Dog Training – Potty Training Your New Puppy
No training is much more basic for pet owners than that very first essential lesson: Do it outside the house!
Training your pet to potty outside the home, not in it, generally starts between six and eight weeks of age. Puppies as young as four weeks have been started on the routine, however at that age very few possess the muscular control to be successful.
Just like any kind of puppy instruction regimen, trainer patience is as essential as the pup’s nature. ‘Sit’, ’stay’ along with other behaviors may generally be mastered in a few days. ‘Potty’ training normally normally takes weeks – occasionally as short as two, frequently a month or more.
As with other learned behaviors, it helps to observe for signs of the wanted behavior and enforce and direct them with a voice command followed by praise. In this case that technique works much more towards the trainer’s advantage, given that all dogs will naturally eliminate. The key is to have them complete it when and where you need!
Watch for signs od imminent potty behavior, such as circling or squatting, then pick up the pup, say ‘outside’ and dash outdoors. The puppy might circle some more, but will usually squat instantly. As it begins, say ‘Go potty’ (or some other specific term) in a very clear, firm (but not angry) voice. Wait until it is completed and praise the puppy lavishly.
You won’t always be able to detect the puppy about to start, but don’t get annoyed or impatient when the puppy has an accident indoors. It will take time for your dog to learn to tell you it’s time to ‘go outside’. It also normally takes time for the muscles required to manage bladder and bowels to develop.
Young puppies need to potty every 2-3 hours, on average. If you haven’t spotted pre-elimination behavior within that time, take the dog outdoors anyway. Say the command ‘Go potty’ and wait. At first, normally, the puppy will have no clue what you want.
Again, even when outdoors, it helps to wait and observe for the preferred behavior then issue the command. That helps the puppy relate the command with the behavior. If the puppy has not eliminated soon after several minutes and several ‘Go potty’ commands, take it back inside for an hour. Needless to say, in case you notice the pre-elimination behavior in less time, go outdoors once again quickly.
Puppies have a surprising ability to quickly learn what their ‘alpha’ (the leader of the pack) wishes. This is almost always accomplished by associating a spoken command with behavior, followed by praise. Punishment is typically counter-productive, and nowhere more so than in waste elimination instruction. Under no circumstances rub a dog’s nose in waste.
Paper and/or crate training is preferred by some. A pup can be trained to go on a newspaper, or on one of the chemically treated pads created for that purpose. Some little breeds that live all day inside home may not require to go outside at all.
The approach has a couple of downsides however. Unlike cats, dogs will rarely go inside a perfumed litter box. Newspapers (even with all the top layer removed after the puppy goes) will eventually create an unpleasant aroma inside the home.
Also, long before the odor becomes disgusting to people, dogs can smell their own unique aroma. They do not find it unattractive – quite the opposite. And that’s the difficulty.
Dogs that are paper trained will usually prefer to eliminate inside. Sometimes they’ll miss the paper by only an inch, creating a mess to clean up.
Once the odor is within the carpet, the puppy will often look for that spot out as its proper ‘place to go’. This makes training the puppy to potty outdoors even more challenging. Best to suffer a few accidents than to produce a hard-to-overcome habit.
Patience, praise and consistency are the keys to any puppy instruction. House training will be the first test for you and your puppy.
Filed under: Train Puppy Dog
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