The Dog Site

About 90% of American pet puppies live indoors with their owners. Dogs kept inside with your family and you need to be housebroken. The process of potty training a puppy is a prospect that intimidates many dog owners. But it’s really not that hard to accomplish, it doesn’t need to be messy, and you don’t have to struggle with your pet when housebreaking him. You have to keep in mind though that this is a training issue and you have to put in a little more than just casual effort. You will need time for this, become a little more involved, and get some training tools like puppy training pads.

The Puppy is Boss

Two guiding rules exist for helping puppies and dog owners in puppy training. The first and most important rule is not to punish your puppy unless you actually catch her in the act! Two, always remember to praise your puppy for good behavior. Don’t let training lead to situations where your only action is saying ‘no’ when you catch your pet doing something wrong. Praise them or offer them a reward when they do the right thing.

Housebreaking/House Training your Puppy

There are different ways to housebreak puppies. When starting indoors, encourage your pup to use puppy training pads or papers to go to the bathroom on. 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.

When the new dog is comfortable with the papers or puppy training pads, they can then be put near the door or even outside. The transition is accomplished by focusing their toilet habits in a specific in the home to an outside place. You’ll soon see that you won’t need the training pads or papers in the house anymore.

The drawback of this approach to housebreaking is that more time is required to get the pup to do his business inside. When house training puppies, other widely used techniques might work; you could, for example, use puppy crate training or cages, always accompanied by the owner’s close supervision.

When you opt to use a crate or a cage for housebreaking your dog, take note that dogs can only hold their bladders and bowels for about seven to eight hours. 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. However it is not recommended to leave them in a cage or crate longer than necessary.

Constant supervision on the other hand, does not involve the use of training paper or puppy pads, and crates or cages. In this case, the owners elect to be with their puppies for as much time as necessary. 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. A constant watch must be kept on puppies to make sure that there are no accidents or slip-ups.

To summarize, housebreaking and training your puppy should be included along with teaching them the basic commands like ‘come’ and ’stay’. But puppy potty triaining and housebreaking will be the most difficult forms of dog training due to the fact that they are simply the messiest. Do not lose heart!

Puppy obedience should start early on in the whelping box. The amount of respect and puppy obedience in training is determined by the actual owner you purchased from.

Studies show that up to the age of three weeks, puppies are not yet ready to take in even a little in the way of education. When puppies are born they know only of their mom, that they are hungry and that they need frequent naps. At this point the puppy elimination is controlled by reflex.  This will change around the 21st to 28th day.  They will leave the blanket behind and search for a place to eliminate. During this stage, puppies start becoming more conscious of their environment, and also become more sensitive to stimuli. Any experiences they have will have a more profound effect on the puppy, so this is the most probable time for shaping up the puppy’s manners and behavior – in short, the perfect time for them to learn puppy obedience.

Getting Puppies Started with Encouragement

With positive reinforcement you can encourage your pet to achieve at a higher level. Verbal praise along with special treats are more effective. Negative stimuli should well be limited to saying ‘no’ and blocking any negative actions from your puppy with your hands. Hitting or hurting is unnecessary for a young puppy and it should really be avoided.

Puppies should receive positive affection and praises each and every time they correctly respond to a command. If not praised, puppies will lose enthusiasm and interest in obeying you. Alternatively, when given praise and caressed soon after a command is correctly executed, your pet will learn that following these things are fun and rewarding. Puppy obedience will also be developed as he learns that repeating proper actions will reap rewards. Praises and treats, when used as positive reinforcement, can enhance the training and encourage the puppy to respond to your commands.

Timing and Consistency

While puppy training, you should keep in mind that timing is everything. Your puppy’s capability to comprehend the trainings and lessons taught to him is related to your actions, corrections, and movements. It is imperative that pups learn to recognize that the corrections are given as a result of his untoward action and behavior and that it will not happen if only he did what was expected of him.

For example, when your puppy is chewing on a bone or playing with a toy he is likely to not come to your command.He will find out that “come” means that he should head for the trainer and that it will also bring in the goodies if the puppy is told to “come” under controlled situations, like when he’s on a leash and is gently pulled toward the trainer then praised.

Puppy obedience training is best taught in easy exercises, one by one. It will be simpler concept for your puppy, instead of trying to teach all the exercise is a single session. Be patient and always allow for positive reinforcement so that your puppy will learn to obey your commands though slowly, yet surely.

One of the first things you will want to do with your new puppy is housebreaking him. One that can only lead to confusion for the dog later on is giving your new dog a little time to get to know the family and the house before laying down the law. Your dog will be confused if you have allowed it to run free with no discipline, then all of a sudden expect it to be well-behaved.

It Is Never Too Late

You are still able to fix the situation even if you have let your dog run free with no rules. Unlike a popular belief out there, it is never too late to start dog training with a dog. Whether your puppy is young or old you can still include housebreaking into his/her daily routine. Whether it is dog chewing, dog biting, or dog growling that you are dealing with, it is important to pick out the behavior that concerns you the most. Start housebreaking on those behaviors and once you have accomplished those then you can move on to something else.

You should start housebreaking your dog as soon as possible to ensure that your pet does not become aggressive. If the largest problem that you have at this time is potty training, then make that your first item to work on.

Tips for Housebreaking Your Dog

* Restrict food and water to the appropriate meal times
* Keep peed pads in one area
* When your dog is good, praise them
* Don’t hit the dog if he misses the pee pad
* After fifteen or twenty minutes of giving the puppy something to eat or drink, it needs to be taken to the pee pad

A lot of people leave water and food out for their dog all day long. While this is an okay routine for older dogs that can hold their bladder, it is not advisable for puppies. Young pups are not able to hold their bladder for very long, even if they wanted to. This will result in a lot of accidents around the house for which you really cannot blame the puppy. So leaving food and water out all of the time is counterproductive to your goals in housebreaking.

If your puppy always misses the pee pad and continues to go to the bathroom in another part of the house, simply place the pee pad in that spot. At this stage, housebreaking is just acclimating the puppy to the pad with respect to going to the bathroom. Once they are used to it, you can continue with housebreaking by slowing moving the pee pad every few days towards the spot you eventually want the pads to reside at.

While this housebreaking process may seem like it takes forever, it is extremely important. You don’t want your dog using the bathroom everywhere. You would also like an easy process of housebreaking for your dog to prevent it becoming disinterested. Get outside help in puppy training if you need it. No matter who is in charge of doing it, just know that housebreaking takes time.