Puppy Training

Housebreaking a puppy is not difficult if you are committed and patient. Remembering that you are working with a baby that is in a stage of development where they can pick up bad habits will help you when you are trying to plan your potty training strategy.

Yelling and rubbing a puppy’s nose in their mess does not work when you want to housebreak your puppy. This method often scare and confuses the puppy because everywhere they sniff, they smell mess so they don’t know where the right place to go to do their business is. Following these simple steps are going to give you much more success when you are training your puppy.

While some people prefer to use newspaper training for their puppy, it is often more effective if you just start training your dog to go outside from the start. Most people have a difficult time training their puppy to go outside after it has “learned” to go on a newspaper in the home. In addition, if any newspaper is every left on the floor by accident it will likely become a potty.

Take your dog outside first thing in the morning, right after they eat or drink, and last thing at night. By developing this habit, they will learn much more easily to wait until morning to go potty. Additionally, don’t feed your dog two hours before bedtime. If you feed your dog snacks right before bedtime, you will probably have a mess to clean up in the morning.

When your puppy begins to turn in circles or sniff around, it wants to go outside. Put the puppy out side while saying. “It’s time to go potty”. Whenever you put your puppy out to go potty you should have a phrase that you use to reinforce the action. This will help when the dog is older and you are visiting a strange house. When you say “It’s time to go potty”, your dog will be ready to go potty.

When there is a mess, and there will be, clean it up immediately and use a deodorizer to remove any odor from the floor or carpet. If you praise the dog when you take it out, whether or not it goes potty, and ignore it when it makes an indoor mess, it will quickly connect the praise with doing it’s business outside.

A great tip involves cues. Dogs respond to sound cues extraordinarily well. When you feed your dog canned food, they will often come when they hear the can opener. By using a bell or timer each time you put your puppy out, they will get used to going outside to go potty when they hear a bell or timer. To get them in the habit, use a timer set for one hour and put them outside each time the bell goes off.

A great way to put a twist on this tip is to use a little silver bell instead of a timer. When you dog gets use to going outside when it hears the bell, hang the bell near the door. When the dog needs to go outside, it will ring the bell to alert you. This is a great timesaving way to housebreak your dog and make sure that it gets out whenever it needs to. When you are looking for puppy potty training tips you will find that there are many ways to incorporate puppy housebreaking with other tricks that you can teach your dog. Making housebreaking a fun experience will be a great experience for both you and your dog.

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A common problem that occurs between dogs and owners comes from how the pet reacts to being left alone. In this type of situation, we have to keep in mind that our puppy is a pack animal. He was not built to be on his own. The whole point of living in pack is to be able to live as a group and work together, play together, hunt together, and raise puppies together. Every puppy was made from this same mold. Being alone does not come naturally to him.

With proper care and training, we can help him adjust and accept staying alone. You need to be sympathetic and determined when training your dog to accept your necessary absences. You must show him over and over again that you will come back and give him love, take care of him, and fulfill his needs.

You will need to set up a crate or den area for your puppy and establish a permanent location for his water bowl and food dish. He will also need a blanket or towel to sleep on and papers or potty pads to relieve himself. Give him safe toys to chew. Chewing will help him relieve his anxiety. Keep this in mind if he chews on your shoe one day in an attempt to make himself feel better. It is anxiety, not spite that makes him do bad things when you are out. However, you must still correct him. But you also have to understand that while your pet can adjust to being left alone, it is not a natural state for him and he is never going to like it.

Your comings and goings during the first few days of acquiring your puppy will help to communicate to him that you will come and go. Some puppies adjust easily while some will find this area very difficult. Naturally, if you have a breed that was originally developed to herd and protect a flock, he will tend to get upset when his flock disappears. Understanding the qualities bred into your dog for generations will help you predict his behavior and how he will react to certain situations such as training, how he responds to children, and being left alone.

Giving your puppy something to do to keep him busy will help when he is left alone.  He should have safe things to chew. Another pet, such as another dog or a cat, will also help ward off lonely feeling. In addition, you can help him feel better by giving him a good exercise right before you leave. This will tire him and relax him. Furthermore, you can train him before you leave for the day. This reminds him that you are the leader of the pack and also reminds him of his security as well as his limitatitions. He will therefore feel less anxious knowing that he has a loving, firm, and fair master. You can even leave the radio on while you are gone. Music and voices are a great comfort to a puppy who has to spend the day alone.

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