housetrain

House Training Your Puppy

House training a puppy takes time and commitment. Puppies don't just train themselves, although some are easier to train than others. Everyone in the household must be willing to help with the training such as taking the puppy outside at all hours, supervising the puppy so that accidents don't happen, and cleaning up when they do. The process of house training your puppy may take several weeks or several months. If you are patient and consistant you should be very successful in house training your puppy.

Puppies will need to 'go' more often than an adult dog. Take the puppy to the area where you want him to 'go' at times when he is most likely to need to go- such as after waking from a nap or first thing in the morning, after actively playing, and after eating. When taking the puppy outside to the potty area you should talk to him. Ask " do you want to go outside?" or " Do you want to go potty" or some other phrase that gets the puppy excited about going out.

Puppies learn by routine, so it is a good idea to take your puppy outside using the same door going to the same potty area each time. While in the potty area prompt your puppy to walk around and say to him "go potty". After your puppy goes, praise him lavishly and reward him with a treat. It is very important that you reward him for going in the appropriate place. This is how he establishes his preference.

It is a fact that no matter how good of a job you do at house training, your puppy is going to have some accidents. If you catch your puppy in the "act" don't yell at him, kick or hit him. Just use a verbal commmand in a firm tone and tell him "NO", to meerly interupt the behavoir. Then simply take him to the door speaking in a natural tone of voice " Let's go outside". Take him to his potty area as you encourrage him to " go potty".

If your puppy has an accident in the house and he is NOT caught in the act, don't yell, hit, kick or do any other kind of punishment. The puppy will not understand what he is being punished for. Simply clean up the mess and try to supervise him more carefully.

Clean any soiled area with a good enzymatic cleaner. Puppies will be attracted back to soiled areas by the smell.

The best way to prevent your puppy from having accidents in the house is to supervise him constantly. Keeping him leashed with you, or placing gates in doorways and closing doors to other rooms to keep your puppy in your sight.

Crate training your puppy is another option, one that I highly reccomend.

If you are gone from home for a few hours at a time, I reccomend using a crate with a sliding tray in the bottom instead of the pet taxi. You want one big enough to accommodate your puppy when he is fully grown. If you are home with your puppy most all of the time, then the pet taxi will work fine.

It is very important that the puppy's initial experiences with a crate be pleasant. Allow the puppy to explore the crate.

If you are using a crate with the tray in bottom and your puppy will be left there while you are away, then I reccomend Placing toys, treats, and food inside the crate. Also a shoe box or something can be used to make a bed and an old t-shirt or towel with your scent on it can be placed in the bed.

Your puppy should be placed in the crate at night or when you are away from home, anytime you can not watch him. The puppy should be taken out at least once during the night and when left during the day his stay should not be over 2 or 3 hours. You may want to start by just leaving him 30 minutes at a time until he is used to the crate. Puppies should never be left longer than they can control their bladder or bowels. They will have more control as they grow older.

I place a folded newspaper in the corner of the crate just in case the puppy does have to 'go' .

The puppy should be taken outside to his potty area as soon as he is removed from the crate.

Once your puppy understands going outside to potty and is having fewer accidents in the house you can provide him more freedom. This should be done gradually over a few days or weeks. There shouldn't be a sudden transition from constant supervision to no supervision. If your puppy has an accident when you are giving him more freedom, go back to more supervision for awhile and then try to give him more freedom again. Eventually your puppy will be completely house trained!

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When using a Pet Taxi type crate, put the puppy in at night while you sleep, anytime you can not watch the puppy closely and when you are gone from home. I like to place a towel or crate bed in the pet taxi along with a couple of toys.

You will want to take puppy out frequently to his potty area.