Puppy Housetraining Basics – The Importance of Patience and Vigilance
No matter how many puppy housetraining books you have read or videos you have watched, you won’t be able to succeed unless you are able to exercise patience and vigilance. These are two very important elements that will enable you to housetrain your dog in no time at all. For instance, during the few seconds before your dog does his business, he will do a pre-potty ritual of sniffing the ground, walking around in a circle once or twice and assuming the pottying position.
Once the pre-potty ritual has been completed, you should let the dog know that he can now start his business by giving a potty command. This could be something like “go potty” or “do your business”. Any command will do as long as you use the same phrase every time.
For your puppy housetraining to work, you should never utter the potty command when it is not time for your dog to potty. Also, in order to avoid confusion, you should choose a potty command that is not likely to be used by other members of the household for other purposes. This is why generic phrases like “hurry up” or “let’s go” should not be used.
As the days go by, your puppy will gradually figure out the link between the phrase and the action. So when he hears the command from you, he will know that he is expect to pee or poop even if he has not yet gone through his typical entire pre-potty routine.
Each time your dog potties on cue, make sure that you give him adequate but not excessive praise, as well as a small treat, before bringing him back into the house.
Being Vigilant is Key
From the moment you begin puppy housetraining, it is crucial that you keep an eye on your dog as much as possible, particularly when he is out of the crate. This is to ensure that no “accidents” go unnoticed and uncorrected.
If you see your doggy going potty the right way and at the right spot, give it some praise words and a treat. On the other hand, if it leaves you a present inside the house, immediately place him in his crate without a word and just clean up his mess.
Patience Leads to Success
Many dog owners easily become frustrated when their pet does not take to puppy housetraining right away. They end up yelling at their dogs or just giving up on the training. Keep in mind that this is a process that can take some time. By being patient and giving your dog time to adjust, you will be able to enjoy the rewards of a successful training within a few weeks.
Puppy Housetraining Basics – Establishing a Routine
The first steps of puppy housetraining are the hardest to accomplish but once you establish a regular routine, everything will be much easier. So after preparing your home environment and picking out a potty place, you can then move on to the actual training sessions.
Use Your Dog’s Sense of Smell
Most people know that dogs have a stronger sense of smell than humans but not many realize just how much more powerful it really is. Humans have about 5 million cells in the body that can recognize different scents. Dogs have 220 million. With this vast difference, you can just imagine just how powerful a dog’s sense of smell is.
Another factor that contributes to the strong smelling powers of dogs is their nasal membrane and their brain’s olfactory center, which are both much bigger than the ones found in humans. What’s more interesting is that this extremely impressive sense of smell can actually be used in the process of puppy housetraining.
When your dog pees in an inappropriate place, take a piece of cloth and use it to wipe your dog’s behind. The scent of the pee with stick to the cloth, which you can then use in the future to teach your dog where the right place to pee is.
The next time your dog needs to relieve himself, get the piece of cloth and bring it out to the right potty area. Lead your dog to the place and show him the cloth. What he will probably do is to sniff the cloth, recognize the scent of his pee and do his business right there. If you repeat this process during each pee break, the dog will eventually learn to go to the potty place on his own, even without the cloth.
Create a Potty Schedule
For your puppy housetraining to end successfully, it is crucial that you establish a regular potty schedule with your dog as early as possible. During the early stages, a puppy would need to relieve himself as much as 14 times a day but as he gets older, this will become less frequent.
Imposing a puppy housetraining schedule on a dog may take some time and patience on your part. However, you can hasten the process by feeding your dog at the same times everyday. After a few days of following exactly the same schedule, your dog’s excretory system will eventually catch on and he will be able to control his urges much more efficiently.
