DDL Articles

Housetraining is usually the first thing that a new puppy owner thinks about. Few puppies have received any teaching on housetraining before they go to their new homes. There are two easy methods that you can use to housetrain your puppy and you can use either one of them or you can employ both of them at the same time.

The primary way you can get started training your puppy is by using vigilance and noticing his behavior. Puppies will hunker down to urinate or defecate. As soon as you see you puppy starting to change his position and starting to hunker down you will need to scoop him up and take him out to his selected spot. If you happen to overlook the signs and he has an accident you should not scold him as he still does not know exactly what is expected of him and scolding will just terrify him.

Also, if you do fail to spot the sign and you come across it later, it will only scare your puppy if you scold him then. Dogs are not like humans and they can only connect to what is happening now. If you reprimand him later on for a potty accident he will not understand that is why he is in trouble. He can only appreciate if you scold him for something right away.

The second system of housetraining you can use is the newspaper approach. You must cover the entire floor of where your puppy runs around. He will rapidly learn that the newspaper is all right to do his business on. Slowly but surely take away more and more paper until there is only a small portion left. You may then take the paper out to the chosen spot and he will then realize that he must only go in that outside spot.

Either or both of these methods can be very effective. You can use both methods at the same time by using watchfulness during the day and the paper at night or if you are distracted by other things at particular times of the day you can use the newspaper then while using observation at other times.

Infrequently a puppy will go through a phase where he seems to “unlearn” all that you thought he already knew. This is a normal event even though it can be very frustrating. Do not reprimand him for it.

Just use characteristic dog activities to get him back on track. A dog will rarely soil his own room. So use a crate and make it comfortable so he thinks of it as his own. Let him snooze in the crate and straight away as you let him out, take him to his designated spot. He will need to relieve himself right away and he will learn to only do it in that spot.

Housetraining does not need to be scary or nerve-racking. Either or both of these two methods along with some fortitude can have your new puppy housetrained before you know it.