Pet Care: Housetraining

[Turtleheadfred]

You should start to train your puppy as soon as you get him/her. As your puppy will relieve him/herself frequently, you will probably have a few accidents to begin with, but you should never punish the puppy as this could cause submissive urination when you told he/she off. Most of the success can depend upon how well you can judge when your puppy needs to go to the toilet.

The common times are after playing, when your dog gets excited, after walking, and after eating. Some dogs circle around the floor and sniff the floor before they go to the toilet. However, before you start to house train your puppy, you should decide if you are going to paper or house train him/her. If you are at home most of the time and access to outside is easy, house training will be easier for you as you will be able to take your puppy outside after every meal, whenever he/she has woken up you will be able to let him/her out, or if he/she hasn't urinated for some time let your puppy out and give him/her the opportunity to do so, and if you recognise any signs that your puppy needs to go to the toilet let him/her out.

After a few weeks you will recognise what your dog does to let you know he/she needs to be let out, e.g. he/she may run around in circles next to the door that they know they go to go to the toilet. Dogs vary on what they do to let you know when they need to be let out for the toilet, so you just need to study your puppy until you realise what he/she does to let you know. If you decide paper training your puppy will be easier, e.g. if you live in a flat or if you are out all day, this is probably the easiest option for you. It also makes good back up for house training as you are bound to have a few accidents along the way.

The aim of paper training is to teach your puppy to relieve him/herself on the newspaper which you eventually place outside. It is a fairly easy process, confine your puppy to an easily cleaned room and cover the floor in newspaper. When you notice your puppy developing a preference to one area of the room, remove the rest of the paper but leave it in the spot your puppy liked. You can then gradually move the paper towards the door. On a nice day, place the place the paper outside, the next day remove it altogether. Hopefully the puppy will now relieve itself outside. However, you should look for the tell-tale signs of your puppy looking for the paper next to the door, should you notice this let your puppy out.

At such a time when your puppy doesn't go to the toilet as frequently and you can be sure of the times your puppy need to go outside, you can progress to full house training. Some dogs don't like the feeling of paper under their feet, usually those who circle when they need the toilet, in this case you should progress straight to house training your puppy.

[Turtleheadfred]

Another type of housetraining we used with our Benny when he was a baby was to get a baby playpen a place it beside our bed at night. Puppies will NOT go to the bathroom where they sleep. So when they need to "go", they will jump on the side of the playpen - which will rattle and awaken you.

Then you can pick your puppy up, take them outside (usually to the same location is good), put them down and use the same word (pee pee, tinkle, go-go, whatever) to encourage them to urinate or poop! When they do - LOTS and LOTS of praise. Immediately pick them back up, bringing them back into the house and place them back into the pen to go back to sleep. (You don't want the baby to think it's "playtime".

The first week or so this is almost like having a new baby - and you may have to get up 2-3 times a night depending upon when you last take them out and when you get up in the mornings. But it generally won't take long before puppy will learn it's schedule and will soon be able to go longer and longer without needing to go outside.

Also (particularly with bigger breeds) once they outgrow the playpen, they will already be housebroken, but will usually sleep beside your bed on that same side and still wake you in the same manner (by jumping up and pawing on that side of the bed) when they need to go out during the night if necessary!

Good Luck! To Me - this is the hurdle that once it's mastered, everything else is easy!

You can handle anything once you're new child isn't peeing and pooping in your house! :thumb2:

[yonksgirl]

Thanks THF! I never knew how paper training led to going outside!!!