Potty Training Your Havanese or Havapoo Puppy
Potty training is the topic that comes up most in conversations with new puppy families, and understandably so. Those first weeks at home involve a lot of watchfulness, a lot of trips outside, and occasionally a lot of paper towels. We want to set your expectations honestly: potty training a small breed puppy takes time, consistency, and patience. There is no shortcut that reliably works in a few days, no matter what some training courses advertise. What does work, consistently and predictably, is a structured routine applied with patience and positive reinforcement.
We tell every family the same thing before their puppy comes home. Get a plan in place before pickup day, not after. Know where your puppy will go outside, who will take them and when, and what you will do when there is an accident inside. Being prepared makes everything smoother.
The Biology of a Small Puppy’s Bladder
Understanding why potty training takes time with a small breed puppy makes the process much less frustrating. A Havanese or Havapoo puppy at eight weeks old has a tiny bladder and very limited muscle control over it. They genuinely cannot hold it for long, and often when they need to go, they need to go immediately. This is not stubbornness or lack of intelligence. It is simply where they are developmentally.
A useful general rule is that a puppy can hold their bladder for approximately one hour per month of age. An eight to ten week old puppy can hold it for roughly two hours at the most, and often less when they are active, playing, or excited. A four-month-old puppy can hold it for about four to five hours. Bladder control continues developing through five to six months of age.
The Four Pillars of Success
Consistent Schedule
Take your puppy outside at the same times every single day. After waking, after meals, after play, and before bed.
Active Supervision
Keep your eyes on your puppy whenever they are loose in the house. Learn their signals before they become accidents.
Smart Confinement
When you cannot actively supervise, your puppy should be in their crate or in a small, gated area.
Immediate Reward
The reward must come the instant your puppy finishes going, not when they get back inside.
Recognizing the Signs
Common signals that a puppy needs to go include sniffing the floor intently, circling or spinning, suddenly wandering away from the family, squatting, or simply becoming restless when they were just calm. Learn your puppy’s signals. Every puppy has their own tells, and you will start recognizing them within the first week or two.
Handling Accidents
Accidents inside the house are a normal part of the process and should not be treated as a training failure or met with punishment. Rubbing a puppy’s nose in an accident, scolding them after the fact, or any form of physical correction does not help them understand what went wrong.
If you catch your puppy in the act inside, calmly interrupt with a single sharp sound like “ah ah,” scoop them up, and take them directly outside to finish.
Clean Thoroughly
If you find the accident after the fact, clean it up thoroughly with an enzymatic cleaner like Nature’s Miracle and move on. Do not react to the puppy at all. The only lesson in a discovered accident is that you need to supervise more closely.
Enzymatic cleaners are important because they break down the biological compounds that leave an odor trail. A puppy can still smell a previous accident spot and will return to it.
Pee Pads: A Note
Some families use pee pads as an intermediate step, and they can be helpful in specific situations, such as in a high-rise apartment, during very cold weather, or for a puppy who is too young to have consistent outdoor access. However, pee pads also teach a puppy that going inside on a soft surface is acceptable, which can extend the overall training timeline and create confusion.
If you use pee pads, have a clear plan for transitioning away from them and begin that transition as soon as your puppy has enough bladder control to make it consistently to the door. If your goal is outdoor potty training, outdoor potty training from day one is the most direct path.
When Progress Stalls
Most puppies show real, consistent progress within four to eight weeks of a structured routine. If you are not seeing improvement, the most common reasons are inconsistency in the schedule, not supervising closely enough, giving too much freedom too soon, or accidentally rewarding the wrong behavior.
If your puppy is having accidents very frequently despite a solid schedule, or if they seem to be unable to control themselves even right after a trip outside, a visit to your veterinarian is worthwhile.
Patience and Consistency Win
Potty training is one of those things that feels like it takes forever until suddenly it clicks. One day you realize your puppy has not had an accident in a week, then two weeks, then a month. The families who stay consistent with the schedule and supervision almost always get there faster than the families who get frustrated and change approaches frequently.
Remember that every accident is information, not a failure. It tells you something about your puppy’s limits, your schedule, or your supervision. Use that information to adjust and improve rather than getting discouraged.
If you are feeling stuck or overwhelmed, reach out to us. We have helped a lot of families work through potty training challenges and are always happy to troubleshoot together. This is exactly what we are here for.
