*Please note when inside I use a puppy pad with a piece of fake grass over it for the pups to toilet on, they then graduate to using the doggy door and going out onto the grass in their yard. This is what they have been used to doing*

Puppy House Training

(By Ketyo Neilsen)

I have read many articles and books on house training as well as going through it myself so many times I no longer know if my back door works!!! As with everything when you are training your pup you must always be consistent and remember that you are dealing with a young animal and there will be mistakes, how you handle mistakes is as, if not more, important than how you handle the successes!!!



There are different methods you can employ to train your Pup as to where you would like it to toilet. If your pup is contained in one area of a night, a bathroom or laundry with a hard floor is ideal, cover the area with copious amounts of newspaper as well as leaving out their water bowl and bedding and toys. Cover the whole floor for at least a week to get pup used to using paper and then every couple of nights when you replace the paper, cover less of the floor area a little at a time Pup will eventually end up using a small area of paper that you can easily discard in the morning. I think this method works well while the pup is still too small to sleep through without toileting or even big enough to use a dog door. However if you intend to have your pup spend time interacting with your family then obviously it will be inside during the day so you still have that time to contend with as obviously it would be cruel to keep pup in its small night time enclosure for the days as well!



The method I use is to always allow the pup easy access to my yard. Always after a sleep or feed I take pup to the yard and stay there till the job is done, immediately praising for a job well done!!! Pups will always want to be where the people are and do not like to wander far on their own and so if you are indoors a lot you will have to remember to make the effort to stay with pup so that she feels safe and comfortable out there in the world!! Over time you can stand further from her and she will gain confidence until she feels quite comfortable coming and going unaccompanied. As ridiculous as it sounds I do this through the night as well, I find it is a good bonding exercise as well as training. Within a week or two you are in a routine that pup has learned and will continue on her own I do leave my back door open through the night (after all have this new big guard dog!!!!) however with the world as it is this in not an entirely practical method so this is where you can couple this with the paper method.



The old adage of rubbing their noses in it is not only unhealthy and foul for the pup (remember their sense of smell is so much stronger than ours, can you imagine bow that would be!!!) but also a very quick way to teach the pup to mistrust and be scared of you.

There will be mistakes so have your cleaning bucket, mop and toilet paper always handy! Cleaning with an ammonia type product is good, because it really removes the smell and a pup will want to pee there again if it smells its own scent there. Never, never punish your pup for a mistake in toileting, as they grow they will instinctively go outside and generally mistakes are because they have been caught short, a lot like toilet training a baby!!!! Most pups will start showing obvious signs that they want to have a pee or poop by turning round and round and looking for a spot, so be alert to their actions. If you catch pup in the act say no loudly and quickly whisk them outside rewarding them with praise when you get there to let them know this is a good place to be doing this!!! If you catch pup venturing out on her own or on the way back in make a fuss let her know how wonderful it all is. Pups thrive on praise!!



Like everything with pups patience, affection and constant interaction will play a huge part on training of any kind, but the more bonded the pup becomes to you the less pup will want to foul your home, naturally dogs do not toilet in their den and nor will it want to do it in its new den. It is also a good thing to think of this from the pups point of view, up until a couple of weeks before its Mum took care of all of this so not only is it in a new home with new people, maybe other pets and all new smells it is now expected to toilet train itself as well as all the other rules it has to learn and follow in order to fit into this new pack!!! So use this as an opportunity to bond with pup and make it feel like one of your family and you will have a loyal and loving companion for many years to come!!



Ketyo Neilsen/Nov05