House Training A Puppy

House training a puppy is a simple thing to achieve when consistent with how you are going to train it. The one thing to remember is archaic methods such as hitting the puppy with newspaper or rubbing their nose in it, do not work. They do nothing more than teach the dog to hide when it is caught out needing to toilet in the house.  Another thing to remember is that a puppy is physically and mentally a baby, you wouldn’t tell  a baby off for wetting its nappy. Neither a baby or a puppy have the ability to be able to hold their bladders. This is where we come in to help the puppy learn:

1. Always toilet a dog immediately after playing, eating, after waking and every hour. This may seem like you will always be toileting your dog but the work put in early means fast toilet training.
2. Always put the dog on lead when you are taking it outside to toilet. This shows the dog that it is not time to play and that you mean business.
3. Once the dog is on lead and outside and it actually goes to the toilet give the dog a treat immediately after to show the dog that it has done a good thing.
4. Whilst the dog is going to the toilet this is the perfect time to be able to put a command to the toilet process. In the middle of the puppy urinating say a word (eg: toilet) and treat when finished. If you do this consistently you will find the puppy will start to toilet when you say the word.
5. If the puppy is crying over night and wanting to go out, put it on lead and take outside, the dog has 5 minutes to relieve itself, if this does not happen bring the puppy back inside if after 15 minutes it is still crying. Take outside again.
6. If your puppy has an accident in the house NEVER get angry at the pup or tell it off, it was actually your fault for not taking the pup outside often enough to toilet.
7. Keeping a chart of when your pup goes to the toilet is also a very useful tool to help see the pattern of toilet times.

If you are consistent your puppy will be trained in no time. Remember all dogs mature at different speeds, some dogs may be trained at 8 weeks some at 12. All will depend on maturity and also your consistency.