Have you ever walked your dog and the dog did everything except his or her duty (tinkle, poop - choose your own words so that they can be said in mixed company including that of children)? The more in a rush you are, the less interested it seems the dog is.

While we were walking our dogs one evening, my fishing buddy friend said to me, "Why not train your dog to potty on command?" Wow! I had never heard of this, but was anxious to try anything. It works!

I walk my dog several times a day. Each time during our walk, when she would tinkle, I would say, "Good, girl, potty." This went on for a long time, and then I started giving the command, "potty" and praising her when she would, but continued our walk when she did not respond. Eventually I began giving the command "potty" and if she did not respond, that ended the walk and we would return home. Eventually, she responded about 90% of the time.

We stayed with this training for a while until we decided we wanted her to tinkle only in our front yard. I trained the dog the same way. Once we were in the front yard, I would give the command to "potty". If she did not respond, back in the house we would go. During this training, I would not let her go one step past our front lawn until she would "potty". When she responded to the command, I would say "good girl, potty, ok, walk" and off we would go for our walk.

By following these steps you can get your dog to go when and where you want. Of course, these commands are not carried out immediately, all the time, but within a short amount of time are about 90% effective.

We then enjoy our walk without wondering where or when or whose yard she will decide to use.