House training puppies

[Clyde]

What is the easiest way to train puppies from going to the bathroom in your house?

[brachiopod]

Keep the bathroom door shut.

[andy hughes]

Training puppies is done by reward. Place some sheets of newspaper by your front or back door - which ever the pup is going to use when he is trained. When he wees, carry him to the paper, sit him on it, and praise him with lots of strokes and pats and affirmative commands. Eventually, he will learn to associate weeing with the paper, and when he starts to wee on the paper, give him even more praise, and a treat - a doc choc. or something similar that he likes. It takes patience, and he will 'lapse' occasionally, but he will get the message eventually. From there, you can graduate to moving him outside when he uses the paper - same principle and method, and hey presto, your dog goes to the toilet outside.

Patience always - none of this 'rubbing his nose in it' rubbish - your pup will respond to association, rewards, and kindness. good luck.

[woofgang]

Andy is right, the other things that I would add are that observation and timing will catch the pup before he makes a mistake, so you can arrange to praise him which will make him learn faster. Puppies want to empty after they have eaten and when they wake and they tend to do a little "sniff dance" before they actually go. So...after every meal and whenever they wake if you can get them outside, they will quickly learn that that is where the business is done. Use the same phrase every time (make sure that its one you can use in public!!) and pup will learn to go when he is asked. Not every one will want to do this, but we have our pups clean in a fortnight by having them in the bedroom in a box beside the bed. When pup wakes in the night, take him out to the garden where he will go. Then settle him back in the box again. This speeds up the learning, saves those pup in kitchen crying problems and keeps your kitchen floor clean!!! The other thing is that dogs know where to go by the smell so less lapses you do get indoors, the less "this is where you go" messages there will be to confuse the dog. Clean up any lapses well with a special cleaner or a biological dtergent, rinsing away the traces well

[woofgang]

Andy is right, the other things that I would add are that observation and timing will catch the pup before he makes a mistake, so you can arrange to praise him which will make him learn faster. Puppies want to empty after they have eaten and when they wake and they tend to do a little "sniff dance" before they actually go. So...after every meal and whenever they wake if you can get them outside, they will quickly learn that that is where the business is done. Use the same phrase every time (make sure that its one you can use in public!!) and pup will learn to go when he is asked. Not every one will want to do this, but we have our pups clean in a fortnight by having them in the bedroom in a box beside the bed. When pup wakes in the night, take him out to the garden where he will go. Then settle him back in the box again. This speeds up the learning, saves those pup in kitchen crying problems and keeps your kitchen floor clean!!! The other thing is that dogs know where to go by the smell so less lapses you do get indoors, the less "this is where you go" messages there will be to confuse the dog. Clean up any lapses well with a special cleaner or a biological dtergent, rinsing away the traces well

[woofgang]

Andy is right, the other things that I would add are that observation and timing will catch the pup before he makes a mistake, so you can arrange to praise him which will make him learn faster. Puppies want to empty after they have eaten and when they wake and they tend to do a little "sniff dance" before they actually go. So...after every meal and whenever they wake if you can get them outside, they will quickly learn that that is where the business is done. Use the same phrase every time (make sure that its one you can use in public!!) and pup will learn to go when he is asked. Not every one will want to do this, but we have our pups clean in a fortnight by having them in the bedroom in a box beside the bed. When pup wakes in the night, take him out to the garden where he will go. Then settle him back in the box again. This speeds up the learning, saves those pup in kitchen crying problems and keeps your kitchen floor clean!!! The other thing is that dogs know where to go by the smell so less lapses you do get indoors, the less "this is where you go" messages there will be to confuse the dog. Clean up any lapses well with a special cleaner or a biological dtergent, rinsing away the traces well

[woofgang]

Andy is right, the other things that I would add are that observation and timing will catch the pup before he makes a mistake, so you can arrange to praise him which will make him learn faster. Puppies want to empty after they have eaten and when they wake and they tend to do a little "sniff dance" before they actually go. So...after every meal and whenever they wake if you can get them outside, they will quickly learn that that is where the business is done. Use the same phrase every time (make sure that its one you can use in public!!) and pup will learn to go when he is asked. Not every one will want to do this, but we have our pups clean in a fortnight by having them in the bedroom in a box beside the bed. When pup wakes in the night, take him out to the garden where he will go. Then settle him back in the box again. This speeds up the learning, saves those pup in kitchen crying problems and keeps your kitchen floor clean!!! The other thing is that dogs know where to go by the smell so less lapses you do get indoors, the less "this is where you go" messages there will be to confuse the dog. Clean up any lapses well with a special cleaner or a biological dtergent, rinsing away the traces well

[dmsjps]

andy hughes and woofgang always seem to have very logical - and correct - answers to queries, and once again I agree with everything they've said.

 

If you're asking the question because you're thinking of getting a puppy, then please be prepared to commit a lot of time, patience and effort - all with kindness, not punishment - into house training. I have known some people whose dogs were never toilet trained and it is terrible; but it's not the fault of the dog, it's the owner's commitment. I've also found that in those instances, both partners work full-time away from home. A puppy can't hold its bladder for 8 hours a day until you get back. When it's a fully-grown dog it probably can, but not when it's a pup.

 

The dog I have currently I'm sure had the biggest bladder ever when he was a puppy: every half hour one of us was up to encourage him to the right place, clean up, etc, and it also took him several months to learn, which was the longest I've ever had to 'toilet train' a puppy for (but then again, he's not the brightest spark in the fusebox, bless him). Now that he's mature, however, he very rarely goes to the toilet, even though he has water available all the time and access to the garden 24-7; he would rather use the garden for 'watching the world go by'.

 

I wish you the best of luck.