Toilet Training Your Puppy
When you pick up your pup from Lifetime Pets the basics of toilet training would have begun. They would have been housed in one of our cubby houses and would have learnt to leave their living area of the cubby house to toilet.
They are predominately clean animals and don’t like to toilet where they have been living. That being said, when the pup comes to your house, they will not know which area is inside and outside and may consider the end of the hallway or behind the couch as outside of their area.
Find a designated area where you want you pup to go. Take the dog out regularly, can be as often as every hour, and give lots of praise when they do go. Try to catch this for every time. You will start to learn their routine and when they are most likely to go. The common times are first thing after waking, after having a meal, when they have finished playing. You will become familiar with your pups individual routine thus being able to catch them beforehand. Take them out last thing at night and first thing in the morning.
When they do go in the correct spot, mark the activity with a word, ‘toilet time’, ‘go potty’, ‘wee wee’, whatever you are comfortable with. By doing this regularly the word will become an instruction.
If your pup is secure in a crate overnight you may have to get up to them a few times initially, but they are more likely to hold on and not go in the crate. This makes catching the timing that they do want to go, much easier.
If they are in an open crate, in an enclosed pen, you can put puppy pads in the area outside the crate. It won’t be long until your pup can hold on for the whole night, especially if you take him before going to bed.
You will most likely have some accidents and it is very important that you do not reprimand your pup for soiling inside. If you do, they will think they are in trouble for the act not just because they have gone inside, and this will confuse them and complicate the whole issue. They will then try to hide from you when they want to go thus going behind the couch or somewhere out of your sight.
The effort that you put into this will pay off and if you are diligent for the first few weeks then the desired result of a fully housetrained dog will come about faster. If you decide that you cant be bothered and don’t take them outside when you suspect they are going to go thus allowing them to go inside, that’s fine, it happens, but then the whole process will take a lot longer.
If you are diligent and put in the effort now, life with your beloved pet will be more enjoyable when they are totally housetrained.
