Housebreaking a Puppy: Advice for Beginners

The first training lesson for pet owners is housebreaking a puppy outdoors. The appropriate age for teaching your pet to eliminate is usually done when the puppy is between six and eight weeks old. Dogs whose ages start from four weeks have been started on the program. However, at that age, only a small number of dogs have developed proper muscular control to make it outside when going potty.

The patience of the trainer is just as vital as the dog's behavior in a dog training regimen. A disciplined trainer can teach basic commands like "sit" and "stay" in just a few days. Elimination training often takes longer - anywhere from a few weeks to a month or more.

Similar to other learned behaviors, watching for signs helps the dog in learning the actions quickly. The actions can be enforced and directed with verbal commands followed by praise. In this case, the technique works to the trainer's advantage, since all dogs will naturally eliminate. The difficult part is making the puppies go potty at the right time and the right place.

When housebreaking your puppy, you need to watch for circling or squatting. Once you've spotted this behavior, you need to pick up the puppy and say "outside." Then quickly take the puppy outside. As the puppy begins to go, you need to give it a recognizable command such as "go potty" using a strong and clear voice, but not an angry one. Once the puppy is done, lavish your puppy with praise and do it on the spot.

If you fail to catch the puppy before it begins to go potty, don't get upset or annoyed. Your dog will need some time to learn the desired behavior, as well as to develop proper control of its bowel and bladder muscles.

A dog typically needs to eliminate every few hours, but this varies. Even if you haven't seen behavior indicating a need to eliminate, take precaution and take the dog outside anyway. After taking the puppy outside, clearly issue the appropriate phrase or command.

Of course, in the beginning, the dog will have no idea what you want it to do. Watch and wait for the appropriate behavior, and then give the command. That will allow the dog to quickly link the command with the behavior. In case nothing happens after several minutes, let the dog inside again but watch for behavior that may indicate a need to go potty. Then return outside and let the puppy go potty.

Dogs are particularly skilled at learning what the 'alpha' (or the leader of the pack) wants. For the most part, this happens by relating a spoken command to an action, accompanied with praise. Punishing a dog usually backfires, especially when it comes to your dog's waste elimination habits. Avoid harming your dog physically, and do not rub a dog's nose in its waste.

Paper training is another method that some dog owners use. A dog can be trained to go potty on a newspaper or on highly absorbent housebreaking pads that are treated to attract dogs to use them. A few smaller breeds of dogs that stay at home all day can be potty trained indoors. This is also an option for pet owners who do not have a yard where they can do elimination training for their dogs.

This method, however, has its drawbacks. Dogs, as opposed to cats, seldom want to relieve themselves in a scented litter box. In addition, even if you take off the dirty layer of the newspapers, the area will still develop a highly undesirable odor after a while.

Dogs have such a good sense of smell that they can detect their own odor and they actually like it. Therein lies the problem. A paper-trained dog will smell his odor indoors and will usually choose to eliminate indoors rather than outdoors. And what's worse, it may often miss the paper and leave a mess for you to clean up.

After detecting its odor, the dog will continue to seek out the same spot and consider it as the "place to go." This complicates the whole outdoor potty training process, so it is better to have a few training mishaps than to create a difficult habit.

When training a dog, it is not only important to be patient. You also need to be consistent, as well as lavish your dog with praise. Housebreaking a puppy may be challenging, but if you follow the suggestions above, you will soon see results.

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