Train My Puppy: A How-to On Puppy Training

Nearly all of the puppies owned by Americans make their home indoors. Dogs kept inside with your family and you need to be housebroken. Potty training a puppy is one of the situations many owners find themselves overwhelmed by. It is not that difficult, it doesn't have to be messy and housebreaking can be accomplished without a struggle. Training needs to receive a significant amount of time devoted to it in order for it to be successful. It requires time, involvement, and some tools of the trade such as puppy training pads.

The Puppy is Boss

Two guiding rules exist for helping puppies and dog owners when training your puppy. The first and most important rule is not to punish your puppy unless you actually catch her in the act! Secondly, always tell puppy how good he is for the things he did correctly. Don't fall into the trap of only responding with 'no' when you see your pet doing something you don't want them to do. Praise them or offer them a reward when they do the right thing.

House Training/Breaking Puppies

There are many different techniques to house train your pup. At the beginning, encourage the puppy to "go" on newspapers or puppy training pads. Puppy pads generally are treated with scented chemicals that lure pups and get them to use the pads. When you notice them doing their pre-potty routine of sniffing and walking around, take them gently, without saying a word, to the puppy training pads or newspaper and praise them for going to the bathroom correctly.

When everything is going well and the doggies are using the papers and puppy training pads consistently, you can either move those closer to the door or place them outside. This transition is done from focusing toilet habits at one spot inside the home to one spot outside the home. Soon, you'll have no use for training papers and pads inside the house.

The drawback of this approach to housebreaking is that more time is required to get the pup to do his business inside. Some other popular techniques used for house training your puppy are puppy crate training or using cages which require constant looking after by the owner.

When you opt to use a crate or a cage for housebreaking your dog, take note that dogs can only hold their bladders and bowels for about seven to eight hours. This method usually works as most dogs treat cages and crates as their sleeping places and they do no want to soil their beds because they will be forced to lie in the mess. However it is not recommended to leave them in a cage or crate longer than necessary.

This is not to say, though, that continual supervision involves crates or cages, and paper or puppy pads. It is here that dog owners opt to spend whatever time is necessary with their pups. This works good for those who are retired, work from home, or any owner that can spend lots of time with the puppy. This method usually allows the owner to get their puppy out of the house when they first recognize the signs that the puppy needs to go to the bathroom. A constant watch must be kept on puppies to make sure that there are no accidents or slip-ups.

In summary, housebreaking your puppy should be considered a part of command trainings like 'come' or 'stay'. But puppy potty training and housebreaking will be the most difficult forms of puppy training due to the fact that they are simply the messiest. Don't give up!