House Training a Puppy

Oh, if potty training a puppy were that easy. However training a puppy is a 2-way experience that involves you as much as your puppy. Whether using the crate training technique, sod litter boxes or paper training, potty training requires patience, commitment, observation and a schedule! Just like us puppies are unique and have their own personalities that develop as you develop your own relationship with your puppy. We hope here to offer some tips for training a puppy that will help you understand your puppy and aid in this development.

So let’s begin some thoughts about house training a puppy. The first thing to remember is that just like babies, puppies do not have the ability to “hold it” for any length of time. When they eat and/or drink, remember it is a short distance from one end to the other and you need to establish an area that is her “bathroom spot”. Then be observant. Shortly after play time, after exercising, after eating/drinking, should you notice the puppy circling or sniffing a lot these are signs of needing eliminate. Put the leash on the puppy while talking to her or if you are in a situation where you can step outside with the puppy you may want to pick her up and say something like, “Do you need to go out?” Start using a phrase that the puppy can associate with being able to get to acceptable bathroom area. Then when your puppy does use their acceptable bathroom IMMEDIATELY praise her lavishly. Praise will get you farther faster than anything else. Scolding does not. It is confusing to your puppy and scary for her. They understand you are mad and it is directed at them but they don’t always understand why. That is why it has been found that the old method of taking the dog/puppy over to the area they “messed” and “rubbing their nose in it” while scolding didn’t work and often prolonged the learning process.

Remember I mentioned that a puppy has a weak bladder and doesn’t have a reliable way of “holding it” until approximately 6 months of age? Well, keep in mind that certain activities and emotions can also cause a dog to loose control of their bowls and bladder. These are such things as being excited about you coming home. With some of our dogs it didn’t matter if it was a 30-minute trip to the store or 4 hour separation due to classes. We would always make the first thing we did was to talk with our puppy as we headed outside so that if they could get to their “spot” and “go”. Then we’d praise them and give them some extra time to be sure they had gone all they needed.
Another that you may need to pay attention to is if something frightens your dog. We have had dogs that this goes both ways with. Some dogs don’t like thunderstorms. Most of our dogs did not like fireworks. We normally could not get them to go out when the neighbors were shooting off the fireworks. However when they were finished we’d walk out with them so they could relax and eliminate. We have had friends who had dogs that when they were scared they lost control of their bladder. In short, strong emotion whether it is excitement or fearful can cause a puppy to loose control.

Another reason for soiling is “marking” their territory. It has been our experience that this is more common with male dogs. However when a dog does soil in the house, be sure to clean-up the area thoroughly. If the scent lingers the puppy will smell this and continue to use the bathroom in that area.

People are not perfect and neither are puppies! So with that said there will be “accidents”. If you “catch” your puppy in the act try saying something that distracts them and possibly interrupt them long enough to get them outside to their area. When this happens be sure to praise them for finishing in the acceptable area. If it is too late, it is too late. Clean the area thoroughly. Your puppy will soon notice the difference in no praise and sense that was not acceptable. Some people take the towels and leave them out in the area the puppy uses for her bathroom area so the scent is there. If that is an option for you, it may reinforce the proper area.

When you leave your puppy you may want to use the “crate method” to confine her. This is a very successful method. There are many sizes of crates and some can be collapsed so you can take them with you. You want to be sure your dog, even when full grown, will have enough room to stand, sit and turn around. When your dog is a puppy you may want to corner off part of the area if the crate is too large. If you are going to be gone longer than 45 minutes you will want to leave an area with paper that the puppy can get to so it can use the bathroom if needed. In the beginning you will want to paper the entire area. Observe and within a short while you will notice that the puppy “goes” in the same area. Dogs, in general, do NOT like to soil the area they lay in. So as you notice where that area is you can slowly remove paper from the other areas. Be sure if you are using the crate method for training that the crate is not used as punishment or a “time out” area. You don’t want the dog to fearful of the crate anymore than they would be of a dog bed! Our daughter used a crate for two of her dogs and when we would dog sit the dog would automatically go (without any coaxing) in the crate when he wanted to sleep. The crate is also helpful when your puppy is going through teething and you are gone. It will contain your puppy with toys that safe and acceptable to use as her “teething toy”!

“Toys” are another subject that we’d like to discuss. Dogs need to play and exercise. But we’ll post a blog for that discussion!

If you are in an apartment or don’t have a crate you may want to consider the Indoor Dog Potty. This is a new and improved method that takes over where paper training and litter or sod box training started. This also eliminates late night walking if that is not always convenient or establishes an appropriate remedy for those who work long shifts at a time. The Indoor Dog Potty can be an inexpensive solution for these types of situations.

We also invite you to visit our website, Perfect Family Dog, where we are building pictures and information on every breed of dog recognized by the American Kennel Club. We hope you will visit us often as we build it

We hope these potty training tips for a puppy are helpful. We look forward to your comments and updating with other suggestions!