Pampered Dog Blog

One of your first jobs as a dog owner is house training your puppy, and even if you do nothing else in terms of dog training, you’ll have to do this. That is, unless you are prepared to live with an animal that has no control over her toilet habits.

Fortunately, in most cases, it is easy. Choose a method, implement a plan, add a bit of patience, and you’re done.

In fact, all you have to do to ensure success, is to tap into your dog’s natural behavior. For starters, dogs are, by nature, clean animals and will never “do their business” close to where they eat and sleep, except in extreme circumstances.

Secondly, dogs love to please us and will do whatever it takes to make us happy.

These two principles are the secret to successful house training regardless of what training method you choose.

Here are some common methods that are used for house training dogs;

Supervision

Crate Training Method

Paper Training Method

Litter Box Method

Now the method you choose is up to you, but as someone who has trained many dogs, using all of these techniques, I’ve found crate training to be most effective. Crate training just plain works, because it draws strongly on the aspects of canine behavior I mentioned earlier.

With crate training your puppy you use these behavioral aspects to your advantage – a much better approach than chasing your dog and trying to haul him outdoors, or to the paper every time he squats down.

You may however prefer one of the other methods, which is also okay – use what works for you. The most important thing is that you remain calm while toilet training your dog. Shouting and getting upset won’t achieve anything other than making the dog afraid of you.

Never forget that she’s just a baby. You wouldn’t punish a baby that messed her diaper, or scream at her and rub her nose in it. So why would you do that to a little dog?

The puppy doesn’t yet know that she has done something wrong. But persist with your training and she’ll soon get the picture. Dogs are a lot smarter than we give them credit for. So stick with it and you’ll see results.

Want to get even faster results?

Then give your dog lots of praise.

Your puppy desperately wants to make you happy. When you praise her for ‘going’ outside, or on the paper, she learns that this behavior pleases you, and she’s encouraged to repeat the behavior, just to get more praise from you.

So be generous with your praise. The more obvious you make it that you’re pleased with her behavior, the quicker she’ll get the message. You may even want to throw in a treat or a game to drive the point home.

Later, when you start obedience training, your puppy will already know that obedience equals praise, so in effect house training actually sets the scene for all your training efforts to come.

Click here to learn more about dog training, dog care, dog anatomy and other informative dog information at dogsanddogtraining.com