How To Potty Train A Morkie

An adorable little bundle of fluff and silk, a morkie can be a delightful and sweet addition to your family. Unfortunately, dogs don't come pre-programmed to only potty where you want them to. All dogs need to be taught where the appropriate places to potty are, and you can teach your dog yourself in a few days to a few weeks.

Praise vs. Punishment

As with all dogs, morkies respond well to positive reinforcement, like praise or treats when they do something right. Negative punishment such as yelling or spanking when they misbehave is usually a less effective training method.

Keep this in mind and try to focus on positive reinforcement whenever your morkie does as it is supposed to. Keep small training treats handy at all times for this purpose, but if you ever need to praise your morkie when you don't have access to treats, talking in a high voice and petting your morkie will get the point across that it has done what you wanted it to.

Small training treats are a better option than regular-sized treats as you will need to use them often and should be careful not to increase your morkie's calorie intake too much during the training process. Lots of health problems can arise from obesity as a result of overfeeding treats.

Choose the Best Strategy for Your Home

Yards and Potty Pads

The yard--or anywhere outside of the house--is usually the best place for a morkie to learn to potty. However, in some cases, morkies may need to get used to using potty pads the majority of the time. This may be the case if you live very high up in an apartment building or travel frequently.

You'll need to decide based on your lifestyle whether your morkie will need to only potty outside, learn on both potty pads and outside, or rely heavily on potty pads. You may also need to crate-train your morkie so that it learns not to go potty in its kennel.

Crate Training

To do this, start with a very small cage that would force your morkie to sit in its mess if it went potty in the kennel. Without room to get away from a mess, a morkie will learn right away that it must not go potty in its kennel. Once it has learned this, it can be given a larger kennel. If your morkie will spend more than eight hours at a time in the kennel, the kennel should be big enough to allow for a potty pad to be provided so that the morkie is never in discomfort from going too long without relieving itself.

Supply a Communication Method

Before beginning potty training, you will need to choose a way for your morkie to inform you when it needs to go outside (unless you will be using only potty pads). Dogs will often learn on their own to stand by the door when they need to potty, but if no one is near the door to see it, this sign won't be effective.

Give your dog a better method of communication, such as a bell on a string hung from the doorknob or a mounted Potty Bell that it can ring to let you know it needs to go outside. To teach your morkie how to use this device, lightly touch its nose to the bell so that it jingles whenever you are about to let it go outside, and then immediately open the door.

If you are primarily using potty pads and your morkie doesn't always have access to them, make something like this so that they can signal to you when they need to go potty.

Training Time

Start the Day Right

You'll need to plan on frequent potty trips at the beginning of training, especially with a puppy. Make sure that you always let your morkie out first thing in the morning so that it can relieve itself after a long night. This will help prevent morning accidents. It will likely need to go again about thirty minutes after eating breakfast.

Stay Consistent

Continue to let your morkie out every couple of hours throughout the day if possible. If not, refer to the section on crate training above. End the day with a final potty break before bed.

Praise and Punishment

Every time your morkie goes potty outside or on the potty pads, praise it and give it a training treat immediately. Whenever it goes inside, you can try making an angry noise or spray the dog with water to surprise it if you catch it in the act. This kind of startling may be enough to teach your dog to stop pottying inside.

If you find a mess after the fact, you can bring the dog to the mess and put its face very close to it. It is unclear whether angry noises and spankings are more helpful or hurtful for dogs, but if you find that praises and treats for good behavior aren't enough to discourage bad behavior, you may need to consider these alternatives. But never abuse your dog. A spanking should be a light pop to cause a small amount of discomfort. It should never be hard enough to bruise.

Control Potty Smells

Dogs mark their territory by where they leave their excrement. So if your dog can still smell where it messed inside last time, it is more likely to do so again because it sees that location as its territory. One additional way to prevent inside pottying is to completely remove the odor of the last indoor mess.

You can purchase scented sprays such as Not Here Spray or Fabreese to change the smell of the area after cleaning up the mess, or you can make a mixture of vinegar and water in a spray bottle on your own.

Be Patient with Your Dog

Remember that your morkie wants to please you. It doesn't enjoy making you mad. It just needs some time to understand what you want it to do. Morkies are smart and will figure it out in a few weeks. You've got this!