Do Your Business! Teaching Puppies to Relieve on Cue

Guide dog puppies need to learn to relieve on leash on many different surfaces, including cement and asphalt. We use the cue “Do your business!” (DYB) to prompt puppies to relieve when asked. DYB training begins by pairing the phrase “Do your business!” with the act of the puppy urinating and defecating in a location of our choosing. Luckily, young puppies offer us many opportunities to practice this!

What You’ll Need

• Outdoor x-pen or a long line
• Concrete or asphalt surface
• Puppy who needs to relieve (first thing in the morning or right after waking from a nap work great!)
• Patience! Sometimes puppies take a little time to do their business. As they mature, we’ll want them to go within 10 minutes of giving an opportunity, but with baby puppies it pays to be patient.

Puppies generally need to relieve when they wake up, shortly after eating or drinking, after playing, and anytime they show unusual sniffing, circling, or frantic behavior. When the puppy needs to be relieved, take them to your outdoor x-pen or the designated relieving area.

When they are little, carry them to the relieving area. Once they have been introduced to leash walking and can “hold it” a bit, they can walk there on leash.

Place the puppy in the x-pen or set them down with the long line clipped to their collar. If they are on a long line, they should not be able to reach beyond the hard surface. Let them sniff and wander. As they start to urinate or defecate say “Do your business!” When this pairing of words and behavior is repeated frequently, the puppy will begin to associate the phrase with the actions and it naturally turns into a cue we can use later to prompt them to relieve. When the puppy relieves, throw them a little party and let them know how pleased you are with their behavior! You can even offer a kibble after they’ve finished relieving, as long as it doesn’t distract them from finishing.

Not every relieving opportunity needs to be on a hard surface in the relieving area. Aim for at least a few times each day. Many dogs naturally prefer grass or other porous surfaces, so we put in a little extra effort for puppies to have plenty of practice relieving on hard surfaces!

• Offer hard surfaces at the times a pup is most likely to need to relieve: the first opportunity in the morning, after waking from naps, and shortly after eating. You’ll begin to get a good idea of the puppy’s schedule over the first couple of weeks!
• If the pup starts to show a preference for grass or other porous surfaces (“holding out” when offered cement or pulling toward the grass), offer relieving opportunities only on hard surfaces until they are readily relieving on hard surfaces again.

Prerequisites

• The pup has a couple of weeks practice with pairing “Do your business!” with relieving
• The puppy has been introduced to the leash

Transition to Leash Relieving

• If you’ve been using an x-pen, clip the leash to the puppy while relieving them in the x-pen for a few days. Then open up and ultimately remove the x-pen so the puppy is leash relieving in the same spot the x-pen used to be.
• If you’ve been relieving on a long line, gradually shorten the length of the line until you can switch to a regular leash.

When you offer relieving on a leash, say “Do your business!” Allow the pup to wander in front of you and gently guide them in a figure eight, back and forth, or circular pattern (it can help to visualize the pup in an imaginary x-pen in front of you). You’ll want to avoid turning in place while they walk around you. Ideally, we want the puppies to learn to relieve in front of the handler without the handler moving.

What If...

• They are having frequent accidents in the house? Baby puppies need to relieve often! It’s important to always supervise them when they are loose in the house and to offer relieving opportunities preemptively to avoid a puppy having an accident. If they do have an accident in the house, don’t scold them. Clean up the area well and offer more frequent opportunities going forward.
• The puppy pulls towards the grass to go potty? If the pup develops a preference for grass or other porous surfaces, it’s important to only offer hard surfaces for a few weeks. If you’ve transitioned to leash relieving, you can go back to x-pen relieving and be patient waiting for them to relieve. Then when they do go on the hard surface say “Do your business!”, throw a party and reward!
• They don’t want to go on leash? If the pup is resistant to relieving on leash but will relieve readily when loose in the x-pen or on a long line, you can remove the x-pen and use a long line to shorten the distance very gradually between you and the puppy during relieving opportunities until they are close enough for you to go back to leash relieving.

Here’s a Tip!

• With young puppies, it is best practice to only take them on short enough trips that you’ll be back home to their familiar relieving spot before their next relieving opportunity. This means short walks in the neighborhood or quick outings in the car.
• Puppies should only be loose in the house after they have used a relieving opportunity. If you’ve offered them the opportunity to relieve and they did not make use of it, you will want to keep them confined in the x-pen, crate, or on leash with you until they successfully empty.

What’s Next? 
The first few months of puppy raising are important for developing good relieving habits and the understanding of leash relieving as well as the “Do your business!” cue. As pups mature and are protected by vaccines from, they will have longer and more frequent public outings and will learn to relieve on leash on cue away from home. Then in the months to follow, pups will learn not to relieve in their puppy jacket and to utilize relieving opportunities in various places away from home.