Bringing home a new puppy or adult dog can be a fun and rewarding time, the one thing that everyone will face will be housebreaking your new dog. Even adult dogs that may have already been housebroken can still have accidents in a new environment. There are a few steps you can take to make the transition as easy as possible.
- Take your puppy out on a leash or if you have a fenced in area watch him you need to know whether or not your pup goes potty or not.
- Keep to a Schedule; Make sure you are consistent when you take your new puppy or dog out to go potty. Feed you new puppy or dog at the same time each day, most puppies will need ot go potty shortly after eating so be sure to take them out soon after eating. Give your puppy at least 10-15 minutes to go potty if they don?t bring them in and either crate them or keep them under close supervision and try again in 10-15 minutes. Keep doing this until your puppy does go out side. Many people make the mistake of not staying outside long enough only to come in and have the pup have an accident. This is not the puppies fault but the new owners for not staying out long enough.
- Young puppies should go out at least every 2 hours, keep in mind their bladders are small and the nerves that maintain bladder control don?t develop until they are at least 12 weeks of age. Expecting a young puppy to hold it longer is unfair and setting the puppy up to fail.
- ?Don?t encourage accidents by leaving newspaper down or using piddle pads around your home. These items send the wrong message and will confuse your puppy.
- Crate training is one of the best way?s to potty train your new pup, most dogs do not want to defecate where they sleep. Keeping your pup crated when you?re your not able to watch him will keep your puppy from having accidents in the house.
- Use a command when you take your puppy out eventually they will learn what you want them to do. When your pup does go potty use the command and then praise them. You puppy will soon understand what you want and will be quicker to respond to what you want once he understands.
- If your pup has an accident in the house don?t rub his nose in it, this is an old wives tail and has no training value. The only time you can reprimand for an accident is if you catch the puppy in the act of going potty. At this time a short ?No? is enough and then take the puppy out side to finish going potty.
- Be Patient it takes a time for your new puppy to learn the schedule and to figure out what?s expected of him. He/she will soon catch on, as your puppy gets older you can lengthen the time that he will need to go out.
- Housebreaking an adult dog is very similar to housebreaking a puppy, you need to keep to a schedule and be consistent with potty breaks. Some adults can be harder to housebreak because they have old habits to let go of, if you have a male dog that marks you may want to consider a belly band. In most cases adult dogs will housebreak quickly once they have figured out what is expected of them.
