The Dog Blog

When you bring a new puppy home, you can use this guide to house train him, step by step. This article will follow a nine step process in house training a puppy. You are going to need to be very consistent and persistent in order to be successful.

1.The right size of dog crate is vital. Make sure you get one before your puppy arrives. This means it should be big enough so your puppy can turn around in it and lay down in it but not much larger than that. This will become your puppy’s den and his instinct is not to soil it. If he can sleep on one side of the crate and have enough room for a toilet area at the other side, he probably will. Don’t be surprised!

2. Make sure you are free for at least two days, so that you can remain with your puppy. He’s going to require taking outside a lot to begin with – from every half an hour to every hour.

3. You may want to limit the puppy’s access to particular areas of the house until he is house trained.

4. There are known times when he is very likely to need to go outside, so take him out at these times: when he gets up in morning, when he wakes up from a nap, after he’s been exerting himself (for example, playing hard), after each meal or drink and before he goes to bed at night.

5. When he arrives he is going to require you to take him outside every thirty to sixty minutes, until you begin to recognise the signs that he needs to relieve himself. The signal may be sniffing, circling or backing up.

6. Once you see the signs that he wants to relieve himself, you need to take him outside as fast as you can and wait until he does his business.

7. When he does his business, immediately give him lots of praise and attention.

8. You can leave your puppy in the crate for an hour when you cannot watch him for a time. But you must firstly lead him to be content to remain in his crate. In order to do that you need to develop a positive association with the crate for him. Give him some small treats near the crate and tempt him inside gradually. Once he’s been in a few times, shut the door very briefly and then open again. Gradually increase the time with the door shut. You can also put an interactive toy or a dispensing toy in the crate to keep him occupied.

9. He is likely to have an accident in the house at some point. It’s pointless shouting at him. Just ignore him and clean it up. Wipe the area carefully with hot biological washing liquid or with an enzymatic cleaner. If you just clean normally, some scent will remain and your puppy will be tempted to soil the same area again.

For more information about puppy crate training and house training your puppy, visit my Training Puppy Tips website.

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