Basic Housebreaking For Your New Puppy

Hi friends,
Sorry for not writing for the past few days.
Reason being I was asked by couple of people to share my experience of housebreaking my dogs, so I went to do some research as well as recalling how I trained Tymmie and Cocoa.

Though I have not finished my research, I think I better share what I have learned and practised, else you guys will have to wait for long time.

So, as and when I have some material, I shall share it here.

Okie, today lets start with some basic housebreaking (or some call it potty training, toilet training) for your new puppies.

Many new dog owners may not realize the time and effort it takes when becoming parents to a new puppy. On going training and corrections need to be consistent and every member of the home must follow the same training pattern.

When a puppy is brought into its new home, many are no more than eight weeks old, just weaned from their mother and litter mates, and barely trained. Consider the pup like a baby; time and patience from the owner and of course a little crying may occur from frustration, but that is totally normal!

One common method, which we practiced with our new puppy, is called crate training. This means the puppy stays in the crate when the owner is either not home, not playing with it, or when the owner cannot give the puppy their full attention. Giving a puppy free roam of the house is not a good idea and does not teach boundaries.

A few techniques we used while crate training to help Tymmie understand where to go to the bathroom are listed below.

• When it is time to take the puppy out to the bathroom, do not allow it to walk out of the crate.
  
• The owner should pick it up from the crate, click on their leash, and not place them down till they are outside.
  
• This teaches the puppy the place to do their business is only outside.
  
• Using the same technique, if the puppy has accidents in their crate, some owners will take a paper towel which was used to clean the crate, and place it outside so the puppy smells its own pee and relates going to the bathroom outside.

Remember, puppies need to be taught what correct behavior is and the only way this can be done is through their owners.

Housebreaking does take a few months and eventually the puppy will learn to tell you when it needs to go out but for the first few months, the owner needs to be patient with their corrections.

The more a pup learns at a young age, the easier it is to continue training as an adult.
Any time Tymmie went to the bathroom outside, in a friendly high pitch voice, we told him he was a “good bog,” pet his head, many times gave him a hug and kiss (yes our neighbors already know we are little insane), and sometimes reinforced him correct behavior with a small treat.

Okie, that's all for today.

Will definitely share with you more Housebreaking ideas at my next posting in the next two days.

Ciao.