Potty training your puppy is a critical step to a happy life for both you and your puppy. It requires patience, commitment, and consistency.
House soiling is one of the main reasons why puppies lose homes. We don’t want that to happen.
So, as the owner, you must potty train your pup.
Now accidents will happen that’s for sure. But don’t be discouraged… within a few days, you can get back on track after an accident and remember to follow the guidelines.
Here are a few tips you can follow.
What Will I Learn?
Create and Stick to a Schedule
A schedule is critical for success in anything. The same applies to house training.
Puppies are trained better when they follow a program. Like babies, puppies have tiny bladders.
The same goes for solid food. A schedule teaches the pups a specific time for a particular thing, such as playing, eating, or getting their business done. A good guide for you is that each puppy can control their bladder for an hour for every month of their age.
For example, say your puppy is three months old, it can hold its bladder for three hours. This guide is applicable until ages nine months to a year; a pup can hold its bladder for 9-10 hours.
Take caution that you don’t wait longer than the specified limit of your pup. Otherwise, you are bound to have an accident on your hands. Remember that all pups are different, so the time limit may vary from one to another.
Keep in mind your pup’s daily habits when drawing up a schedule. An example of a potty schedule for young puppies may look like this:
Early in the morning
Last thing before sleeping
After playing with the owner
Upon waking up from a nap
After playing with a chew toy or bone
After eating
After drinking
All this can have you running outside on the street or to the piddle pad a dozen times a day. If you work, make sure to have some kind of arrangement like asking your family members or hiring a dog walker to keep up the schedule.
The quicker you convey the message that specific places are approved for potty and others are off-limit to your pup, the better it will be for you, and the lesser will be the mess.
While the puppy relieves itself, say a specific phrase or word that you can use before taking them out to remind them what to do. Take your pups for a walk or playtime only after they have done their business.
Positive Reinforcement
Positive reinforcement rewards in the form of praise or treats is always better than scolding a puppy. If you scold the pup for soiling your rug, it won’t have any effect as the puppy will think you are a nut as it did what needed to be done.
Using other punishment methods such as rubbing your pup’s nose in its poop is rather bizarre that it’s hard to imagine how it started or if it ever worked for anyone.
Give treats after your pet performs a command. This step is vital as teaching your dog to go outside or to a specific spot in your home is the best way to ensure that they do what is expected.
The attention span of a puppy is relatively short like that of a child, and they are easily distracted, so ensure that they don’t get distracted while doing their business. If you praise them too soon, they will forget to complete it.
Praising is the right thing to do when you want to make your and your pup’s life easy. Make it think that it is smart whenever it performs this natural act.
Control the Diet
A puppy’s digestive system isn’t fully developed. It can’t handle lots of food or complex food. That’s why an owner should break up the puppy feeding schedule into three small meals.
The food given to the puppy must be of good quality; talk to your vet about which food is best for your puppy.
Try to examine your pup’s stool, for this is the best way to find out whether to change the diet or not.
If the stool produced by your pup is constantly loose, bulky, and stinky, it may be time to change its diet. Do consult your vet first. Overfeeding may cause a case of diarrhea, which will only make your task of training your pup much more difficult.
Supervise Your Pup
Try to keep an eye on your pup. Please don’t give them a chance to soil your house. Observe the individual signals and rhythms of your pup. Some puppies may hold it longer, others won’t be able to. Some need to go before playing, others after.
Like human babies, canine potty habits are quite distinctive, so watch them closely and supervise them. You can tie up your pup to you or to nearby furniture with a long leash when you are not actively playing or training.
Try to observe signals that your pup wants to do its business. Some signs such as barking, scratching the door, restlessness, circling or sniffing, etc. must be noted.
When these signs are observed, please take them to their pad or outside to do their business. If it successfully does it, praise it and give a treat. As the house training process continues, try to ensure that your yard is treated as a part of your house.
Provide your pup with some freedom both in your house and yard only when they start to become reliably house-trained.
Puppy Pads and Paper Training
Some pups are shy and may require indoor training. The use of puppy pads and paper training can be rather tricky as you provide two different options for your dog. In an ideal situation, the pup learns to hold it indoors and go out and only eliminate in specific locations.
But most people work, and it becomes difficult for them to take their pups out multiple times daily, or people may have a small dog who has a difficult time with winter’s freezing cold and many inches of snow.
Puppy pads provide your dog with an alternate solution for relieving itself in an approved and specified place inside the house. After the dog matures or is wholly trained, you can take it outside to relieve itself.
Mistakes Will Happen
Whenever you start taking care of a pup, keep in mind that mistakes will happen. It is better to be prepared to deal with them. It is a normal part of house training.
Here are some ways to deal with them:
Interrupt them if you catch them in the act.
Make a startling sound or say “OUTSIDE”, making sure not to scare them. Immediately take them outside or in the bathroom to complete its job and praise them for doing it there.
Never punish them for soiling in the house.
Clear the soiled area.