House Training a Puppy

Housetraining your puppy

Do you have a puppy that is going bathroom in the house? This is a relatively straightforward issue to fix; yet a huge number of dogs end up in the shelter because this was never really trained.
Housebreaking is one of the first shared experiences your puppy will have with you. During this phase he is get to know you and learn how you communicate and how you lead.  Housebreaking will set the tone and create habits that will remain with you and your dog for many years.
It can be risky for people who think faster is better and than putting more pressure on themselves and their puppies because they feel they are failing if they have not housebroken their puppy at a certain age. Many novice pet owners, particularly somewhat, place WAY too much emphasis on quick housebreaking. Some dogs naturally get the concept very easily, others have a much harder time, but this is hardly a measure of anything.
 
Obviously many desire not to have the house covered in excrement; however, we feel that establishing the tone of a lifelong relationship is so much more important, and since this is the first "training" that is going to occur for most dogs. Many competent trainers forget everything they know about communicating with animals when their innocent puppy happens to squat on their precious carpet!  It is easy to housebreak quickly, but is it ideal?  We would rather take longer than rush this key time in my puppy's life.  This is exacerbated by the fact that people tend to think animals should naturally be tidy and are somewhat revolted by their puppies willingness to soil everywhere.  So for several weeks, puppy gets to know its new person as a frustrated, unhappy, lunatic who has a fit every now and then for no obvious reason!
 
Put another way, most of us would not correct a dog for failure to complete a behavior UNTIL we were certain that the dog understood the desired behavior.  Yet how many people start correcting this behavior from day 1 without first ensuring the dog understands what is being asked?
 



How do you housebreak in a way that will nurture your animal's psyche and establish good habits?
 
Step1: Management--is to figure out how to keep your puppy from going bathroom in the house.  If he is constantly able to go on the floor, the only thing you do is going to matter.  So, whenever you are not in a position to watch your puppy, you need a plan.  It can go outside in the yard, can be in a crate, whatever, but it cannot be unsupervised in the house until he is reliably housetrained.
Step2: Frequency and consistency--take your puppy outside frequently.  It can sometimes feel like all you do is go outside--after he naps, after he eats, after he drinks, after he plays, etc. 
Step3: Vigilance--it will only take a few weeks, but you need to be TRULY vigilant.
Step4: Praise--you need to go outside with your puppy so that you can praise him when he goes outside. People stick their puppies outside for ten minutes and assume they went potty.  If you are not there you cannot know, and you cannot praise.  
Step5: Patience--if you are doing the above, this problem will get better and better and will go away in a few weeks.  So do not stress about it.  
Step6: Correction--once you are fairly sure that your puppy understands what is being asked, you will get a few perfect opportunities to correct.  Again, you want to be certain they understand your preference, and then you wait for a moment and just as they start you loudly exclaim, "NO" and pick them up and run them outside where you wait for them to go (it may take a while since you just startled them) and praise the heck out of them.