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The Key To Successful Housetraining

Is Prevention, Not Punishment
Veterinary Exam & Urine/Fecal Check
Your puppy's state of health will affect his ability to be successfully housetrained
(housebroken). Make sure your puppy is seen by a vet within 48 hours of his coming
home from the breeder or animal shelter. If your puppy does not receive a "clean bill of
health", it is important that any physical conditions that can impede successful
housetraining (such as cystitis, bladder infection, etc.) be properly treated. A fecal check
will determine whether worms or internal parasites are present. (There are several types
of worms that are not visible except under a microscope. Also, fleas can cause
tapeworm.)

Feed Your Puppy A High-Quality Puppy Food

A consistent diet of a high-quality premium brand dry (kibble) puppy food is
recommended. Avoid feeding your puppy table scraps or changing brands unnecessarily.
If you should need to change your puppy's food for any reason, do it gradually over a
period of 4 to 7 days (by overlapping both the old and the new puppy food together,
until the old food is phased out completely). [Note: Feeding your puppy lots of canned
dog food can loosen his stool, making it harder to housebreak him.]

Close Supervision Is Essential

Close supervision is essential any time your puppy is not crated indoors (or confined to
a small area covered with newspapers) . It only takes a few seconds for your puppy to
have a housesoiling accident, so watch for signs that your puppy may need to eliminate,
such as sniffing the floor, circling, or running out of sight suddenly.

Confinement When Puppy Can't Be Supervised

Crate training or area confinement are recommended for puppies and most adolescent
dogs when left unsupervised alone in the house. If properly introduced and used
appropriately, crate training is an efficient and humane way to prevent housetraining
accidents as well keep your puppy safe when you can not watch him (or when you leave
the house/apartment without him). The crate should not be used for excessive periods of
time and should not be used as a punishment (although brief "time outs" in the crate are
fine). Sufficient daily companionship, interactive playtime and exercise are very
important to all puppies and dogs.
[Note: Crate training and other forms of confinement must be balanced with sufficient
exercise and companionship. Excessive periods of isolation can be very detrimental to
your puppy, and can contribute to numerous behavioral problems including
hyperactivity, destructive behavior, digging, self-mutilation, and excessive barking.]

Determine Puppy's Safety Zone, Grey Zone & Danger Zone

Keep a diary of your puppy's urinating and defecating times for several days or more.
Determine the minimum interval between elimination. Subtract 15-30 minutes from this
period of time and that will be your puppy's temporary "Safety Zone". This is the
duration of time he can generally be trusted to hold his urine after he is taken for a walk
or has "gone" on his newspapers, provided he does not drink a ton of water during this
time. Make sure however, that he is still closely supervised any time he is not confined
to his crate or confinement area.

Frequent Access To Newspapers, Backyard, Or Taken For A Walk If Fully

Immunized
Puppies need to urinate shortly after the eat, drink water, play, chew, or sleep. For most
puppies over 10 weeks of age, that means somewhere between 5 and 10 times a day!
Adolescent dogs (from 6 to 11 mths. old) will need 4 to 6 walks a day. Adult dogs need
3 to 4 walks a day, and elderly dogs need at least 3 to 4 walks daily (incontinent dogs
will need more).

Do Not Return From A Walk Until Your Puppy Eliminates

If your puppy has been confined overnight to a crate, take him outside first thing in the
morning (before he's had a chance to soil indoors.) Be prepared to stay outdoors with
him until he eliminates. (This could take from a few minutes to as much as several
hours!) As soon as your puppy eliminates outdoors, offer him lavish praise and a treat.
If you take your puppy back inside the house before he's fully eliminated, he will surely
have an housesoiling accident indoors!
[Note: If you absolutely have to return home before your puppy does his "business",
crate him, then try taking him outside again every 15-30 minutes until he "goes".]

Early Interactive Socialization With People Is Important

Early and ongoing interactive socialization with lots of friendly new people (including
calm friendly children) is very important. If your puppy is not immunized sufficiently to
taken for a walk, make sure to have lots of new people visit your puppy in your home.
You can also carry your puppy outdoors to public places to properly acclimate him to
the sights, sounds and activities of the outdoors (especially crowds of people and traffic
noises) soon after he has received at least two series of shots, provided he is not placed
on the sidewalk or streets, and he is not brought near other dogs (or anywhere other
dogs might have been).

Praise & Reward Your Puppy For "Going" Outdoors

Lavish paise, a trigger word (ie: "potty", "get busy", "business", "bombs away", etc.)
and a treat reward immediately following his eliminating in the right place (newspapers,
backyard, or outdoors) will help you to communicate to your puppy that you are pleased
with his behavior. Delayed praise is not effective, so witnessing him going in the right
spot is important.

No Access To Inappropriate Areas To Eliminate

Many puppies and dogs prefer certain areas or surfaces to eliminate on, such as rugs,
carpeting, etc. Keep your puppy away from risky areas or surfaces whenever possible. If
your puppy suddenly runs out of sight (ei: out of the room), he may be looking for a
secret spot to eliminate, so close doors to rooms where he may sneak a quick pee or
poop.

Neutralize Urine Odors With Enzyme-Based Deodorizer

Should your puppy have a few housesoiling accidents despite your best efforts to
prevent them, neutralize any soiled areas (carpet or floor surface) with an pet odor
neutralizer such as Nature's Miracle, Nilodor, Fresh 'n' Clean, or Outright Pet Odor
Eliminator. Avoid using ammonia-based cleaners to clean up after your puppy's urine, as
ammonia breaks down to urea, which is a component of urine.

No Water After 9PM

Generally speaking, it is advisable to take up your puppy's water bowl after 9 PM,
unless he seems very thirsty or weather conditions are exceedingly hot. (But a couple of
ice cubes are OK)

Eliminate Worms and Parasites

Contact your veterinarian if you suspect that your puppy has worms, coccidia, fleas,
ticks, or other internal or external parasites.

Diarrhea Will Prevent Housetraining Success

Your puppy or dog cannot be expected to be reliable if he has diarrhea. Loose, liquidy
or mucousy stools will hinder any housetraining success.

After-The-Fact Discipline Does NOT Work!

Never ever discipline (verbally or otherwise) your puppy or dog after-the-fact for
housesoiling accidents that you did not actually witness. (Even if you should see your
puppy eliminate on the floor or carpet, harsh physical punishment is never
recommended.)

Never Discipline A Dog For Submissive Urination!

Submissive and excitement urination are completely involuntary, so never discipline
your puppy for this. Eye contact, verbal scoldings, hovering over, reaching out to pet
your puppy's head, animated movements, talking in an exciting or loud voice, as well as
strangers/ visitors approaching your puppy, may all potentially trigger your puppy to
piddle. Disciplining your puppy for involuntary piddling must be avoided or the
problem will simply get worse.

What To Expect House Training a Puppy

Unless you can monitor your puppy 24 hours a day, don't expect the house training
process to be completed until your puppy is at least 6 months old. It's normal for a
young puppy to be a little 'input-output' machine. Since puppies are growing and
developing rapidly at this stage, they eat more food, burn up more energy and seem to
need to eliminate constantly! They also have not yet developed bowel and bladder
control, so they can't 'hold it' as long as adult dogs.

House Training When You Are NOT Home

Confine your puppy to a small, 'puppy-proofed' room and paper the entire floor. Put his
bed, toys and food/water bowls there. At first there will be no rhyme or reason to where
your pup eliminates. He will go every where and any where. He will also probably play
with the papers, chew on them, and drag them around his little den.
Most puppies do this and you just have to live with it. Don't get upset; just accept it as
life with a young puppy. The important thing is that when you get home, clean up the
mess and lay down fresh papers.

Passive House Training or Paper Training

While your puppy is confined, he is developing a habit of eliminating on paper because
no matter where he goes, it will be on paper. As time goes on, he will start to show a
preferred place to do his business. When this place is well established and the rest of the
papers remain clean all day, then gradually reduce the area that is papered.
Start removing the paper that is furthest away from his chosen location. Eventually you
will only need to leave a few sheets down in that area only. If he ever misses the paper,
then you've reduced the area too soon. Go back to papering a larger area or even the
entire room.
Once your puppy is reliably going only on the papers you've left, then you can slowly
and gradually move his papers to a location of your choice. Move the papers only an
inch a day. If puppy misses the paper again, then you're moving too fast. Go back a few
steps and start over. Don't be discouraged if your puppy seems to be making remarkable
progress and then suddenly you have to return to papering the entire room. This is
normal. There will always be minor set-backs. If you stick with this procedure, your
puppy will be paper trained.

House Training When You Are Home

When you are home but can't attend to your puppy, follow the same procedures
described above. However, the more time you spend with your puppy, the quicker he
will be house trained. Your objective is to take your puppy to his toilet area every time
he needs to eliminate. This should be about once every 45 minutes; just after a play
session; just after eating or drinking; and just upon waking.
When he does eliminate in his toilet area, praise and reward him profusely and
enthusiastically! Don't use any type of reprimand or punishment for mistakes or
accidents. Your puppy is too young to understand and it can set the house training
process back drastically.
Don't allow your puppy freedom outside of his room unless you know absolutely for
sure that his bladder and bowels are completely empty. When you do let him out, don't
let him out of your sight. It is a good idea to have him on leash when he is exploring
your home. He can't get into trouble if you are attached to the other end of the leash.
Every 30 minutes return your pup to his toilet area. As your puppy becomes more
reliable about using his toilet area and his bowel and bladder control develops, he can
begin to spend more time outside his room with you in the rest of your home. Begin by
giving him access to one room at a time. Let him eat, sleep and play in this room but
only when he can be supervised. When you cannot supervise him, put him back in his
room.

Active House Training

The most important thing you can do to make house training happen as quickly as
possible is to reward and praise your puppy every time he goes in the right place. The
more times he is rewarded, the quicker he will learn. Therefore it's important that you
spend as much time as possible with your pup and give him regular and frequent access
to his toilet area.

The Key To Successful House Training

Consistency and Patience. Never scold or punish your puppy for mistakes and accidents.
The older your pup gets, the more he will be able to control his bladder and bowels.
Eventually your pup will have enough control that he will be able to "hold it" for longer
and longer periods of time. Let your puppy do this on his own time. When training is
rushed, problems usually develop. Don't forget, most puppies are not reliably house
trained until they are at least 6 months old.

Submissive Urination
Submissive wetting or urination is a normal way for dogs and puppies to
demonstrate submissive behavior. Even a dog that is otherwise housetrained may
leave dribbles and puddles of urine at your feet and on the floor when greeting you.

Submissive urination is the ultimate show of respect and deference for higher rank.
It occurs frequently with young puppies who have not yet learned and perfected
other social skills and means of showing respect. Submissive urination in adult dogs
is usually a sign of insecurity. Often unsocialized and abused dogs will submissively
urinate. Other dogs that engage in submissive urination may simply have not been
shown that there are more acceptable ways to show respect, such as paw raising
(shake hands) or hand licking (give a kiss).
Submissive urination may be present in overly sensitive or mistreated dogs because
they feel the need to constantly apologize. This state is often caused by excessive
or delayed punishment which frightens and confuses the dog without teaching him
how to make amends. The dog resorts to the only way he knows to show respect
and fear, by submissive urination.

When your dog submissively urinates, it is best to just ignore him. If you try to
reassure him, he will think you are praising him for urinating and will urinate even
more. If you scold him, he will feel an even greater need to apologize by urinating.
Either reassurance or scolding will only make submissive urination worse.
Treatment of submissive urination must be directed towards building your dog's
confidence and showing him other ways to demonstrate respect. The quickest way
to accomplish this is by teaching your dog a few basic obedience exercises. A dog
that can earn praise by obeying a simple routine of "Come here, sit, shake hands,"
will soon develop self esteem and confidence. A confident dog who can say, "Hello,
Boss" by sitting and shaking hands does not feel the need to urinate at his owner's
feet.