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. Training needs to receive a significant amount of time devoted to it in order for it to be successful. You will need time for this, become a little more involved, and get some training tools like puppy training pads.
The Puppy Rules
For those who own dogs or puppies, there are two major puppy training guidelines to follow. The first and most important rule is not to punish your puppy unless you actually catch her in the act! And second, praise your puppy for the things he did do right. 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. Desirable behavior should be met with praise and treats.
Housebreaking/House Training your Puppy
There are different ways to housebreak puppies. When you start indoors, encourage them to use papers or puppy training pads for their bathroom acts. Puppy pads are usually scented with chemicals that attract little doggies to use them. 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.
When everything is going well and the doggies are using the papers and puppy training pads consistently, you can either move those closer to the door or place them outside. The change is made from concentrating on bathroom habits at a location inside the house to a location outside the house. In the very near future you will have no need for papers or training pads indoors.
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. Some other popular techniques used for house training your puppy are puppy crate training or using cages which require constant looking after by the owner.
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. It is not a good idea to crate a puppy for long periods of time.
The use of crates/cages and papers/puppy pads is not required if you have constant supervision. Here pet owners choose to spend all the time necessary with their pet puppies. This is very ideal for people who work at home, retired persons, or owners who can afford to spend a lot of time with their puppy. 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, toilet training and housebreaking your puppy will be the messiest types of training, and generally have more headaches than other sorts of dog training. Do not lose heart!