Step 1 – At first you will need to take your puppy out to where you want it to learn to go to the toilet very regularly (about every 1-2 hours depending on the pup and its age).
Step 2 – When your pup actually relieves itself, you want to capture this and attach it to the command you want to use to tell your pup to go to the toilet. For example if you want your pup to learn to go to the toilet when you say "go toilet" then when you capture the puppy going during this step you say "good toilet" whilst it is actually going. Overtime your pup will associate the word "toilet" with going to the toilet and you will be able to command them to go. At this stage they are only in the learning phase of this command, so they won't understand what you mean if you take them out and ask them to "go toilet". This will be learnt over time with repeating this process over and over again.
Step 3 – Using a happy and animated tone, praise your pup whilst it goes to the toilet by saying the words "good toilet" (using the above command as an example) a few times over. This positively reinforces the words with the action. You can also give your pup a treat after the verbal praise but the verbal praise is much more important at this stage because it will teach your pup to have a strong and positive association the verbal command.
Step 4 – Once you have repeated this process, your pup will begin to associate the command with going to the toilet. Then you can start commanding your pup to go before it is actually doing the act by taking it out and using the command "go toilet" for example. Praising and rewarding your dog after following your command reaffirms its association with the command. As your puppy grows and matures it will learn to hold on longer and longer before needing to go to the toilet, so you will be able to take it out less frequently than when you first started with the toilet training. If it has free access to the area you have been training it to go, it will over time start taking itself out as well.
