Puppy potty training can be hugely difficult and some people never truly toilet train their puppy. I for one had an older adult dog that still did its potty business in the house several times a week. It was not until I learnt the real secrets of puppy toilet training was I able to stop my older dog from EVER doing his business in the home.
But the good news is if you use the proper potty training techniques the process can go smoothly and be very rewarding.
How Do You Potty Train a Puppy?
Well before we get into the different ways you can do your puppy potty training it’s vital you understand some of the secret rules of toilet training your puppy. It’s really important you understand these otherwise you could end up with an adult dog that relieves itself regularly in the home and I know from experience once you get to that position it is very difficult to retrain your dog.
Remember puppies are very similar to children, poor parenting or in a dog’s case training, leads to poor long term behaviour. You are your puppies parent!
There are three main ways of puppy potty training;
- Puppy Paper Training
- Puppy Crate Training
- Hands On Puppy House Training
I will give you more details of each approach later as I have tried all three. Thanks to a an excellent house breaking book I read (click here if you want to find out more about the book) I have used two of the techniques very successfully.
But no matter which potty training technique you go for the rules remain the same.
So my top puppy potty training tips are:
- You can potty train any puppy – remember this when you are getting frustrated, if it’s not working it’s either your training methods or you need to give the puppy more time.
- Be patient – all new puppies will have accidents, like new born babies they will take time to understand what is the proper behaviour.
- Don’t punish your puppy unless you catch them doing something wrong – If you find the puppy has urinated or defecated and you did not catch them doing it, don’t shout at them. Simply clean it up and take them outside.
Punishing the puppy after they have done the act will just confuse the puppy, they have very poor memories at that age and will not know what you are punishing them for.
Praise good potty behaviour – This is vital and can not be under estimated. If they go outside or on the paper if you are paper training praise them immediately. This positive reinforcement really helps the dog understand what you want from them.
A final tip is to keep feeding times regular and make sure you are with them for about 45 minutes after feeding. Puppies normally go within 30 minutes of eating so you need to be there to keep a watchful eye on them.
I also find using dry food helps keep their stools more solid and easier to clean up. May not seem important now, but it will! Solid food also helps keep their teeth clean.
If you always keep these rules in mind you have the basis of how to potty train a puppy or dog.
If you want some advanced strategies that really worked for me check out the site that solved my puppy training problems by CLICKING HERE.
