Housetraining a puppy is based on their instinct to not urinate or defecate in their own den. In order to for housetraining to be successful your puppy needs to accept your entire house their den. The most common mistake people make in housetraining their puppy is trusting the puppy too soon.
1. Anytime your puppy is in your house it must be under your immediate and constant observation unless the puppy is confined in an area where elimination is okay, such a hard floor with puppy pads down.
2. After each play session, 20 minutes after they eat, and whenever they wake up from a nap take your puppy out to a specific area for elimination and tell them to do their business. ‘Head down – tail up’ is the universal puppy signal that I need to pee! Puppies will also whine when they need to go out. Be sure to praise and reward your puppy for ‘doing their business’ outside!
3. When you have your puppy inside but not in the confined area with pads, physically attach him to yourself with a leash so he/she is under your constant observation. This will not only prevent the puppy from wandering off to ‘do’ something behind the couch, it will keep your mind from wandering and forgetting to keep an eye on your puppy!
4. Don’t rub your dog’s nose in it if they make a mistake – it doesn’t smell bad to them. You will just have a scared puppy and who smells bad to YOU! If you catch them in the act, make a loud noise (NO! or enh enh!) to interrupt the process. Then calmly take them outside to the proper area and tell them what a good puppy they are when they finish! The more praise the better.
5. If you come upon an accident that has already happened, don’t bother punishing your puppy, or yelling at them. They don’t understand.
Dogs only associate your behavior toward them as it relates to the present…They won’t understand that you are angry about something which happened five minutes or ten seconds ago. They will see that you are angry at them without a clue as to why. You will have merely succeeded in portraying yourself as an unstable, and therefore, untrustworthy pack leader.
6. If you have failed in your vigilance and your puppy has an ‘accident’ in the house it is very important to clean the area correctly. This should be done with a product that chemically destroys the proteins in the urine or fecal material. These cleansers are much improved in recent years and readily available in your local pet supply stores. I have had good results with the product Simple Solution Stain and Odor Remover and Nature's Miracle Stain and Odor Remover. |
