Potty Training a Puppy: How to Get Started
Rosana Hart
Potty training a puppy is one of the first projects to begin once you bring the pup home. The basic steps are easy to understand, though following them will take some patience. The steps are: Keep the puppy close to you whenever you can. At particular times, quickly get him to the place where you want him to potty. Do any clean-up in a calm manner. Repeat the first three steps many times. Eventually your puppy will be potty trained!
Here is more information on each of these four points:
1. Keeping your puppy with you as much of the time as possible gives you the best chance of catching him just before he starts to pee or poop. Even if you catch him in the act, it helps the potty training -- just say NO and take him to where you want him to do his stuff.
One method for keeping your puppy close is to put on a belt and then attach one end of his leash to it. If you do this, wherever you go, your little guy will go right along. The two of you will be bonding too!
However you do it, stay close to your puppy. Crate training is also very useful for the times you can't be together. That is beyond the scope of this article but I discuss it at length on my website.
2. Potty training a puppy means creating in him the habit of going to his pottying spot whenever he needs to. You are going to spend a lot of time in your early days together helping him to form this habit. How will you do this? By taking him to his place at all the times he is likely to need to go there. These times are:
*** Every time he wakes up.
*** Every time he has a meal.
As you will soon discover, he wakes up, eats, and drinks many times in the course of a day! It's also a good idea to take him out just before you go to bed.
His pottying spot may be in your yard, or you may be walking him on leash. If you live in a place where it is hard to go outside fast, or if you have physical limitations that make it hard, then paper training is best.
3. Calmly clean up anyplace that his urine has soaked or that he has left a pile. Yelling at him does not help, because he really will not understand why you are upset. If it helps you, as it sometimes has helped me, you can remind yourself that this process should last a lot less time than if you were potty training a little human!
4. Repeat these steps over and over, even when you don't feel like it. The more consistent you are, the faster the puppy will get the idea.
There's lots more to say about potty training a puppy, but these tips will get you well on your way to a successfully trained dog!
About the Author:
Potty training a puppy is just one of many lessons to teach your pup. Clicking on the link takes you to Rosana Hart's website, which is about positive, pain-free methods of training dogs of all ages.
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