How to House Train a Puppy | Dog Training

House training your puppy really just boils down to a few basic principles. One, you need to have a proper set-up and use management tools. What you're going to want is a short-term confinement area, a crate, and you're going to use that for as long as you believe your puppy can hold it's bladder. If you're doing outdoor training you don't necessarily need to have a long-term confinement area, but if your puppy is really young and not going outside yet, or you're schedule doesn't allow for you to bring your puppy to potty breaks frequently enough, then you are going to have a long-term confinement area. A long-term confinement area is a place where your puppy can do no wrong. You're going to have, in that long-term confinement area, an indoor legal toilet for your puppy to eliminate on in the event that you can't bring them to the toilet yourself. Often we use wee-wee pads of newspaper, some sort of an absorbent surface. You want to start by covering the entire surface with the pads or newspaper. This way you are setting your puppy up for 100 percent success. They can't make a mistake. As time goes on, give it a week, don't rush it, you'll start removing a little bit of the pad or substrate slowly so that you can ensure that your puppy is actually targeting the pad. Eventually your goal might be to have more floor and only one pad. But take your time and if your puppy ever makes a mistake then you're just going to put a little bit more toilet surface down for your puppy. The next thing you absolutely have to remember is that if your puppy is not in their crate or their long-term confinement area and they're out and about with you, you are going to supervise them 100 percent of the time. And when I talk about supervision I don't mean just watching your puppy run around the living room floor and weeing in the corner. I mean really keeping your puppy close to you. The only time they're going to be running out and about and getting a little bit of exercise and fun is right after they've gone to the bathroom. That way you know your puppy is empty and you're setting yourself and your puppy up for success of not having accidents in your house. The way you can supervise them is keeping them on a long, light weight indoor leash. This way your puppy is always tethered to you and as time goes on, if you feel that your puppy might need to go to the bathroom, you're going to tighten up the supervision, maybe even put him in your lap or on a little pad at your feet, chewing a toy. And then when you believe it's time for them to go to the potty you're either going to bring them outdoors, if you're outdoor training, or to their legal indoor toilet. So remember to set you and your puppy up for successful house training, you want to use your management tools, which is your crate, possibly a long-term confinement area and make sure you have your puppy at the right place at the right time so that when they do go to the bathroom in the right spot, you're prepared to tell them how good they are and back that up with a really good treat, so that they know that's what you want.