House-Training Puppies

If you're here reading this guide, chances are you will benefit greatly from sit-stay-fetch.

Housetraining is easy, but requires time, patience and consistency. Using the ideas presented here as a guide, you can reduce the number of "accidents" you have along the way, but it is normal for your puppy to have an accident along the way. This is part of the package! The more careful you are to be consistent the more your puppy will catch on to what he's expected to do. Expect housetraining to take several weeks depending on the breed. You'll know you're done when your puppy hasn't had any accidents for 60-90 days.

Step 1: The Routine

Dogs are creatures of habit and your new puppy will do best if he's taken out do do his business on a regular schedule that doesn't change from day to day. The best times for this are: in the morning, after a nap, after eating and after playing. Take your puppy using a leash to the chosen spot. Then as soon as he's done his business, reward him with a walk or some play time. This will encourage him to not hold it in since the reward comes after the poop, not before it and he will have good associations with pooping/peeing outside.

If you have to clean up an accident in the house, take the paper towels, etc outside to "ground zero" so the association between his bathroom spot and his byproducts can be more easily made.

After your puppy has started to pee or poop, pick a phrase like "do your business" that you can use later on to remind him what he's outside to do when it's blowing snow and you don't want to hang out for 20 minutes while he picks a spot. You may choose to give him a treat. Either way, you must praise him immediately. Dogs live in the moment, so if you wait til later to praise him, he'll have no idea what you're talking about. This praise/reward/good association concept is what he needs to learn that pooping and peeing outside are the only acceptable behavior.

If possible, use a regular feeding schedule for your puppy. Puppies may start out needing to eat 3 or 4 times per day. Feeding at the same time every day will make it more likely that his need to poop will come at the same time every day. Again, it's all about consistency.

Step 2: Be attentive.

If your puppy is inside, you should be watching him. If you can't keep an eye on him, tether him with a leash or keep him behind baby gates. If you see him sniffing or circling, this is a sign that he may need to go outside. In this caswe, take him outside on his leash to your chosen spot. If he does his job, lavish him with praise, pets, rubs, treats. Go overboard.

Step 3: Crate/Confine

If you can't watch your puppy closely, you should confine him to an area small enough that he will find it distasteful to eliminate there and stay there. This takes advantage of an instinct that dogs have not to "poop where they sleep." You could use a crate or just confine him to a small bathroom or a portion of a laundry room. If your puppy has been in his confined space for more than a couple of hours, always take him to his poop spot first thing when you return.

The best laid plans...

Your puppy will likely have an accident along the way. It's just part of houseraining. When you catch him pooping in the house, interrupt him without scaring him and take him directly to his poop spot. If he finishes his business there, lavish him with kisses rubs, pets, treats. You know the drill.

If you can't catch him in the act, don't try to rub his nose in it or punish him. He will just be afraid of you or afraid to poop in front of you. Simply clean up the mess, and take the soiled cloths/paper towels out to the poop spot.

Use an enzyme cleaner to remove the smell of poop and pee to thoroughly clean up the residual odor. If you don't clean up the mess enough, he may continue to use the same spot. There is a strong instinct to pee/poop in the same spot and you have to interrupt this as soon as possible if you don't want house-training to take forever.

Puppy Paper Training

Young puppies can't hold it for more than a couple hours at a time, and if you're going to have to be gone for longer than that, you need to create a place to pee indoors. This can make house-training last longer later, but you gotta do what you gotta do. You can use a small dog litter box from a pet store, a small plastic swimming pool, or other container filled with rags or paper towels. Eventually when you clean up the paper training place, you can take the soiled paper towels to the outdoor poop spot to help the puppy understand that pooping outdoors is the new expectation.

Once you get the house training done, the next step you should take is the amazing program from sit-stay-fetch.