Housetraining, toilet or potty training, as it’s also known, is one of the first and most important things to teach your puppy. It is also one of the most common areas of training that people struggle with. This article will provide some insider tips to potty train your puppy.
1. Choose A Designated Toileting Area For Your Puppy
When you first bring your puppy home, take it outside to the chosen area and allow it to investigate the area. When it pees or poos, give it lots of praise and a small tasty treat to reinforce that toileting there is a good thing. Avoid confusing your puppy by always taking it to that spot.
Puppies don’t come pre-programmed to know where they are allowed to go to the toilet. Puppies will toilet where they are when they need to go. They aren’t being naughty or stubborn when they pee on your rug or shoes.
Remember, their bodies are not fully developed yet, and they have little to no control over the muscles for bladder and bowel movements.
2. Use Lots Of Praise And Rewards
Puppies will repeat a behaviour or action if it is positive and rewarding. Giving lots of praise and a small tasty reward when it toilets outside will encourage your puppy to repeat toileting outside. The more rewarding it is for your puppy, the more it will repeat it, and the more it repeats it, the quicker it becomes a habit.
This is the foremost hack to get your puppy to repeat a wanted behaviour: any behaviour. Lots of praise and a little tasty reward will ensure your puppy will want to repeat the behaviour.
3. Don’t Make A Big Deal About Little Accidents
The worst thing you can do is shout, get upset, or hit your puppy for an accident. There are a few good reasons not to get upset about toileting accidents.
- The puppy can’t help accidents; it has very little control over its bladder or bowel.
- Some puppies may take negative attention as attention. This means you inadvertently reinforce toileting inside as the puppy receives your attention when it toilets inside.
- Shouting, being rough, or hitting the puppy will increase its anxiety levels, causing it to fear you. This can cause more accidents indoors, as an anxious dog may urinate to appease you and show you it’s not a threat.
- A puppy fearful of toileting around you will struggle to toilet outside when you are near them and may hide inside your home to toilet. Making messes tricky to find and causing your home to smell bad.
The insider hack here is to ignore your puppy and quietly clean up the mess. Ensure you thoroughly clean the area with an enzyme cleaner to remove the smell. Dogs often toilet repeatedly in the same spot if they smell previous toileting.
4. Get A Good Routine
A consistent routine that suits your lifestyle and puppy’s needs will help housetrain your puppy quickly. Puppies need to go outside after:
- Sleeping (including naps)
- Eating and drinking
- Playing (sometimes during play)
- Getting excited
Sticking to a routine ensures your puppy will become less anxious because it knows what’s coming and when. You will know when to take your puppy outside, reducing accidents and increasing successful toileting outside.
5. Patience And Consistency
Staying patient and consistent with your routine and praising and rewarding your puppy will help your puppy learn quickly. However, be realistic with your expectations; puppies will have accidents; they can’t help it, so be prepared to clean up the odd mess with no fuss.
6. Have A Backup Person
If there are times when you can’t take your puppy out, arrange for someone to do it for you at the usual time. This will ensure that your puppy will continue to learn quickly and not get into the habit of dirtying inside the house.
If your puppy still has accidents a few months into your routine, a vet check-up will rule out any underlying medical conditions that may be causing toileting accidents.
Good luck, you’ve got this!
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