House training

Living in a two story unit with the bedrooms upstairs isn’t ideal for housetraining. If I had to do it over again I’d just sleep downstairs for a couple of weeks.

But let’s get one thing straight from the start - if you have a little puppy you are going to have to pick up poop and mop up wee. It’s like having a baby, these things happen. Just like you don’t punish a baby for wetting its nappy, you don’t punish a puppy for doing what comes naturally. First they have to learn to control their body functions, and that only comes at a certain age. Then they have to learn where it is acceptable to perform these functions, and that is where you come in.

But first - repeat after me…

“I will never punish puppy during house training”
“I will never punish puppy during house training”
“I will never punish puppy during house training”

If you must punish someone, roll up a newspaper and hit yourself over the head with it, saying “I will keep a closer watch on the puppy!!!”

Now that we know what we must not do, it’s time to look at what we must do.

A puppy will always go potty soon after eating. So, after eating go outside with pup. Wait patiently until puppy has done the job, then praise pup, tell it that it’s a good pup and play with it excitedly. Then go back inside. If you don’t have the time to do this, why did you get a puppy?

When a pup is small it should be having two meals a day, so this is a morning and night time job. But what about in between times?

If you can, take puppy outside several times during the day. Try to take it to the same spot so that it associates the smell of the spot with what you want it to do. Always give lots of praise when puppy does a job where it’s suppose to. You can start to use your clicker at this time by clicking when puppy has finished, right when you start the praise. The clicker will eventually become a signal that you want the pup to go to the toilet.

However, if you miss it and you find that puppy has made a mistake inside, just clean it up without comment and don’t think any more about it.

Once a pup learns how to control it’s own bladder and bowels then it will start to take itself outside to toilet. If, however, like me, you have to have the doors shut and you can’t have a doggy door (we have indoor cats) then you have to teach pup to ask, and you have to be prepared to be doorman. Once your dog has grown up they can hold it in for longer, but when a puppy has to go they have to go NOW.

If you have questions about house training you would like to see in this section, please email me at eliza@elizasart.com