Puppy Training: How Do I Train My Puppy?

About 90% of American pet puppies live indoors with their owners. You need to do some housebreaking with them if you are considering having them live in the home. Potty training a puppy is one of the situations many owners find themselves overwhelmed by. It is not that difficult, it doesn’t have to be messy and housebreaking can be accomplished without a struggle. Be aware, however, that you are dealing with a training issue, and you will need to dedicate more than just a cursory effort. It requires time, involvement, and some tools of the trade such as puppy training pads.

The Puppy is Boss

For dogs and puppy owners, there are two major rules that you should stick to with puppy training. First and most importantly, don’t punish your pup for something you did not catch him do! Secondly, always tell puppy how good he is for the things he did correctly. Don’t fall into the trap of only responding with ‘no’ when you see your pet doing something you don’t want them to do. Let them know through praises and rewards when they do something right.

Housebreaking/House Training your Puppy

Many methods exist for housebreaking your puppy. When starting indoors, encourage your pup to use puppy training pads or papers to go to the bathroom on. Puppy pads generally are treated with scented chemicals that lure pups and get them to use the pads. When you notice them doing their pre-potty routine of sniffing and walking around, take them gently, without saying a word, to the puppy training pads or newspaper and praise them for going to the bathroom correctly.

When the new dog is comfortable with the papers or puppy training pads, they can then be put near the door or even outside. The change is made from concentrating on bathroom habits at a location inside the house to a location outside the house. In the very near future you will have no need for papers or training pads indoors.

The only major problem or setback with this puppy potty training method is that it takes a longer period of time to encourage the puppy to do his bathroom rituals indoors. Other popular methods of house training puppies involve puppy crate training or the use of cages plus constant pet owner supervision.

When using a cage or crate to housebreak your puppy, realize that puppies can’t go for more than about seven to eight hours without using the bathroom. Usually this technique is very effective because most puppies consider their cage or crate as their sleeping area and they don’t want to have to lie in their own mess. It is not a good idea to crate a puppy for long periods of time.

Constant supervision on the other hand, does not involve the use of training paper or puppy pads, and crates or cages. Here pet owners choose to spend all the time necessary with their pet puppies. For people who are retired, work from home, or pet owners that have the spare time to be with their puppy, this is the ideal situation. With this method, pet owners usually hustle their puppy outside as soon as they notice the pre-potty signs. A constant watch must be kept on puppies to make sure that there are no accidents or slip-ups.

To summarize, housebreaking and training your puppy should be included along with teaching them the basic commands like ‘come’ and ’stay’. However, housebreaking and potty training a puppy are always the messiest lessons, and will usually give you more problems than any other form of dog training. Have faith!

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