How To Potty Train a Husky Puppy: A Complete Guide

Potty training your husky puppy is something owners should focus on right away once bringing their pup home.

Not only is it necessary to keep your home clean, but it’s also the very start of basic training and obedience.

In this article, I’ll cover everything you need to know about potty training your husky puppy quickly and easily.

And no, potty training your husky puppy doesn’t have to be hard!

The Basics of Potty Training a Husky

Although huskies have made a name for themselves as being fairly stubborn, these methods below will work. You just need to give your husky time and be patient.

Repetition Training

Huskies respond the best to repetition-based training. The more times you go through any training method with your husky, the faster they will learn.

Use every single opportunity you can to go through all of the training steps. Your husky puppy will learn quickly with frequent guidance.

Positive Reinforcement

One of the best ways to train your husky is with positive reinforcement. Praise and reward them when they get it right, instead of punishing them when they get it wrong.

This style of training reduces behavior issues and grows the trust in the relationship with your puppy.

Are Huskies Hard to Potty Train?

Compared to many other breeds, huskies are not hard to potty train. Despite having a stubborn streak in them, if owners are consistent with potty training, huskies learn it quickly.

Ultimately, the biggest factor in this is how the owner trains their husky puppy.

If owners are not routinely taking their puppy to the spot and capturing every pee & poop possible, then reinforcement will be slow, inefficient, and potty training will take longer.

How To Potty Train Your Husky Puppy In Just 4 Steps

Before 6 months of age, your husky puppy will make mistakes. Try your best to remain calm and never to punish your puppy if they use your kitchen floor as the toilet. Just keep training, and eventually, they will learn.

The 4 Step Potty Training Process

Follow this 4 step process to teach your husky puppy where they are allowed to do their potty business. Always remember to be patient and reward when they get it right.

1. Create a designated spot in your garden to potty train

Find a place in your garden you are happy to sacrifice. And I mean sacrifice! This spot should be relatively small and away from the main areas of interest in your garden. This spot is for doing their doggy business only.

It’s helpful if this area is quiet, and away from other distractions. Puppies can be fairly sensitive so it’s your job to make this spot as ideal as it can be.

If you don’t want to sacrifice any lawn, you may want to check out Bark Potty, they’ve created an excellent outdoor potty training area for puppies. Visit their site for more information Bark Potty Website

2. Take your puppy to the spot after key moments

When to take your husky to their spot:

• After eating
• After drinks
• After sleeping or napping
• After playing
• After getting excited for any reason
• After you arrive home and greet them
• After they wake up
• Before they go to sleep

These times are all key moments that puppies will typically need to use the toilet.

Ultimately it can be hard to fully know when it will happen, but if you start taking them to the spot after all of these moments, you will significantly increase the chances of catching them when they need the toilet.

3. Wait for them and praise them

It’s important to give them some time to settle, sniff around and become comfortable enough actually to go to the toilet. You may even wait up to 10 minutes here, as long as your Husky puppy isn’t completely distracted, give them some time.

When your husky puppy finally does their business successfully, praise them heavily and be sure to give them a tasty treat. At the SAME time keep repeating your chosen “toilet time” command to build the association.

After a few successful times, your Husky puppy will know exactly what their spot is used for, and when they use it, they’re doing something to appease you.

4. Take them away from the spot after

Immediately take your puppy away from this location and stop them casually going to this spot. This spot is designed for using the toilet only.

The better you’re able to keep that location separate, the better your pup will understand what that spot means the next time.

It’s worth even creating a small barrier or gate if you have one available. Throughout the daytime when you’re still in training, your Husky should be kept away from that area.

Once they are fully potty trained, they will know only to go there when they need the toilet.

What To Do If Your Husky Didn’t Go?

There may be many times you carry out this training and they don’t do their business. While it’s possible that your husky might genuinely not need the toilet, at this moment of their age, we know better.

1. Bring them inside.
After waiting with them in their spot and they don’t go, pick them up and bring them back inside

2. Give them some more time.
Wait a few more minutes without engaging, speaking, or playing with them. You should ignore them and this will indicate that you aren’t up for playing right now.

3. Take them to the spot again.
After a few minutes pick them back up and take them outside to the spot, and standstill. Wait there with them without interacting. Give your “toilet-time” command and hope they go.

Why do this?

The reason this is a suggested step is that puppies have very short attention spans. The first time you took them out, they may have got distracted and thought it was an opportunity to play completely forgetting to do their business.

By bringing them back in, waiting, and then repeating the steps, you are showing them that this isn’t the time to play, and they need to use the toilet now.

Perhaps your husky genuinely doesn’t need to go, but this is a great precautionary step that will avoid many mistakes back inside your house.

Do Potty Pads Help Your Husky?

A common question I get a lot is whether puppy training pads are good for potty training. The answer is an easy no! (unless you live in an apartment without a private yard)

Despite puppy pads being a well-known technique, it is actually teaching your puppy to eliminate inside your house.

Learning to eliminate inside your home is a dangerous game to play…

Your puppy can’t make the difference of a puppy pad, to a small towel or your expensive rug!

And this is not their fault…

The correct way to potty train is to teach your puppy they should be doing their doggy business outside of the house altogether. If you do this, you will save yourself many messy situations for many years. Once you create a habit, it’s hard to train against that.

Extra Tips To Make Potty Training a Husky Even Easier

1) Use a leash

Using a leash will give you more control when your husky puppy tries to wander off. Gently guide them back to the spot and repeat the “toilet time” phrase. Keep the leash short and this should stop them from trying to play.

2) Keep some old poop there

The smell alone should be enough but for extra persuasion keep some of their old poop there. This will help them understand what this spot is for. Even if your puppy did their business elsewhere, take that poop and put it in the spot ready for the next time.

3) Take them to the spot regularly

The most important times to take them are outlined above but it doesn’t need to stop there. Husky puppies may need to do their business at any moment, the more times you can take your husky to the spot and encourage them to do the deed will all help.

Just ensure that when you take them there, it’s not playtime. When you’re done, remove your Husky pup from the crime scene.

4) Avoid play and distractions

If you go to the spot avoid all play and other attention. You are only there for one reason and make that clear to your puppy. Go there without other distractions and only say your command, try not engaging casually with your puppy.

Important Points To Remember

There are other things to remember that will make this training process easier.

Always monitor your pup indoors

They do sometimes give off signs that they’re about to poop or pee, such as suddenly stopping what they’re doing to sniff and pace around.

If you can intervene and instantly take them to the spot, that’s a win for you. If you take your eye off your puppy and they poop on your floor, that’s your fault, sorry!

Taking them out after being alone

A great example of this is when you come back from work or are out of the house and you take them out of their crate. You should instantly guide them outside to their designated spot.

These are very common times your puppy will need to pee or poop. The same goes for when you leave so before you put your puppy in their crate, they need to go out.

FAQ Section

Last Thoughts

Be patient, huskies can be stubborn and somewhat slow to learn in the beginning. Don’t be surprised if you’re experiencing potty mistakes several months after you start training, this should definitely be infrequent, but it can always happen once in a while.