How To Potty Train Your Dog Or Puppy

You must train your dog or young puppy to go outside frequently. Accidents sometimes occur during the process, but if you follow these basic house training guidelines, you might be able to get your family’s newest member off to a good start.

Establish a schedule to assist you in potty training your puppy.

For puppies, a regular schedule works best. The program teaches them that there are specific times for eating, playing, and using the bathroom. A puppy’s bladder control normally lasts an hour every month of age. So if your puppy is two months old, it can hold it for around two hours. Children may have an accident if they wait a long time between bathroom breaks.

As soon as they wake up, throughout and after playing, and after eating any food or liquids, take your puppy outside frequently—at least every two hours.

Pick a spot outside where you can use the restroom, and relieve your dog there every time (on a leash). Utilize a particular word or phrase that you can eventually use to remind your puppy what to do while they are going to the bathroom. You should take them on longer walks or other enjoyable activities just after they have used the restroom.

Give your pup a treat each time they relieve themselves outside. Give them something as soon as they finish, such as praise or treats, not when they go inside. Since there is no other way to teach your dog what is expected besides rewarding them for going outside, this step is crucial. Make sure they are finished before citing them. If you praise puppies too soon because they are easily distracted, they can forget to quit until they return home.

It will help if you put your puppy on a regular mealtime schedule. What goes into a puppy on a program also comes from a puppy on a plan. Depending on their age, puppies may need to be fed twice or three times daily. Provide your puppy at the same time each day. He will be likelier to go potty at regular intervals, making housebreaking easier for both of you.

Remove your puppy’s water bowl about two and a half hours before bedtime to reduce the likelihood that they will need to use the restroom often over the night. Most puppies can sleep for around seven hours without getting up to use the bathroom. If your puppy does wake you up in the middle of the night, don’t make a big deal out of it because if you do, they’ll think it’s time to play and won’t want to go back to sleep. Take your puppy outdoors to use the restroom, then put them back to bed without talking or playing with them. Also, try to turn off as many lights as you can.

Watch your puppy.

To prevent accidents in the house, keep a watch on your puppy whenever they are inside.

Use a six-foot leash to tether your puppy to you or some nearby furniture if you are not actively training or playing. Watch your puppy for signs that it needs to go outside. Certain telltale signs include sniffing or circling, crouching, restlessness, or barking or pawing at the door. Grab the leash and take the animal to its chosen bathroom spot as soon as you see these signs. If they eliminate while eliminating, praise them and treat them.

Keep your puppy on a leash while in the yard. While housetraining, your yard should be treated the same way as any other room in your house. It would help if you didn’t give your puppy freedom in the home or yard until they have learned effective house training.

Confine yourself if you can’t watch.

If you can’t keep an eye on your puppy at all times, confine them to a small area so they won’t want to eliminate themselves there.

• There should be enough room to comfortably stand, sit, and turn around. Baby gates that divide a bathroom or laundry room from the rest of the area are not an obstruction.
• Or perhaps you should train your puppy in a box. Suppose your puppy has been confined for several hours. In that case, you must take them right away to their bathroom location when you get home (be careful to understand how to use a crate as a means of confinement humanely).

Errors do happen.

Your puppy should expect a few accidents while learning how to use the bathroom within the house. In that case, you should perform the following:

• Without making a scene, take them right away to their designated outdoor bathroom site. Give your dog some praise and a treat if they finish there.
• Avoid disciplining your puppy for going potty inside the house. Clean up any unkempt spots you encounter. Any punishment, including rubbing your puppy’s nose in it, taking them to the offending area, and reprimanding them, will only instill fear in them and make them unwilling to use the restroom in your sight. Punishment will result in an overall negative outcome.
• Completely clean the infected area. Puppies have a tremendous incentive to continue urinating or excreting in inappropriate locations.

You must adhere to specific confinement and supervision procedures to decrease the number of accidents. Let your puppy relieve themselves frequently indoors. Housebreaking will be more challenging since your puppy will grow confused about where they should go.

Make up your absence in advance.

If you must be away from home for more than four or five hours each day, now might not be the best time to have a puppy. A more suitable reward might be an older, housebroken dog that can wait until you return. If you already have a puppy and must travel away for a long time, you might need to do the following:

• Plan for a trustworthy neighbor or a skilled pet sitter to take them for bathroom breaks.
• Teach them to eliminate themselves in a designated indoor space instead. However, remember that doing so can make the housetraining process harder. Suppose you teach your puppy to eliminate themselves on a newspaper. In that case, they may stop their preference for that surface in adulthood. They can do it on any newspaper lying around the living room.
• If you want to paper train your dog, ensure that the room has enough space for sleeping, playing, and a private bathroom. Use a sod box, newspaper (cover the area with many layers of newspaper), or pet pee pads in the designated elimination area. To create a sod box, place sod inside a container like a kid-sized plastic swimming pool. Pet supply stores also include products for dog litter.
• If you have to clean up an accident outside the designated elimination area, do so after placing dirty paper towels or rags inside the site to help your puppy eliminate the scented area where they should go potty.