Article by Mary Ray
Nearly all of the puppies owned by Americans make their home indoors. Dogs kept inside with your family and you need to be housebroken. Potty training a puppy is one of the situations many owners find themselves overwhelmed by. It is not that difficult, it doesn’t have to be messy and housebreaking can be accomplished without a struggle. You have to keep in mind though that this is a training issue and you have to put in a little more than just casual effort. You will need time, a little more involvement, as well as some training tools such as puppy training pads.
The Puppy Rules
Two guiding rules exist for helping puppies and dog owners in puppy training. Remember to never punish your puppy for something you didn’t see him do. And second, praise your puppy for the things he did do right. Do not train by only using “no” when you see your dog doing something it should not be doing. Desirable behavior should be met with praise and treats.
Housebreaking/House Training your Puppy
There are many different techniques to house train your pup. When starting indoors, encourage your pup to use puppy training pads or papers to go to the bathroom on. Puppy pads generally are treated with scented chemicals that lure pups and get them to use the pads. The moment you observe them beginning the pre-elimination routine of pacing and sniffing at the floor, lift up the puppy and quietly relocate them to the paper or puppy training pads, and then offer them a reward for appropriately going to the bathroom.
When the new dog is comfortable with the papers or puppy training pads, they can then be put near the door or even outside. The transition is accomplished by focusing their toilet habits in a specific in the home to an outside place. In the very near future you will have no need for papers or training pads indoors.
The biggest issue with this method of puppy potty training is that is requires more time to get the puppy to go indoors. When house training puppies, other widely used techniques might work; you could, for example, use puppy crate training or cages, always accompanied by the owner’s close supervision.
When using a cage or crate to housebreak your puppy, realize that puppies can’t go for more than about seven to eight hours without using the bathroom. Crate training usually works because dogs do not like to mess their sleeping places, then have to lie in it. Leaving them in their cage or crate for very long, however, is not good to do.
This is not to say, though, that continual supervision involves crates or cages, and paper or puppy pads. It is here that dog owners opt to spend whatever time is necessary with their pups. This works good for those who are retired, work from home, or any owner that can spend lots of time with the puppy. Pet owners can normally usher their dog outside as soon as the pre-potty signs are noticed with this technique. A constant watch must be kept on puppies to make sure that there are no accidents or slip-ups.
To summarize, housebreaking and training your puppy should be included along with teaching them the basic commands like ‘come’ and ‘stay’. However, housebreaking and potty training a puppy are always the messiest lessons, and will usually give you more problems than any other form of dog training. Don’t give up!
Related Articles:
Puppy Crate Training – Effective Housebreaking for Puppies
Puppy Training — How Do I Train My Puppy?
About the Author
Mary Ray writes regularly about home related topics. I hope you enjoy this article.
