’ve cleaned the area thoroughly, your puppy may still be able to smell a trace of its own urine. They’ll take this as an indication that it’s OK to pee in this area.

Dogs form habits quickly, and they’ll often return to the same area they’ve relieved themselves in.

For this reason, you must prevent your puppy from returning to the affected area as much as possible.

Choose an area in your garden

As a dog owner, you’ll need to get used to picking up your dog’s droppings. Although this isn’t always pleasant, wouldn’t it be easier if your dog did its business in the same area of the garden every time? This way, you can avoid accidentally stepping on it, and know exactly where to go to collect it.

Dogs can pick up habits easily. If you lead your dog towards the designated area every time they need to go, they’ll begin to register it as their potty spot.

Take your puppy outside frequently

You can expect your dog to pee constantly during the first couple of weeks of puppy training. For this reason, you should take your dog outside frequently – some experienced Goldendoodle owners recommend doing so once every 30 minutes!

How Long Does It Take To Toilet Train a Goldendoodle?

Successful toilet training won’t happen overnight. In fact, it can take 4-6 months to have these little balls of fun and mischief fully trained. It’s a process, and one that will resolve quicker with a lot of patience, love, and rewards.

How to Prevent your Goldendoodle from Nervous Wetting

A common condition that can affect all young dog breeds is nervous wetting. Sometimes referred to as submissive urination, nervous wetting can occur when your dog is excited to see you when it meets a new person, or in other situations where it may get overexcited or shy.

If this issue only sometimes affects your puppy, they will likely grow out of it as they mature.

However, if your puppy does this every time they greet you, you’ll need to train them not to. The best way to do this would be to give their brain something to work on whenever you greet them. For example, if you tell them to ‘sit’ or give them another command, their brains will focus on the action. This makes them less likely to urinate uncontrollably.

Potty Training Older Goldendoodles

Although it’s better to start potty training your Goldendoodle at a young age, it’s possible to train older dogs, too. As long as the older dog has no health problems relating to its bladder, it should be as easy to train a senior Goldendoodle.

To do this, you can pretty much follow the same routine as you would with young pups, including organizing a feeding schedule for them and teaching command words.

You may even find it easier to train an older Goldendoodle, as their bladders will be able to hold for a lot longer than very young puppies.

The puppy’s age doesn’t matter – Goldendoodles are a pleasure to train at any stage in their life.

FAQs

Are Goldendoodles easy to potty train?

Goldendoodles may have their goofy moments, but don’t let that fool you. These guys and girls are intelligent. Their smarts, coupled with their eagerness to please, make them easier to train than many other dog breeds.

At what age should a Goldendoodle be potty trained?

When a Doodle pup reaches the age of around 12 weeks, their bladders will be big enough for them to ‘hold on’ long enough to find a good place to potty. Therefore, this is the perfect age to spring into action and commence their toilet training.

Why does my Goldendoodle keep peeing in the house?

Just some of the reasons behind a Goldenndooodle peeing in the house are due to aging, health issues, behavioral problems, separation anxiety, or territory marking.

Final Thoughts

You don’t need to be a professional dog trainer to successfully train your Goldendoodle to potty outside. Essentially, all you need to do is establish a consistent drinking and feeding routine and stick by it. This way, you’ll be in tune with your Goldendoodle’s toilet habits and be able to cater to them accordingly.

During their early stages, you’ll have to be more alert to your puppy’s needs. After a while, they’ll be able to tell you when they need to go and head toward their designated potty spot. Plus, as they grow older, they’re able to hold themselves for longer, so your assistance will be required less and less frequently.

Overall, a Goldendoodle only requires a dedicated owner, good quality puppy food, and lots of love and appreciation to become fully house-trained. You might also want to learn how to bathe a Goldendoodle puppy in case your new bundle of joy gets into a mess!