House Training a New Puppy

When a new puppy comes into the household, it’s an exciting time for everyone. So that the dog integrates into the family as smoothly as possible, it’s essential to give some thought to house training your new pup.

Among the main challenges of dog ownership, especially for first-time owners, is the issue of house training. If you equip yourself with some fundamental knowledge and a positive attitude, it’s a lot less daunting than many people imagine.

As soon as the new puppy arrives, take her outside. The excitement of the journey along with the unfamiliar faces, sights, and sounds will probably make her want to go anyway, so try to organise her first toilet break so that it happens outside. The more your puppy relieves herself inside, the more likely she is to do it over again.

The first arrival is an excellent opportunity for you to start house training and determine a good precedent for toilet behavior.

Carry her to your assigned toilet area, and put her down on the grass and wait while she sniffs around. Don't stroke her or play with her just yet, since you don’t want her to formulate a connection between this area and play time. She needs to discover that this part of the yard is for toilet breaks exclusively.

When she starts to relieve herself, say the words that you require her to associate with toilet breaks. The phrase should be short and easy to recognize. Try to use the same voice inflection every time, so that your dog can easily remember the significance of the words.

When she’s finished, make a big fuss over her, shower her in praise, and give her a little treat. When you take her indoors, the house training program you’ve settled upon should begin right away.

Crate training is commonly recognized as being the most effective means of house training a puppy in a relatively short space of time.

Crate training

Crate-training is basically the use of a small indoor kennel or cage, to enclose your young puppy when you’re not actively supervising her.

Crate training is founded on all dogs’ congenital dislike of soiling the area where they sleep. Since you’re curtailing your puppy’s movement to her sleeping space, she’ll instinctively wait until she’s let out of the crate, provided you don’t leave her in there too long, of course.

It is crucial that the crate is of the correct size. If it’s too big, she’ll be able to use one end as a bed and one end as a toilet, which defeats the whole aim.

Choosing a crate

As a general rule of thumb, it’s more cost-effective to decide on a crate that’s big enough for her to grow into. It should be large enough for the adult dog to stand up comfortably without stooping, turn around in, and stretch out – but no bigger.

Since the adult dog will in all probability, be substantially larger than the puppy, it’ll most likely be necessary for you to use a barrier to cut down the internal size of the crate. A wire grille or board will suffice.

As an alternative, you can use a cheap crate, or even make one yourself, and change it for a larger model as your puppy grows.

Using the crate for house training

Your puppy should be in the crate at all times unless she’s sleeping, eating, outside with you going to the toilet, or being played with.

You’ll have to be consistent, or you'll be wasting your time. You can’t let your puppy roam through the house unless you’re giving her your complete attention.

If you allow her access to the house before she’s exhaustively house trained, you’re essentially encouraging her to relieve herself inside – and remember, each time she does this, it’ll be more difficult for you to train her to go outside.

Crate training normally takes one to two months, depending on the breed of your dog and how much time you spend on the training method. As the puppy grows older, you can start to cut down the amount of time spent in the crate, but don't do this too soon!

In all likelihood, your puppy won’t be too pleased about going into the crate the first couple of times she uses it. She'll rather be outside, exploring the world, but it genuinely is for her own good, and in a surprisingly short time, she’ll come to accept the crate as her own personal space where she can go to relax, feel secure, and get a couple of hours’ uninterrupted sleep. It’s important to persevere, so do not react to any whining or crying.

The best place for the crate to be is close to the busiest part of the household or anywhere where people tend to congregate. Although she’s in the crate, it doesn’t mean she can’t still feel like part of the household and it’s important for her not to feel detached or left out.

The crate ought to be a welcoming, inviting place for her to go. Provide her with a couple of thick blankets or towels on the floor, and place a few toys and a chew or two inside it as well. The door should be tantalizingly open always to allow her access, unless she’s being restrained in there, of course, in which case it should be firmly shut.

Puppies and their toilet habits

Puppies’ bladders and bowels are so small and weak that they've only a very small window of opportunity between acknowledging that they have to go, and that need becoming an immediate reality. So as you can see, it’s crucial that you take her outside as soon as she wakes up, and within ten minutes of eating or playing.

Behaviors that suggest she requires to go outside include sniffing the ground and circling. Once again, since she’s only small, she won’t demonstrate these warning signs for very long, so as soon as she starts, take her out immediately. It's better to have an unnecessary visit to the yard than an unnecessary wet patch, or worse, in the house.

The maximum amount of time that a puppy can be crated at one time is worked out using the following information: Her age in months, plus one. So, a three-month old puppy can be crated for a maximum of four hours. Even so, this is likely to be physically pretty uncomfortable for her, let alone difficult for her emotionally and psychologically: It’s not much fun being cramped up with nothing to do, so you ought to really take her out at least once every two hours during the day. If she’s sleeping, of course, just leave her until she wakes up naturally.

For a more indepth look at house training, as well as a great deal of useful information on canine behavioral problems and the most effective training techniques, check out The Ultimate House Training Guide. It’s the complete dog-house-training guide.