A dog that potties in the house is often on a fast track to being re-homed, sent to live outside or finds its way to an animal shelter. According to a survey done in 2000, house soiling was the No. 1 behavior reason people gave when relinquishing a pet.

The survey said 18.5 percent of dogs surrendered were due to house soiling.

The second-highest behavior reason for surrender was being destructive outside, which came in at 12.5 percent. These two are probably related as a dog that pees or poops in the house and is then banished outside is probably going to be bored and decide to entertain itself by digging up the flower bed or chasing the livestock.

Teaching your dog to do his business outside is actually not difficult, but it does require a lot of patience and understanding of how dogs think vs. how a person views the situation.

First, you have to realize that from the dog’s perspective there is absolutely nothing wrong with going in the house. Second, yelling at your dog for doing something that is natural is only going to scare him. Dogs don’t speak English, so yelling "no, you go potty outside" means absolutely nothing to him. But, your loud voice and threatening posture tell him you are scary. He does read body language very well and you just said that you were a dangerous creature and he should be careful around you. Not exactly the message you were going for.

Often people think their dog does understand right from wrong and cite the example that the dog will pee or poop somewhere where the human can’t see them. This is not a dog that understood that peeing inside was wrong; this is a dog that was yelled at for peeing in front of a person.

The dog learned to pee somewhere out of sight of the people in the household. Dogs think of the world as "safe" vs "unsafe" rather than "right" vs. "wrong." If you make it unsafe to pee or poop in front of you, then your dog will find a safe spot to do it.

Pushing your dog’s nose into his pee or poop also does nothing to teach him what you wanted. Again, all you did was teach your dog you are scary to be around and he should possibly run from you when he sees you getting angry.

Instead, you need to teach your dog that it pays to go outside. To do so requires patience and consistency from everyone in the family. You have less than three seconds to reward your dog for going to the bathroom out in the yard for him to understand he is getting that reward for that action.

This means you have to be standing with your dog when he goes outside and you have to have a food reward with you. Waiting until your dog comes in the house to reward him, only rewards him for coming inside, not for whatever he did out in the yard. This means you need to go out with your dog every few hours, rain or shine until he is house broken. If you have a puppy under the age of six months, then you need to be going out every half hour for very young puppies or every hour to help the puppy figure out what is needed.

You also need a way to confine your dog or puppy until he or she learns what you want. Teaching a dog to love being in a crate is a great way to accomplish this. Just remember, a crate can absolutely never be used as a punishment or time out spot.

You want your dog to love his crate. You can also use baby gates to keep your dog in the same room or use a leash to keep the dog with you. Keeping the dog with you means you will see him if he starts sniffing the floor or looking at the door, so you can get him outside in time.

If you are patient and consistent with the dog, he will learn where you want him to go. If you have a dog that is having problems learning to potty outside, don’t get frustrated. Consult your veterinarian. Many dogs with house breaking issues turn out to have an underlying medical problem.

Connie Swaim is the author of Idiot’s Guides: Puppies (Alpha Publishing, 2014). She is the director of Canine Training and Behavior at the Humane Society of Indianapolis and is a Certified Training Partner with Karen Pryor Academy.