Around 90% of puppies live in the home in America. You need to do some housebreaking with them if you are considering having them live in the home. The process of potty training a puppy is a prospect that intimidates many dog owners. It’s not that bad and it’s not too messy; and do not need to battle with your dog in order to housebreak him.Be aware, however, that you are dealing with a training issue, and you will need to dedicate more than just a cursory effort. You will need time for this, become a little more involved, and get some training tools like puppy training pads.
The New Doggie is the Boss
Two guiding rules exist for helping puppies and dog owners when training your puppy. The first and most important rule is not to punish your puppy unless you actually catch her in the act! Secondly, always tell puppy how good he is for the things he did correctly. Don’t fall into the trap of only responding with ‘no’ when you see your pet doing something you don’t want them to do. Praise them or offer them a reward when they do the right thing.
Housebreaking/House Training your Puppy
There are many different techniques to house train your pup. At the beginning, encourage the puppy to “go” on newspapers or puppy training pads. Puppy pads generally are treated with scented chemicals that lure pups and get them to use the pads. When you notice them doing their pre-potty routine of sniffing and walking around, take them gently, without saying a word, to the puppy training pads or newspaper and praise them for going to the bathroom correctly.
After things are progressing well and the puppy is using the puppy training pads or newspapers regularly, you can then locate them a little closer to the door and eventually outside. The change is made from concentrating on bathroom habits at a location inside the house to a location outside the house. You’ll soon see that you won’t need the training pads or papers in the house anymore.
The only major problem or setback with this puppy potty training method is that it takes a longer period of time to encourage the puppy to do his bathroom rituals indoors. Other popular methods of house training puppies involve puppy crate training or the use of cages plus constant pet owner supervision.
The maximum amount of time that dogs can hold their bladders and bowels is between seven and eight hours, so you should keep that in mind when using a crate or a cage, trying to housebreak your dog. Usually this technique is very effective because most puppies consider their cage or crate as their sleeping area and they don’t want to have to lie in their own mess. Leaving them in their cage or crate for very long, however, is not good to do.
The use of crates/cages and papers/puppy pads is not required if you have constant supervision. In this case, the owners elect to be with their puppies for as much time as necessary. For people who are retired, work from home, or pet owners that have the spare time to be with their puppy, this is the ideal situation. Pet owners can normally usher their dog outside as soon as the pre-potty signs are noticed with this technique. You need to keep a constant eye on your puppy to prevent any accidents or slip-ups.
To sum up, puppy housebreaking and training should be treated as part of the ‘come’ and ’stay’ command trainings. However, housebreaking and potty training a puppy are always the messiest lessons, and will usually give you more problems than any other form of training. Do not lose heart!
