House training a puppy or dog
23 Nov 2008
Chillin
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This dog training article will give ways to housebreak your dog or puppy.
As with teaching your puppy its boundaries, when you are housetraining your puppy remember your puppy has very little, if any, control over itself. It is important to keep an eye on your puppy whenever they are up and about the house. You will want to let your puppy out first thing when they wake up to eliminate. It is best to use a command word here such as “out” so the puppy will eventually understand it will be going outside. Once you say your command word, immediately act upon it. In this case you want to put your puppy on a leash and take them outside. Once out of the home, if your puppy does not eliminate immediately you may want to walk them to a spot that you prefer they use and say “potty” or something along that line, and stay there until they have done their business. After they have always give praise and some type of affection to show you are happy with them. After feeding them breakfast keep a close watch to see if you can tell any change in their demeanor, if they appear anxious or if they are sniffing around perhaps for a place to eliminate. You may also want to take them out shortly after they finish eating and repeat the first thing in the morning routine. Whatever you as the owner are most comfortable with you must always remember, as a puppy accidents happen. If you puppy soils in the home clean it up as thoroughly as possible and take them outside. Do not scold or otherwise reprimand them unless they are caught in the act and, if this is the case, simply give them a stern “NO”, then take them outside. Never push their face into what they have done as they will not understand you did not want them do their business there, they will understand you did not want them to do their business which will cause them to try to hide it when they do. Also you need to remember dogs do not like to soil where they live so this is where some crate training may be useful. If you need to be apart from your puppy for long periods of time, keeping them in a crate during that time may help them learn to control themselves here. However, it is even more important here, you must be sure to take your puppy out to relieve themselves as soon as possible if they have been in a confined area for a long period of time, for a puppy this would be anything over an hour.
With your larger breeds of dogs, bladder control increases at a rough 1 hour per month of age.
