After the joy and the excitement of getting your small Saint Bernard at home, comes now the time of complications… Your puppy Saint Bernard is peeing and pooping everywhere in your house which irritates and worries you in some ways.

Now, you know you’re going to have to train your puppy to be clean. But questions have to be answered: When should you start training him to get clean? How do you make your Saint Bernard permanently clean? What are the methods to potty train your Saint Bernard quickly? How long will the toilet training take? When my Saint Bernard will be housebroker?

Make your Saint Bernard puppy clean – What is the minimum age?

Puppies have a different metabolism than adult dogs. Indeed, their organs and muscles are not fully developed and do not allow them to retain like the adults. A Saint Bernard puppy will only be able to hold back from urinating after 3 months. In addition, the average duration of the retention will be a maximum of 2 hours. This is why a majority of people start potty training when their Saint Bernard are 3 months old.

But, even if your Saint Bernard is only 8 weeks old when you install him at home, I advise you to prepare your puppy for this education without of course teaching him to retain because it would be a waste of time! This way, you will have a short time in advance about the good practices and reflexes that your Saint Bernard should have.

As your Saint Bernard muscles’ capacity to contain themselves will gradually increase, you will need to be patient and coherent with your puppy’s development. You cannot require him to be clean in 15 days. You will have to plan that your Saint Bernard will be clean between 4 and 7 months on average, depending on the environment and the time you spend educating it.

Saint Bernard puppies potty training – What not to do?

Without having first educated your Saint Bernard, there are some things you should absolutely avoid:

  • Don’t leave him alone inside your home for a whole day without taking him out and then shout at him in the evening when you get home from work. As we saw above, your puppy can’t hold back for 7 or 8 hours and scolding him won’t help because he won’t understand.
  • Don’t put his nose in his pee thinking you’ll disgust him and he won’t do it again. The smell of urine will not repel your puppy and he will not understand that it is punishment. Moreover, he cannot guess that inside the house, he is not allowed to pee.
  • Do not use the cleaning carpet. Indeed, if you want to teach your Saint Bernard to do his business outside, a tidy carpet will do the opposite of what you teach him since he will be inside your home. Moreover, your Saint Bernard will not learn to hold back since he will have the carpet at his disposal whenever he wants.
  • Do not pick up poop in front of your puppy and do not use bleach to clean your home because the smell of bleach can cause your Saint Bernard to urinate again in the same place.

Here is a good cleaner that I recommend to properly clean, disinfect and neutralize the odors of pee and poop from your Saint Bernard.

Rocco & Roxie Professional Strength Stain & Odor Eliminator

Look at the price

Saint Bernard puppies potty training – What to do?

Train your Saint Bernard to refrain from urinating

The sphincters, which are the muscles that allow your Saint Bernard to contain itself, can be trained to retain longer. This means starting to hold your Saint Bernard for small one-hour periods and gradually increase these periods by 15 minutes, then by 30 minutes, then by 1 hour and so on. This training should be done over 3 to 4 weeks. That’s why it’s a good idea to take your holidays as soon as your Saint Bernard is adopted. This will allow you the necessary time to start learning.

Be aware that normally, a Saint Bernard can refrain from urinating for 4 hours at the age of 6-7 months. But if you have used the above method, to get much better results!

Teach your Saint Bernard that he has to pee when he goes out

To do this, you will have to define and show your Saint Bernard where he will have to defecate. So, from day to day, you will take him out and take him to that place so that he can always pee in the same place. When you take him away, you always use the same sentence: “Come on, let’s go to toilet”. For him to understand correctly, he will have to be congratulated or rewarded when he goes to pee on his own.

For this to be efficient, the training must be done regularly, always at the same time. So by developing a routine, he will get used to it easier and will adjust to peeing outside as soon as you take him out. In this way, you can also always follow the same way to get to his toilet. Thus, your Saint Bernard will quickly be conditioned to go in the usual direction to reach its little area.

If you have already taught him that he must relieve himself outside and you catch him peeing inside, you should yell NO! scold him and take him out immediately without waiting until he is finished. You will accompany him to his own toilet area. Thus, he will associate his action with the fact that you scold him and thus understand the prohibition. Remember to congratulate him if he finishes urinating in his toilet space.

Take out your Saint Bernard regularly

While you are training your Saint Bernard to hold on longer and longer, you will also be spacing out his pee outlets more and more. From 8 to 10 times a day for the first month, you will gradually increase to 3 to 4 times a day when he is 6-7 months old.

That’s why, if you work all day and leave your puppy inside, it’s a good idea to give the keys to your home to a neighbour or a student so that he or she can take it out during the day.

Saint Bernard puppies potty training – How long does it take?

Usually, a puppy will be clean during the day and at night around 6-7 months. But if you have enough time and patience to educate him as indicated above, your Saint Bernard can be totally clean from the age of 4 months!