One For The Road – Dog Potty Training While Traveling

Dog potty training can easily be done when both you and your dog are home most of the time. But if you have to travel frequently and have to take your dog along with you, it can be so much more of a challenge. Even if you are on the road most of the time, it is still best to start potty training lessons when you are at home. At the very least, you should teach your dogs the basic potty commands and give him rewards for doing it right. This way, when he hears the same command in a strange place, he won’t be too uncomfortable or nervous.

Save The Toilet Paper

Some dogs only like to do their business in familiar territory, which is why they have a difficult time going potty while on the road. Here’s a good way of overcoming this problem. When your dog pees at home, press a paper towel over the urine and store it in a zip-locked bag that you can take along during road trips.

Now, when you are on the road and your dog needs to go potty, take out the paper towel with the urine and lay it on the ground. Let the dog sniff on it until he is comfortable enough to do his business. Just before he does go potty, remove the paper towel and put it back in the bag for future use.

This is a great potty training method you can use on the road but if you don’t want to keep handling the soiled paper towel over and over again, an alternative would be to pour some water into the bag with the paper towel. Instead of taking out the towel each time the dog needs to go potty on the road, just let some urine-water mixture drip onto the ground. The scent will be just as noticeable and just as familiar to your dog. Reseal the bag and use the remaining solution for future stops.

Once your dog has gotten used to relieving himself in unfamiliar places with the help of his own urine scent, the next step in your on the road potty training lessons is to teach him to do the same thing on his own. Walk your dog in unfamiliar places like parks and highway stops and encourage him to relieve himself. Don’t forget to praise him when he does in order to encourage him further.

At first, some dogs would find it hard to eliminate in areas where there are already existing scents of other dogs but if you talk to him calmly and keep encouraging him, he will be able to go potty whenever and wherever you tell him to do so.