Earning Free Relieving Access

As puppies grow and mature, those who demonstrate reliable relieving habits at home and on outings can start to have big kid privileges!

Is it Important?
When puppies are grown and enter formal training, they are expected to regulate their own relieving needs in their outside kennel run. As guide dogs, many will also have access to off-leash relieving opportunities as well. A gradual introduction to free-relieving access is an optional perk for raisers with a fenced yard, allowing pups with good leash relieving skills the choice to have free-relieving opportunities as well!

Pre-requisites

• The puppy understands not to relieve in the house and has built up to comfortably “holding it” for a couple hours between relieving opportunities without having an accident in the home.
• The puppy willingly relieves when cued, on leash, on any surface when they need to relieve.
• The puppy does not require special management to prevent accidents on outings.
• The puppy generally behaves safely when loose in the fenced yard (e.g. not doing leaping acrobatic tricks off the steps, grabbing and gulping plants, attempting to escape, etc.).

Consider if you’d like any areas of the yard to be off-limits (maybe your veggie patch or swimming pool!). Calling puppies away from forbidden areas can help establish habits that are more in line with the areas you prefer the pup to use, or you can temporarily set up an x-pen or other barrier to block those areas until the pup has established some other preferred relieving areas in your yard.

When “teaching” pups to relieve on their own, it’s fine to suggest “Do your business!” but most likely unnecessary! Free relieving access can look many ways – maybe you open the back door and let the pup out to relieve on their own or even introduce a doggie door to allow the pup to regulate their own schedule.

Whatever free relieving looks like at your house, it’s important our pups remain reliable with leash relieving. Make sure they continue to practice both pee and poop on leash, on cue, on hard surface regularly, and continue to meet all the pre-requisites required for free relieving access. Feel free to choose the time of day you know they’re going to be most successful to keep that skill well-rehearsed!

Here’s a Tip!

• Keep tabs on the pre-requisite skills for puppies to have access to free relieving. If at any point the puppy no longer meets the pre-requisites for free relieving access, go back to leash relieving all the time until they’re back on track. Don’t hesitate to reach out for support and individual troubleshooting if you find yourself in that situation!

What If...

• They no longer want to leash relieve after you start offering free relieving? Go back to only leash relieving for a few days. You may have to more gradually offer free relieving (only once every couple days, then once a day, etc.).
• I don’t have a fenced yard for free relieving? No problem – free relieving is completely optional! Not all raisers will have access to a suitable yard.