Kristopher’s Pet Blog

Bringing home a new puppy is fun — until he starts making messes all over your house. One of the most challenging things in life is house training a puppy, but with a few puppy potty training tips, it will be much easier. When you initially bring your new puppy home, take him outside at once to the area where you want him to go to the bathroom. This is a good time to set out potty training your puppy because he will be excited about the new sights and smells. Make sure not to play with your puppy in the area where you want him to relieve himself so that he doesn’t link that area with play time. Once he starts to go to the bathroom, say a little phrase such as “go potty” or whatever you like so that he will know to do his business every time you say those words. When he is done, give him plenty of praise and maybe even a treat. Once you take your puppy inside your home, the potty training should start at once.

There are several different methods of house training a puppy, so you can select the one you like.

1. Crate training is possibly the most popular technique. This is in essence utilizing a crate, which is a dog kennel or cage, to keep your puppy in at those times that he is not being supervised. For the most part dogs do not like to sleep in the same location where they have gone to the toilet so they will ordinarily not relieve themselves while in the crate. For this reason, it’s imperative to make sure the crate it not too large so that your puppy can snooze at one end and relieve himself at the other end. His movement must be limited to his sleeping space inside the crate. Your puppy should be confined to the crate at all times apart from when he is being supervised. If he is permitted to roam freely through your house, he will end up using the bathroom inside and will most likely do it over and over again. Crate training puppies can take several months and requires patience.

2. Paper training is another process that can be used to house train a puppy. This approach teaches your puppy to use the bathroom in the house but only on paper (usually newspapers) and only in the place you want him to go. Paper training and crate training should not be utilized at the same time because your puppy will get bewildered. If there are reasons why you can’t take your puppy outdoors to go to the bathroom, then paper training may be a better option. Paper training in a nutshell is spreading thick layers of newspapers over a generous area in your house where you want your puppy to eliminate. You slowly shrink the size of the area until your puppy is eliminating in a smaller area. Unfortunately, paper training is not suitable for all dogs. It works best for small male dogs and small to medium female dogs because larger dogs make too much waste.

3. Yet another technique to house train a puppy is to use a somewhat new concept — an indoor dog potty. This is similar to paper training but can be used for dogs of all sizes and is wonderful for traveling. It’s also not as unpleasant as using newspapers. You basically spray the training spray on the indoor dog potty so that your dog will know that’s where he is supposed to relieve himself. Once he has gone to the bathroom, you give him praise and a treat and then scoop up the feces, pour water over the surface of the indoor dog potty, and then empty the reservoir underneath.

No matter which method you decide on, you must be patient and persistent until your puppy has been entirely house trained.

Is your dog mistaking your living room for the dog park? Are you tired of chasing after your cute little puppy with a bucket and mop? Does Fido think your fine oak table is the same as an oak tree? Housetraining can be confusing. Both for you and your dog. Want to know a secret that can end your dog potty training frustration?

The number one secret to successfully housetraining your dog is to use positive reinforcement. It is far more effective to ignore your dog when he eliminates where he shouldn’t, than to yell at him, rub his nose in it, hit him,… This will only cause your dog to become afraid to eliminate in your presence. If on the other hand you praise your dog, give him treats, pet him… whenever he eliminates where you want him to, he’ll quickly catch on to this and try to please you (and himself) by repeating the good behaviour.

Here are some basics you should keep in mind:

-All dogs are “naturally housetrained“. By this I mean that every dog will try to avoid eliminating where he eats and sleeps. The mother dog will reinforce this behaviour the first weeks. As soon as you take the puppy home with you, it’s up to you to fine-tune it; teach him where and even when he should eliminate.

-At 7 or 8 weeks, about the time you take your puppy home, he will develop a preference of surface to eliminate on. They particularly prefer an absorbent surface like grass, paper, pads and of course your expensive living room rug. You can help your dog make the right choice.

-For a puppy, indoors is just as good as outdoors (maybe even better; safe, warm and dry). Your puppy focuses on surface, smell and location, so teach him at an early age where you prefer for him to eliminate, for example only on grass or sod, only in your backyard. Keep in mind though that you might someday take your dog somewhere with no grass, sod,…this might cause a problem because your dog might refuse to eliminate altogether. Nothing to worry about if it’s only for a couple of hours, but you might want to consider housetraining your dog using an indoor dog potty to prevent him from “crossing his legs” for hours on end.

-As dogs prefer to keep their sleep/eat area clean, using a crate can be very helpful when housebreaking your dog. Just remember not to leave your pooch in a crate for more than 4 hours.

-Never forget that your puppy is just that, a puppy. He can’t hold up as long as an adult dog, so accidents will happen. But he will send out signals to let you know it’s time to go potty. Going around in circles, sniffing are good indicators. If you catch you puppy in the act, you can pick him up and put him where he should eliminate. Puppies immediately stop eliminating when picked up, so you don’t have to worry about cleaning up a whole trail.

Is your dog still using your living room as an indoor dog park after all this advice? I have a lot more tips and tricks up my sleeve to put an end to housetraining accidents. No matter how hopeless your situation seems. Head on over to my housetraining page now and put an end to your housebreaking frustrations.

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