House Training Puppies Tips & Tricks to House Training Puppies
House training is your most urgent priority when introducing your puppy to your household because it often can be the most confusing and frustrating part of puppyhood. First impressions count greatly! What will those first lessons be? Will your puppy learn that it is oh-so-convenient and lovely to eliminate on the nice plush absorbent carpet or rug in your living room? Or will he learn that the ONLY place to go is outdoors, and when peeing or pooping there, the rewards are great?
Let us explain how to MOTIVATE your puppy to go outside and PREVENT him from going inside.
WHEN
House training does not magically happen at a certain age. If you don’t teach your puppy, from day one, about where it is acceptable to eliminate, he will still learn where the bathroom is… except that he will learn to go INDOORS. Every time your puppy relieves himself, the emptying of that full bladder feels good and thus gives positive reinforcement for peeing… even if it’s on your carpet! Despite you getting rid of the smell with an enzyme-based cleaner (which you should do, common household cleaners are not sufficient), he may go back there to pee. Or on a similar surface. Not just this week and next, but for years and years…
WHERE
Your puppy really does NOT know where he is supposed to go until you teach him. Your puppy may have some preferences, depending on what they learned at their breeder or foster family. For example, they may have learned a preference for a certain surface. Hopefully they also learned to not mess up their own little bed area/crate. What they do NOT know though is where it is acceptable to pee and poop in YOUR house. It is solely up to you to teach them. Therefore, you must approach the whole process not thinking puppy knows right from wrong. If mistakes are made, instead of punishing your puppy, ask yourself: how can I readjust the schedule to prevent this from happening again?
Two Key Aspects
So, what to do to make sure puppy practices going outdoors and outdoors only? (Please forget pee pads inside!) There are two key aspects:
REWARD SUCCESS
Praise is lovely, but would you show up for work just to have your boss tell you “Good job!”? No, you want to get paid, too. So, please do both for your puppy: praise and treat! Right after he is done (don’t make him cut it off his pee by getting excited as he starts), give him either a very special treat (such as small pieces of string cheese or cold cuts), or at least three pieces of good treats/kibble as you keep praising him. If he likes sniffing and playing outside, don’t bring him in the moment he is done, either: let him enjoy outdoors for a couple of minutes.
You must remember to take the treats with you! Giving your puppy a treat after you come back inside is too late. Keep up desirable food rewards until you are COMPLETELY done with house training. Your puppy will eliminate quickly and reliably when taken outside if you do so.
PREVENT ACCIDENTS INSIDE
This is the tricky one, isn’t it? The name of the game is NOT waiting until puppy is starting to squat down and then trying to rush him outside. Chances are, you will be too late! The key is NOT waiting until he may have an accident. How?
A. Take him outside VERY often. For example, an eight- or nine-week-old puppy, when awake, should be taken outside every 30 minutes… UNLESS you put him in a position to hold it for a little bit longer:
B. Use crate training. Using a crate thelps puppies learn to hold it, and to make it predictable when they will pee. For example, with an eight-week-old puppy, if you only want to go out once an hour, you could have the puppy play/train etc. for the first half hour (when you know he won’t have accidents), then put him into his crate for the second half of the hour. Then take him out, reward success, and start over.
Also have puppy take all his naps in his crate, with the door closed, so you don’t miss it when he wakes up and will pee.
As your puppy starts learning the house-training routine, and as his bladder develops, you can readjust your schedule and expect him to hold it increasingly longer. You want to lengthen the time conservatively and gradually. Just because your puppy took a two-hour nap yesterday and didn’t go to the bathroom between 9am-12pm, does NOT mean you start taking him out every three hours! He will need to pee much more frequently when he is awake, playing and drinking.
THE BOTTOM LINE
In these initial weeks, your puppy should only have any freedom in the house when you are 95%+ sure he will not pee. You should never get to the point where you must watch your puppy like a hawk: is he going? Is he going now? By that point, you should have either preventatively taken your puppy outside or have put him into the crate to hold it!
So, go from 30 minutes of freedom (eight-week-old puppy– can be a bit longer for an older pup) to 40 minutes. Then 50 minutes. Then an hour. Your aim is ZERO accidents, not two or three a day! Remember, whenever puppy pees inside, he is learning to pee inside.
FAQs
GOOD LUCK!!! Lots of work? Yes! Worth it? Absolutely!!! Remember, dogs do not house train automatically. If they initially learn to potty inside, they will keep doing that for the rest of their lives. Believe me, you don’t want to deal with pee and poop in your house for the next 15 years! So, keep schlepping outside rain or shine, remember those treats, and have the discipline to put up your puppy in his crate.
Less freedom now leads to more freedom later: a perfectly house-trained dog is allowed everywhere in the house, at grandma’s house, in hotels, and in stores!
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