Potty Training a Puppy

Feb 14

Potty training a puppy seems like a frustrating process; however, there are puppy training tips that can make this process much simpler. Puppy potty training is simply something that must be done, and it is your responsibility as the owner. Taking the time to house train your puppy will ensure a happier and healthier life for you and your puppy.

Create a Schedule

The best schedule is an hourly one. Take your puppy outside every hour. Puppies will generally need to go to the bathroom after they have eaten and right when they have woken up from sleep. Always take your puppy after these times, even if it has not yet been an hour.

What to do once you are Outside

Let him sniff around for just a few minutes. If he eliminates, make a fuss over him. If he does not do anything within three to four minutes of sniffing around, take him back inside and try again in ten minutes.

Choose a word you want to use to tell your puppy to go potty. Say this word while he is peeing. Before you know it, you will be able to tell your dog to go potty with that special word, and he will do it on command. If he eliminates while he is outside, make a fuss over him. This lets your puppy know that you are happy with him going outside.

Puppy Training Tips for Inside

If you cannot commit to this type of schedule to take him outside, you will need to have a place for your puppy to potty inside. Find acceptable areas where it will be okay for him to go potty. It is not a good idea to put down potty training pads or newspaper on the carpeting. A good place is right in front of the door that leads to the outside to help with teaching him to go outside when you do have the time.

From Inside to Outside

Generally, you will only use newspaper or puppy training pads when your puppy is very young. As she gets older, you will want to eliminate allowing her to go to the bathroom inside and concentrate on only going outside.

The best way to do this is to move the paper from the spot you have chosen inside to right in front of the door you will be using to let him out. Once this change has been accepted, move the newspaper right outside the door. Eventually, you will be able to eliminate the use of any type of paper.

Access to the Outside

Once you have trained your puppy to go outside, you will need to ensure he has access at all times to the outside. You could install a doggy door. If this is not an option, you can train your puppy to ring a bell or bark when he has to go out. This way, your dog can communicate to you when he has to go to the bathroom.

Accidents will Happen

Be realistic and handle these accidents with patience and a lot of love. Praise is a much better way to get the message across of what is expected than punishment. Praise your dog when he is doing the right thing, rather than punishing him for the wrong thing. Be sure to clean up any accidents thoroughly to prevent him from returning to the same area.

House training a puppy is a very important aspect of owning a dog. While it will take some time in the beginning, you will be a much happier owner and your dog will be a much happier dog once he has learned the process of puppy potty training.

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Comments

Lee Quince
May 17th, 2011 at 6:05 AM
Pretty basic article and most of what you say will work, but we have had 4 dogs in our life, they were all house broken and we never had a dog door. I don’t know why but when we used the newspaper method it worked perfectly without the dog door. For the Lab (our first dog), all I did was pretend I was at a party when she used the newspaper. Every time we went outside and she peed I’d whoop, jump up and down and use high squeaky tones. Needless to say, the neighbors thought I was insane until I explained it. No wait… they still thought I was insane. But my wife didn’t. She saw the results. So anyway, once she got the idea that outside was where she was supposed to pee, she’d just come up to me and look at me intensely while wagging her tail. I’d say “Go outside?” and she’d go nuts. Normally I’d say that this was just lucky, but we got the same results with all four dogs.

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