House Training
The most important thing when bringing a puppy home is the amount of time you spend with him, this way you can lay down the rules right from the start and you and your puppy won’t have any misunderstandings. By doing this you can establish a rapport and a routine with your puppy that will last a lifetime. Here are some tips:
*If you don’t catch him doing it, you shouldn’t punish him for it… dog’s have a very short term memory for most things, especially when they get into trouble. If you yell at him or hit him for something they did earlier they will just think you’re angry for nothing, to get a true result you must tell him “No” the moment he is doing the undesired task.
*Praise your puppy when he does something right… for example when he goes to the bathroom in a desired area make sure you let him know that he did a good job and encourage him to keep on repeating this behavior.
Don’t get caught in a situation where all your dog hears is “NO! NO! NO!” .
Successful potty training begins and ends with a good feeding and watering routine. At first your puppy will eat several times a day, so make sure you establish a set schedule for you dog to eat at certain times during the day breaking them up the best you can. It is most likely that your puppy will go to the bathroom 15 to 30 minutes after he eats so it is important that you take the puppy to the designated area at this time. Note: always try to take him out through the same door to establish a solid routine, you can also use a key phrase that is nice and short that he can recognize easily like “let’s go potty” or something like that, he will know what time it is! After repeating this process for a couple of weeks your dog will soon learn that where to go is outside.
When inside the home at first you want to supervise and confine your dog, only let him be where you are and use a leash if you have to. When you let them wonder off is when they can easily get themselves into to trouble and cause you a bit of a headache. If you notice restlessness or whining this is usually an indicator that he needs to go outside.
Sometimes you may not be able to supervise your puppy so you will have to confine him to a certain area using a child gate or a dog crate. I recommend a dog crate because it is good for them to get used to being in one specially for traveling purposes. The secret is never put him in during a negative situation, always make the confinement as positive as possible, that way he will just see it as a nap time. Make sure that the dog crate is just big enough to lie down, if it is too big he will wonder around inside and probably choose a corner to go to the bathroom and it could get messy. A puppy is very sociable and needs to be with people or other pets so don’t confine the puppy so much that he feels isolated or abandoned.