House Training Your Puppy

For the most effective results, it is best to begin training your puppy as soon as you bring him or her to their new home. If you follow our crate recommendations and establish a warm cozy environment for your puppy, house training will be much easier because a dog's instinct is not to soil in its den or bed. Start by putting your pup on a regular feeding schedule and by making frequent trips outside. If you are feeding a good quality puppy food, you will find that the training period will be shorter because you puppy's feeding and elimination schedule will be more routine.

 

There are certain signs that you should watch for to alert you that it is time to take your puppy outside. Your puppy may walk around in circles, sit or whine at the door.

 

When to take your puppy out:

 

• first thing in the morning
• right after naps
• after play sessions
• upon returning from home to a puppy who has been left alone
• right after meals
• last thing in the evening before bed

 

Always stay outside with your puppy to watch and encourage it. When your puppy has finished eliminating, quietly praise it and bring it back inside. It will soon connect elimination outdoors with praise and will be eager to please you. If you always want your puppy to eliminate in the same spot, always take it to that spot on a leash and wait for the "magic moment" to happen. Praise your puppy for a job well done. Coprophagia (stool eating) can be a normal behaviour in puppies. To avoid this undesirable behaviour, be sure to remove the feces right after your puppy is finished. If you also have a cat, be sure the cat's litter box is inaccessible to your puppy. Keeping the cat's food and water in an elevated place may also be necessary.

 

Accidents will happen. Should you discover a mess, do NOT raise your voice, spank you puppy or rub its nose in it. While it will certainly cower in fear, it is too young to connect your reprimand with its mess.

If the puppy is caught in the act, immediately take it outside to finish. When it continues outside, praise it for its efforts. Catching your puppy in the act is the key to housetraining, as your puppy understands what it is doing wrong.

 

Clean Up

To clean up the mess, deodorizers and repellents may work effectively. Do not use ammonia-based cleaners. Chemically, ammonia and urine are very similar. Get-the-Odor® out and Skunk-Off® are 2 really good and safe deodorizing cleaners that we recommend, as we use them here and have found them to be very effective. Once you have cleaned the area, barricade the spot until it is dry. Otherwise, your puppy will be back to investigate the scent and may feel the urge to repeat the mess.

 

If all goes well, your puppy could be house trained in about 1 week. However, many dogs take longer. Persist with your training in a consistent manner and don't give up.
 
 

Helpful Suggestions for Training Your Puppy

Training can be fun and very rewarding for both you and your puppy. Puppies have an amazing capacity to learn complex demands quickly.

 

1. Start training as soon as you bring the new puppy home. Puppies learn very rapidly but their attention span may be short, so spend no more than 10-15 minutes, training twice daily.
2. Training should be conducted when the puppy is not excited and when the home environment is quiet. Once the puppy has learned a response in one environment, move the training location to progressively more complex and more stimulating environment. That is, the puppy will have to be trained in each environment that you wish it to respond in.
3. Learning occurs more rapidly if one person trains the puppy first and then the other family members get involved. Train the puppy using one-word commands like "come", "sit", and "heel". Try not to use the puppy's name in association with the command, as too much verbiage is confusing and slows the learning process.
4. Reward appropriate behaviour as soon as possible after giving the command (best within ½ second). Give valued rewards such as food, touch and praise every time the puppy responds to a command. You will quickly learn which reward is more valued by your puppy. Once the response is learned, give the rewards intermittently. This will result in rapid learning and make the response more permanent.
5. If the puppy fails at any level of training, stop, don't reward and start the training again at a simpler level. How consistently a puppy responds to a command is a function of the degree of training. If a puppy responds only when it feels like it or when the environment is quiet, start again and train more intensely.
6. Be patient, never punish. The opposite to reward is no reward, not punishment. A punishment which causes pain or excitement does not work and generally causes problems. Punishment may also interfere with the human/animal bond. If the puppy is doing something that is inappropriate, distract it by giving a command for another behaviour and reward appropriately.

Your Puppy's Place

Give your new friend a special place it may call his own. Your puppy will use this place to rest and sleep, and it will feel safe and protected there. Make it a warm and cozy home, in a draft-free corner in an area, near family activity. The ideal situation would be a training crate and when your puppy is very small, a small box inside the crate will make it feel more secure. Why do this for your puppy? A cave was home to dog's wolf-like ancestors so your puppy instinctively feels cozy and safe in anything similar. Add some warm, washable bedding for it to snuggle up in. With crate training you will know that it is not getting into any mischief, even when you cannot be there to watch it. You will not have to worry while you're out on a short errand that it is getting into something. Training crates are very useful tools when house-training your puppy, because the dog's instinct is not to soil its bed. Although some people do not like the idea of crate training, most dogs learn to love their crate, which provides for them security and comfort.

Crate training is useful in a variety of circumstances:

Ø  it prevents vocalization at night because the crate can be moved to your bedroom

Ø  it prevents chewing or destructive behaviour

Ø  it is the best method for house-training (avoiding stains on the carpet and messes in the house)

Ø  a crate-trained dog will travel calmly and will not need to be sedated

Ø  crate-trained dogs are happier when boarded (you can take the crate along)

 

The only disadvantage of crate training is that it cannot be used if the puppy is isolated for long periods. Do not leave your puppy in the crate for more than 6 hours during the day without checking on it and letting it out to eliminate. However, it is fine to leave the puppy in it all night.

CRATE TRAINING

Starting with his first day home, take the puppy every hour or so to the spot you have chosen.  Since play and excitement makes him want to go, take him out before and after every play session, immediately after every nap, after every meal, first thing in the morning and last thing at night.  And don’t just let him out to find his own way – take him there and wait till he’s relieved himself.  Then compliment and praise him lavishly for a job well done! Here is an example of a crate training routine:

The important thing about accidental messes in inappropriate places is to clean them up as soon as possible.  It is especially important to remove all traces of the smell.  Remember that dogs can smell much better than we can, about 100,000, times better, in fact!! 

Important for Crate Training:

1.    The crate should be large enough for an adult dog to stand up and turn around.

2.    The crate should be kept in the kitchen or bedroom. You may want to keep it in the kitchen for the day and move it into the bedroom at night. It should not be left in isolated areas.

3.    To start with, put toys in the crate so the puppy can go into it on its own. Associate the crate with fun things.

4.    Put the puppy in for a few minutes with the door closed. If it misbehaves try to distract it. Try to leave the puppy in its crate for 10 minutes. Let the puppy out only when it is quiet. Do not let it out of the crate if it is barking, howling, or whining, as you are reinforcing this behaviour (i.e. if I cry, I get let out - the puppy is training you!).  Instead, try to distract your puppy by making a noise (shake a tin of pennies) and if the puppy is quiet for a few seconds, let it out of the cage and reward it with a treat.  Gradually extend the amount of time you leave it in his crate. Once the puppy is comfortable in the crate for about 30 minutes without making a fuss, then it can be left alone. By crate training in this manner you will teach your puppy that it will not get out of its crate by making a fuss, and you are rewarding quiet behaviour with praise and attention.

5.    Respect your puppy's privacy when it is in its special place; don't just reach in and pull it out, let the puppy come out by itself. Don't let children bother or tease your puppy while they are in the crate. Your puppy needs to feel safe when in his/her special place.

6.    As your puppy gets older, and they have completely adjusted to being in their crate, you can incorporate in to their training the verbal command to go to their crate, each time you put them in there. This will help them to know that they need to go to their crate when you say "in your crate", from wherever they are in the house, which can help if someone unexpectedly comes to the door, you have an open door in the house, there is a room in the house that you don't want the puppy to go into, etc.

You'll be glad you gave your puppy it own place when it goes there for naps or happily snuggles down for the night without whimpering or crying. And you'll know that your puppy is not getting into mischief and possibly injuring themselves.

Good Luck and have fun with your new puppy!