Quick Tips & Articles

House Training

House Training needs to be a priority from your first day with your puppy! The key to House Training is Management. Research has shown that puppies as early as 8 & 1/2 weeks of age have already developed a preference of where they wish to eliminate. Keeping this in mind, we as owners need to take House Training seriously and make it our priority as a family unit from the instant our puppy comes home.

We have two choices we can set our puppies up to succeed or fail. Think about it honestly: do you want a puppy who becomes a dog who knows that they always "Go Potty" outside or a dog that is still having house training issues and not only does your house smells of urine, but your carpet, carpet pads, and furniture are ruined? Personally I prefer the first option, a well House Trained Dog.

Keep in mind puppies purchased from Pet Shops and Kennel Type environments may take longer to house train as they are used to being kept in confined spaces where they not only sleep and eat, but pee and poop as well. Stay vigilant and be extra patient.

Tools that are your friend when used properly that can help you succeed in House Training: a properly sized crate (big enough your puppy can stand up, turn around, and lay down), an exercise pen (example a Mid West Metal Exercise Pen, keep height in mind as your puppy will get bigger, better to only have to buy once than twice with a little fore thought), baby gates, Wee/Pee Pads or News Paper (only for when you are not home longer that what the puppy can hold it's bladder/be realistic), a kitchen timer (to remind you to take puppy outside), extra leashes, and a puppy potty accident cleaner (purchase a named brand puppy potty cleaner, made specifically for puppy potty accidents).

Our goal is to not give the puppy an opportunity to make a mistake. Puppies have very small bladders. Puppies generally need to go potty after waking from a nap, during play time (they will stop in mid play and go), after eating, after drinking. Take your puppy outside on leash or to a fenced in specific puppy potty area every 15 minutes while the puppy is awake, think of this as lots of opportunities to practice the behavior you most desire. Take a few tiny treats with you. The puppy potty area is just that a potty area, not a go play area (get down to business). Pick a word like: "Go Potty", "Hurry Up", "Do Your Business" (pick something you will say in public). Repeat while awaiting your puppy to relieve itself. Once Puppy goes potty (after the stream has stopped for example, not in mid-stream), give your reward mark (example: "Yes"/"Good Go Potty") and treat. Keep in mind puppy may have to go a second time before going back inside, go play in a different area of the yard, and before going back inside revisit the Puppy Potty area and repeat the process. If you took the puppy outside and they did not go, remember to be extra watchful and vigilant when you bring them back inside. Take them outside again for a second attempt in 10 minutes.

Warning signs puppy may need to go outside to go potty: anxious, will not settle down, cranky, fussy, walking in circles, smelling the floor or carpet, whining, or going to door to area that goes outside. Pay attention to your puppy's subtle warning signs. Do not count on the obvious after all they are only babies and dependent on us their humans. (Be realistic, if you had a human toddler who was not yet potty trained it would not make since to let him run around the house with no diaper, as you would be creating a situation in which they would be able to go potty around your house freely. Like wise be just as fair and more so to your puppy who young and also is learning both English and our confusing human rules.)

Be aware puppies are like babies, accidents are normal and will occur! Use them as learning experiences for "us" of what we did wrong and what we will do right next time to help the puppy succeed. Take one day at a time, be patient, and most of all stay consistent!

Puppies should only get limited freedom when you can watch them 100% of the time, period! If you cannot watch them they should either be in their crate, exercise pen, puppy area you have created, or attached to you on a leash (we want them to be inhibited as puppies generally try really hard not to eliminate in confined/small areas where they sleep and eat). Set a Kitchen Timer to remind you to take them outside to go potty so you do not become sidetracked and forget, thus setting them up to fail.

If the puppy makes a mistake and goes inside the house, do NOT get mad at the Puppy (this means: do not stick or rub their nose in it, do not yell at them, do not hit them with a newspaper!). If you feel you have to get mad at someone or something put the blame where it lies on us/the human for making the mistake of not managing our puppy properly and in the future resolve to better manage your puppy.

If you catch your puppy in the act, startle them (startle does not mean scare or terrorize them!), say something like "Oh No" and quickly usher the puppy outside to it's proper potty area. Make sure thereafter you thoroughly clean up the accident with a Puppy Potty Cleaner and keep puppy away from that area so they are not enticed back to it at a later time.

Use your Potty Wee Pads or News Papers for the puppies inside only when you are not home and the puppy will need to go potty. As soon as you come home, they are immediately picked up, and you resume your responsibility for paying attention to the puppy and taking outside to go potty (think of the pads and paper as a crutch only to use when you need them/are not home. Otherwise you are sending the puppy mixed and confusing signals when you are home, because they are still down/available to use!)

Puppies should have water available at all times as they are growing and need it to promote healthy growth. Since you are the one who chose to get a puppy, if this means you have to get up during the night to take the puppy out to go potty, so be it, take the puppy outside to go potty (because like a young human baby or child, they have to go when nature calls, now-not later). For night time potty trips, make quiet and a non-event: take the puppy outside to go potty, stay calm and relaxed/quiet, reward puppy for going, quietly praise the puppy, come back inside put puppy back in it's crate, and go back to bed.

Check with your Veterinarian and Breeder as how to properly feed your puppy a Quality Food and confirm the amount and how often it should be fed based on breed and age as it grows. However, it is not recommended to free feed your puppy (meaning having food available at all times), as it can lead to unplanned housetraining errors (meaning if you do not know when it goes in the puppy, you cannot predict when it will exit the puppy). At feeding times, put down and give the puppy approximately 10-15 minutes to eat, then pick up and put away until the next feeding. At next feeding measure out their food and repeat the process. Young puppies eat multiple times a day, then as they approach teenager years to adult hood, your Veterinarian generally will recommend going to a twice a day feeding.

Remember to stay patient and positive. Puppies like babies have small bladders and rely solely on us their Humans to set them up to succeed. Think ahead and be pro active versus reactive. We have two choices raising a puppy right so they become a well trained and important member of our family or become a Monster and a nightmare to be around.

My wish to you: is for your goal to be succeed and be able to enjoy your puppy as it goes from puppy, to adolescent, to adult, to senior dog over the months and years to follow. We have these guys with us such a relatively short time period compared to human lives, let's enjoy every moment we can while they are with us.

To give you a look into life with our puppy and practicing what I preach on House Training: we got our puppy October 2006 at 8 weeks of age, by 1 year of age, our puppy only had "2" accidents during that entire time (both were early on/just after got our puppy). Please note both of those 2 accidents where human errors (management issues between myself and hubby) not puppy errors. Please keep in mind, my flexible schedule as a Dog Trainer allowed me flexibility to be with my puppy during those times his bladder needed me the most; however it was the combined effort of good management that allowed the process to work so well. We continue to implement good management skills to allow him to continue to succeed on a daily basis. The effort is well worth the rewards!

Remember to offset your puppy's time in it's crate or pen with lots of access to run and play! Puppies need adequate exercise to grow both physically and mentally. Tired puppies are happy puppies, which in turn make for happy owners.

Cindy C. Smith, The Right Steps, 916-966-6883,

www. therightsteps.com