House training your puppy is perhaps one of the most important first acts that you have to do when you bring them home. If you want to get along well and experience minimal stress on your part, then it is entirely necessary to carry out this process.
Your aim is to instill the right habits to make sure that you and your pet get along great; especially correct potty habits. And this would require your being consistent and going easy on your pet while maintaining a firm stance.
Under normal circumstances, house training a puppy fully takes about 4-6 months, but some usually require continued training for up to a year. Size is usually a determining factor. Larger breeds have larger bladders and slower metabolisms implying fewer trips outside while the opposite is true for smaller breeds.
Now that we’ve covered the basics, here is an extensive guide on how to house train a puppy.
When To Start House Training a Puppy
As against what you might assume, house training is not a process that begins immediately after the puppy is born. Most experts are of the opinion that house training should begin when your puppy is between 12 and 16 weeks of age.
When he reaches this milestone age, he would have gotten sufficient control of his bladder and bowel movements and would be better equipped to learn to hold it.
However, if you are dealing with a puppy that was already over 12 weeks when you brought them home, and he was already used to eliminating in a cage, housebreaking or house training might take a longer time period.
A special case like this would require lots of attention as well as encouragement and rewards in order to reshape the dog’s behavior.
Steps For House Training
Getting your puppy to master potty habits is a gradual process. However, there are certain vital steps that you must take during this quest.
1. Create a Routine
Puppies perform well when they are placed on a regular schedule. The schedule ingrains in them the fact that there are set times for various activities like eating, playing and of course, potty time.
Puppies are known to get better at controlling their bladder for one more hour every month. This implies that if your puppy is 3 months old, they would only be able to hold it for about three hours.
If you go longer than this between bathroom breaks, there’s bound to be an accident. That being said, here are some of the routines you should create:
- A regular feeding schedule: puppies typically need to feed about three or four times daily, depending on their age.
Feeding your pet at the same time every day increases the likelihood of your puppy eliminating at specific times too.
This way, you would easily predict the exact times that your puppy would need to go out to eliminate.
- Take your puppy outside frequently: while setting up your schedule, you would still need to let your puppy out frequently.
A minimum interval of two hours is advised including immediately after they wake up, after eating and drinking and during and after they have had their fun time.
- Select a permanent spot: you should select a spot that is protected from the elements of weather and then take your puppy to that spot (on a leash).
This spot is basically going to become their permanent “toilet” hence the need to use a leash and ensure that they get familiar with the spot.
- Reward your puppy anytime they eliminate outdoors: giving treats or rewards to your pet is a good way to let them know that they are doing well.
Rewarding them after they are completely finished communicates the fact that they have done something right to them.
However, you need to ensure that you give this treat immediately after they have finished their business and not when they get back in the house.
This is because puppies can easily get distracted and premature praise may cause them to forget to finish before they are back in the house.
2. Supervision
Although accidents do happen, one way to minimize the frequent occurrence of accidents is to keep a close eye on your puppy, especially when they are indoors. You can tether your puppy to a piece of furniture and nite changes in behavior that indicate that they want to go.
Some of the common and obvious signs include sniffing around or circling, squatting, scratching at the door or the floor and general restlessness. Once you note these signs, take them outside immediately to the spot you already picked up. If they eliminate, you can praise them and reward them with a treat like a walk around the block or yard.
However, when you are still housebreaking your puppy, they should be kept on a leash in the yard. You should treat your yard like any other room in the house. And the only time you should finally allow your puppy the freedom to roam is when they have become properly potty trained.
3. Confinement
In the event that you are unable to closely monitor your puppy at all times, confinement is the other option to explore. It basically involves restricting them to an area sufficiently small so that they are not motivated to eliminate.
Dogs are clean creatures and would not want to eliminate in the same space that they are. This is what makes this method effective.
Space should be just enough for them to stand comfortably, turn around and lie down. If you want to improvise, you can use a small section of your bathroom or some other area and set up small barricades.
The other alternative to this is to crate train your puppy.
Training Your Puppy With a Crate
Before crate training, you need to familiarize yourself with ways to use the crate humanely. A crate is a great way to house train your puppy. It enables you to keep a close eye on them for signs and then train them to hold it until you open up the crate to let them out.
When using a crate, here are some vital information to remember:
- Ensure that the crate is large enough for your puppy to stand, like down and turn around but without enough space for them to turn a corner into his potty spot.
- If the puppy would be in the crate for more than two hours at a stretch, ensure that you provide fresh water.
- If you’re too busy to let the puppy out in the middle of the day, get someone to do that for the first 8 months.
- Abandon the crate idea if your puppy is eliminating in it. Eliminating could imply that either your pet already cultivated this bad habit from where he came or maybe his bladder isn’t that well developed just yet.
House Training Difficulties
Accidents are not a strange occurrence in puppies up to a year old. These accidents typically occur as a result of reasons ranging from a change in their environment or incomplete house training.
When your puppy has an accident, here is what to do:
- If you catch them in the act, interrupt them with a stern and startling voice but be careful not to scare them. For instance, you can use a word like “Bathroom!” and then take them to their spot immediately. If they finish there, reward them.
- Punishing them for eliminating in the house is really a bad idea and would do more harm than good. If you didn’t catch them in the act, then simply clean it up.
Acts like rubbing their nose in it or scolding them at that spot, would make them afraid of you and scared to eliminate in your presence as well.
And this wouldn’t stop them from eliminating indoors, instead, they would find hard to reach areas and do their business there.
- Puppies frequent areas with their scents where they have carried out business before. So, if your puppy eliminates indoors, you would need to clean thoroughly and get rid of the smell of urine or feces.
Close supervision is essential for your puppy to be well house trained. If your puppy eliminates often in the house without being interrupted, they would get confused about where exactly to go for their bathroom business.
And this would inevitably extend the time for house training them.
The Bottom Line
Dogs are very loving animals and bond with humans very quickly. However, the way you treat them when they are still puppies goes a long way to determine just how amazing your relationship would be.
When potty training, recall that the idea is to be firm and not wicked. No cause is reason enough for you to raise your hand and hit your puppy. Also, how long to potty train typically depends on your puppy. Some puppies might get into a routine within just a few days of training.
Others might require months or as long as a year to get used to the potty habits you’re trying to instill. However, the keywords to constantly remember is patience and persistence and in no time, you would see your puppy evolve into the perfect pet.