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Why does my new puppy keep having potty accidents inside the house?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | Labrador Retriever | Female | 2 months and 12 days old

Why my puppy is going potty anytime anywhere

2 Answers

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Lauren Jones VMD

Veterinarian

Published on April 9th, 2017

Since Daisy is so young, I'm assuming that she is not yet house trained. Work on taking her outside to eliminate after eating, drinking, playing, napping, at least every 2 hours during the day, and every 3-4 hours at night. Praise her and give her a small treat as a reward when she eliminates outside. Do not punish Daisy if you find accidents in the house, as she will not associate this with appropriate potty behavior after the fact.

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    Answered By Dr. Melanie, BVSc MS

    Veterinarian

    Published on

    Daisy is still quite young, and bladder and bowels will not be developed enough for her to be potty trained at this age. Potty training takes time and patience, and I can give you a method that I typically recommend for house breaking puppies: Start by keeping Daisy on a regular feeding schedule, and taking away her food between meals. Take her out to potty first thing every morning, and once every 30 minutes to an hour. Always make sure she goes out after meals, first thing when she wakes up from a nap, last thing before bedtime at night, and right before you leave the house. Take her to the same spot each time to go potty. Her scent there will encourage her to go. Stay with her outside each time she goes to potty, at least until she is fully house trained. When she goes outside, praise her and give her a treat. You might want to consider crate training as part of her house training. It allows you to keep an eye on her for signs that she has to go potty, and will teach her to hold it until you put her outdoors. The crate needs to be big enough for her to stand up, turn around, and lie down, but it should not be big enough for her to go potty in.

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