House Training Best Practices
While there is no getting around the fact that work is certainly involved in house training a new puppy, in just a few short weeks your puppy can be fully house trained! Your puppy will come to you already familiar with going outside to potty so the hope is that only the final steps will be left to you.
There are many different methods and techniques for puppy house training, but following we will give a few simple steps that we have found to work as quickly as possible. A few common-sense principles will go a long way to make it a relatively painless process! Think of your puppy as a very small child learning to control themselves and master a behavior that is new. It is important to note: The puppy WILL have accidents in the beginning. These will be minimal if you follow the following steps.
For a small puppy, consistency is key! In the beginning, YOU will be trained to consistently take out the puppy and repeat the exact same process every time so that it very soon becomes the norm.
Your puppy does not need to have free run of the house. That practice is inviting MANY accidents for puppy and frustration on your part. If you are able to be at home with your puppy during the first few weeks or months it will be much easier and quicker to train them. We will assume someone will be able to implement these steps daily.
In the beginning, puppies cannot hold their bladder all night. If your puppy is brought home at 9 weeks, they will probably need to go to potty once or even twice during the night.
- Have a secure place for puppy to be contained when you are not able to monitor him/her. Either a crate or a freestanding pet fence with a gate will work.
- Have a schedule. Decide when puppy will get up and go to bed and during training try to stick with it.
When you get puppy up take him/her straight outside. When you go out, put a leash on him/her and go directly to the spot where you want him to potty. Do not play with him/her. Choose a word that you will consistently use to encourage him/her to potty quickly. When he/she does potty, praise him and return to the house. Allow puppy to play for 20-30 minutes and then return him/her to crate. Puppies need a lot of rest and sleep in the beginning! It is wise to restrict to area he/she has access to roam around in to one room or area.
Take puppy out once an hour for a potty time. Always use the same method and words.
Allow puppy out to play for specified time with strict observation. ALWAYS return puppy to crate when not being watched.
After feeding puppy, allow to play for 20-30 minute under observation and then take outside for potty break.
Continue with this method until you are seeing longer times between going potty. At this time, you might allow more access to other rooms in the house. If accidents start to occur, go back to previous plan for awhile longer.
