House Training Your New Puppy
Has a new puppy just joined your family?
If your family is like most new puppy owners, one of your first and biggest concerns will be how to house train your puppy. After all, the last thing your house-proud family wants is to have their home become your dog's bathroom.
The reassuring news is that most dogs are naturally house-proud too. They like to keep their den clean and do their business elsewhere, if they are free to do so. That's why you should allow your dog to run free several times each day if you confine it to a kennel. If your puppy has spent its first two or three months with its mother it will almost certainly have these learned these basic hygiene habits.
House training your puppy may be much easier than you may fear if you can give it easy and regular access to the outdoors. A few regular times spent outside through the day, such as going for a walk, or giving access at will through a flap door, will greatly reduce the risk of an accident. Giving access to the outdoors every three or four hours will soon have your puppy house trained, especially if you reward success with affectionate praise. However, often this degree of freedom is not practical, especially in towns or if you are busy.
Where house training gets most difficult is when your puppy is confined indoors for much of the time, such as in an apartment, and may have to be left for extended periods. It may naturally know to keep its sleeping area clean, but you will have to teach it the difference between the rest of your house and the "great outdoors" when it comes time to relieving itself.
Your aim in this case is to teach your puppy to use a dirt tray filled with absorbent materials that you provide.
The best plan is to initially restrict your puppy for most of the time to a small area of your home, and to place the sleeping area and dirt tray close by, but separate. When the puppy first wakes and soon after it is fed, and every couple of hours in between, you should take your puppy to the dirt tray and encourage the pup to make use of it. Reinforce success with affection and praise so it gets a clear idea of what you want.
This can be a trying time for you, as the process needs both time and patience. Accidents are inevitable, but anger and frustration on your part is sure to be counter-productive. Your puppy is very young and not as clever as you. Instead, you should take the smarter approach and set out to learn to watch for the signs that your puppy wants to "go", and be there to guide your puppy to do the right thing when it's time. That way you will get the idea across to the puppy much more quickly. It also helps to have the dirt tray "marked" as the place to "go" with the smell of your puppy's urine.
Some trainers use several sheets of newspaper laid on the floor and marked this way as the first step to creating a dirt tray. Gradually the area of the newspaper available is reduced as the idea is understood by the puppy then the paper is replaced by the dirt tray.
It may take a few weeks, but your patience during this learning phase will soon be rewarded by the lifetime house-proud habits your puppy will learn.