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How To Potty Train A Pug In An Apartment: Your Guide To Successful Pup Housebreaking

Are you thinking about adding a Pug friend to your family? Great idea indeed! Dogs bring new, exciting colors into our two-legged life by teaching us how to love unconditionally, practice patience, make us more outdoorsy, and crack us up when they do something mischievous. And Pugs know a thing or two about being clownish!

how to potty train a pug in an apartment
How to Potty Train a Pug in an Apartment

However, some things they do in the house are not that fun at all. For example, wrecking furniture, chewing on your favorite pair of shoes, or eliminating in the house. When you get a canine companion, you as a pet parent responsible for teaching it how to behave.

That includes housebreaking as well. If you happen to live in an apartment rather than a private house, potty-training your pup may become a daunting task. So how to potty-train a Pug in an apartment? If you are looking for answers, stay tuned! Let’s discuss some successful housebreaking tips for pooches in a puppy stage.

Training Puppies In Apartments: Tips To Help You Conquer Housebreaking

1. Patience, patience, patience

Trust me, it will not come easy to teach your pooch the desired behavior. But only those who succeed persevere and don’t give up. It may take time, but it will be worth it!

Don’t get mad at your precious fella if he doesn’t learn quickly. And Pugs are known for being a little stubborn when it comes to any kind of training. Did you learn how to drive a car overnight? I’m sure you’ll say no. So, leave room for puppy mistakes, it will get to its destination. 

2. Consistency is key

If you have been a dog owner for a while, you have probably heard the expression: “Dogs are creatures of habit”. This is true about all mammals, including humans. Therefore, they like it when a pet parent has a plan for them and a structured schedule they can follow.

When a pooch is still in a baby stage, it needs to go potty a lot more often than an adult dog. Think 6-8 times a day at the least! The reason is that a puppy’s bladder and intestines are still developing and it cannot hold urine/excrement for long.

A mutt usually gains full control over its potty movements by 4-5 months of age. Hence, if you adopted a 2-3-month-old pal, you will need to stay consistent. It needs to “go” at the same time during the day. Later on, an adult furry creature will need about 3 walks minimum per day on average, depending on its medical history.

3. Praise is on your side

I think everybody likes to be praised when they have done a good job. Pooches too want to please their masters and are super responsive to positive reinforcement techniques. Every time your fur baby eliminates outside, reward it with a piece of bacon, a slice of an apple, or some store-bought treats that it absolutely can’t resist!

You can even use its dry food kibbles as well! These are so easy to incorporate into a training process!

4. Resort to training helpers

how to potty train a pug in an apartment

Pee-pee pads and dog grass pads are excellent tools to help an owner on their challenging hound-training path. They come in a variety of brands, as well as different pack sizes to fit any budget. The idea behind using those tools is to make a pup learn the potty trick: it will go where it has relieved itself before. Pads would still have a pooch’s scent and immediately be associated with a suitable bathroom spot. 

As far as dog grass pads-they have the same clever idea behind their “engineering”. Yet, grass pads might be more suitable for some dog owners to make the house-to-street transition smoother. And how so? A mutt would quickly associate grass pads with the outside grass, even though they have a different texture.

The main thing is that they look identical, therefore a pooch will consider both the same thing. When your pal does go on the street grass, immediately praise it and slowly take away the pads it used before.    

5. Try to hold your fur baby to the exit

Especially relevant for those pet parents who live on the top floors of an apartment complex. In case you have to use an elevator to get out of the building, it might be too long for a fluffy bud to hold its bladder and/or bowel movements. Besides, the elevator’s vibrations might trigger “an accident” right inside it.

Hence, it is best to hold a pup in your arms until you safely reach the street. This way its body wouldn’t bounce too much and keep everything that needs to be held in place. 

6. Closely pay attention to different puppy signals

If your friend is somewhere in the middle of a potty-training process and started to figure out that it has to go to the door to eliminate, drop what you are doing and immediately take it outside. Signals to look for are whining, going in circles while sniffing the surroundings, looking for remote spots in an apartment, and door/window scratching if you’ve got a very witty fluffy fella.

Don’t forget to reward right after it has done its business! It is extremely crucial for the development of the right canine reflexes.

7. Asking a friend/relative to assist with potty walks while you are away

We are all super busy now, with our hectic schedules and endless early morning and late/evening meetings. Sometimes you can’t control what time you get home. Therefore your pooch will be forced to hold the urge to go to the bathroom for a lot longer.

It is not fair for it to suffer. However, it doesn’t mean that if you work a lot, you can’t have a dog. Try asking around in your immediate social circle to help you with your new little companion and drop by a few times a day to make it go potty. Ideally-stay with a hound for a few hours, so it doesn’t feel lonely. 

If your family lives far away and you have just moved to a new area where you don’t know anybody, there are several good dog-sitting services you can trust. Wagwalking.com and Rover.com are among the best platforms for dog owners to be matched with a reliable walker. A parent can choose the longevity of each walk and any additional services he/she needs for the caregiver to perform (feeding, water, medications, etc.).

Now, when it comes to different breeds, is housebreaking done differently too? For example, if you have a Pug puppy,  how to potty-train a Pug in an apartment?

Potty-training Pugs: How To Potty-Train A Pug In An Apartment?

Even though canines are not created equal, those above-described training tips can be used with Pugs as well. You may be wondering: “Are Pugs easy to potty-train?”. Well, they might not “get it” as fast as other dog breeds, however, it doesn’t mean that they are stupid.

Some breeds just need more time and practice to come to the same “point B” in the end. Repetition and positive reinforcement should become your best friends in a wrinkle-faced potty-training process. 

pug potty training
Pug Potty Training

Curl-Up

In case you need to know how to potty-train a Pug in an apartment, just follow these outlined steps we’ve just covered on successful pup housebreaking. Remember, your baby wants to please you, hence will try to learn fast. More so if the lesson is accompanied by some delicious treats. 

Again, if it makes a mistake, don’t scold it! Just keep going and use a lot of patience. It is hard, but nobody’s perfect, right?

When your pal finally grasps the potty-training concept, you two will be happily “wagging your tails” while taking a nice stroll in that neighborhood dog park. Well, at least a furry student will, and you will be very pleased to see your perseverance finally paid off.

stuart and his dog

Family Dog Expert Author

Hi there! I’m Stuart, a devoted dog lover and family dog expert with over a decade of experience working with our furry companions. My passion for dogs drives me to share my knowledge and expertise, helping families build strong, loving bonds with their four-legged friends. When I’m not writing for SirDoggie, you’ll find me hiking, playing with my beautiful dog, or studying music.