Tips To Potty Training Puppies

Getting a new puppy is very exciting. It doesn’t take long, however, to realize that a new puppy takes more patience than you may have thought.  Potty training a puppy, including teaching him to go outside requires a lot of effort on your part. The biggest question new owners ask all the time is how to potty train a puppy.

If you are trying to potty train your puppy too soon, you’ll probably realize it.  You will not have much luck until the puppy is around 2 months old.  An important consideration in training your puppy is that you need to establish a routine that will help teach the puppy when it is time to go outside and potty.

Instead of running your puppy outside every few minutes, start with thirty minute intervals.  The times between going outside can be longer or shorter depending on your dog.  Then, take your puppy out around mealtime, so that your own meal will not be interrupted to jump up and run outside with your puppy.

Get a routine going and maintain it and you will have your puppy potty trained in no time.  Trust me; it seems to take forever if you don’t work with your dog on a schedule.  You and your puppy will be more happy with a schedule which you intend to stick with.

If you think working on a routine takes potty training your dog too far, reconsider.  Establishing a routine is a proven way to train your dog and it is pretty simple to establish a regular routine.  Your dog will learn more easily when following a routine.

Sometimes you have to try to determine why your puppy doesn’t want to go outside.  This is difficult, but not the worst problem you will face.  There are other issues like puppy whining and barking.  Take one thing at a time.  Don’t give your puppy sensory overload.  Get him accustomed to pottying outside first.  This will be your most pressing task. Keep up and be persistent. In doing so, you will learn how to house break a puppy.

Puppy Potty Training Tips

Puppyhood is the “formative” period for your dog. What you teach him during this time will most likely stick with him the rest of his life. One of the most important things you will be teaching him is where to potty.

Developing a routine early on in your puppy’s life is a sure way to ease the strain that the potty training process can entail. You can start by getting your pup used to a sleep/eat/potty routine. Begin by feeding your puppy around the same time every day, making time for frequent trips outside to relieve himself. He will soon adjust his body to the routine.

A good way to save your sanity is to admit right off the bat that your puppy will have accidents. You can help lessen accidents by keeping some newspaper in a dedicated spot so that your pup can at least familiarize himself with going in one area if he can’t make it outside. This works particularly well if you don’t have a “doggy door” and your dog has to depend upon you to take him outside.

The earlier you get to know your puppy’s “eat/potty” routine, the easier potty-training will become. A good rule to go by is to estimate that your pup will be ready for a trip outside around 15 – 20 minutes after he has been fed/watered. This rule works very well if you can manage to have your puppy outside the proper potty surroundings at the time you expect he needs relief.

Be sure that you separate “potty time” from “play time.” As it is natural for puppies to want to explore, you should only encourage them at the appropriate times. Nothing is more frustrating than to be up at 2 am with your puppy running around the yard for twenty minutes, only to potty as soon as you get back inside.

This period in your puppy’s life is a great one to start administering praise and discipline techniques. Many people prefer the terms “good boy/girl” and “no,” which can be still be said when your dog is an adult. Although puppies need a lot of repetition, routine, and firmness, remember that your pup will soon grow up, so enjoy his young, eager activity while you can!

Get more great tips like this at HelpYourPets.com - Puppy Steps and while you are training your puppy learn how to protect him from injury also. 

Dog Training Basics

Dog Training

Dog Training

Though dog-human interaction goes back thousands of years, communication between the two is still sometimes rough. The human half of the pair is usually the smarter party, but watching the usual training sessions one can have legitimate reason to wonder.

Dogs understand and respond at roughly the mental level of a human two-year-old, but there the similarity ends. Their senses operate differently – their color vision has a different response pattern to reds and greens, for example, and obviously their noses are infinitely more sensitive – and their minds process information differently as well. Anyone training dogs has to take this into account in order to avoid human frustration and canine misbehavior.

Dogs are by nature pack animals. Descendant from wolves – where even the ‘lone wolf’ is an anomaly – they’re social and function best with active interplay and within a strict hierarchy.

So, set aside half-an-hour per day, an hour would be better, for at least the first few months of training. Start training your dog as soon as possible. Some puppies can be started as early as four weeks old.

Elimination (‘potty’) training details we leave for elsewhere, but all training follows similar guidelines.

Establish your dominance with your dog as soon as possible. Dogs have a hierarchy – there are alpha dogs, beta dogs, and on down to the omega. For a sane household, and a well-adjusted dog, the human (whether male or female) must always be the alpha male of the pack.

This will be easier or more difficult depending on breed and even with individual dogs. Like humans, some are simply more assertive than others. The most important training aid is your attitude, followed by collars, leashes and other training aids. You are the “alpha dog” in your house, not your dog.

You do not have to enforce your dominance with physical force. Sometimes, used appropriately, that will be necessary. Usually, simply being firm and willing to wait for compliance will be enough.

For many, placing them on their backs when young and placing a firm hand in the middle of the chest until they lower their paws – a sign of submission – will be enough. With some, reinforcing this by putting your face close to theirs, emulating dominant dog behavior, can help.

Start on a short leash to restrain the dog’s natural tendency to run and scamper. Allow plenty of time for free running behavior, essential to dog health, but that’s before or after training, not during. At least, not at first.

Start simply by choosing short, clear commands that sound distinctly different: sit, stay, down, come. Use a firm, but not harsh voice. You’re in charge, but not angry. Avoid double-word commands like ‘sit down’ or ‘stay down’. This sounds too much alike and may confuse your dog.

Be consitent with each verbal command by using the same tone, look and hand gesture. Eventually these can separate, but at first it’s essential to provide the simplest, most consistent form of communication.

Just like two-year old humans, dogs have limited capacity for grasping the subtleties of language. Assist their understanding by rigid consistency. Don’t use a single command word to mean more than one thing. ‘Down’ can mean ‘don’t jump on me or anyone else’, or it can mean ‘get on your stomach’, but it has to mean one thing only.

Be clear, be patient and be committed and the result will be a dog who trusts and listens to you. And that makes it worth the effort. Find more on dog training at Luvurdog.com/dogtraining