If you are going to be bringing a puppy home that hasn’t been house trained, you can use this step-by-step guide. This article will follow a nine step process in house training a puppy. Being consistent and persistent in the house training process are of great importance if you are going to be successful.
1.Before your puppy arrives: get yourself a dog crate which is the right size for your puppy. This means it should be large enough so your puppy can turn around in it and lay down in it but not much larger than that. A puppy's instinct is to never soil his nest and the crate will act as his nest. If the crate is too large, he may soil it away from his usual sleeping position. You have been warned!
2. Make sure you are available for at least two days, so that you can stay with your puppy. He’s going to require taking out a lot to begin with – from every half an hour to every hour.
3. You may need to restrict your puppy's access to particular areas of the house until he is house trained.
4. There are known times when he is very likely to need to go outside, so take him out at these times: when he wakes up in morning, when he wakes up from a nap, after he’s been exercising (for example, playing hard), after each meal or drink and before he retiring to sleep at night.
5. When he arrives you are going to need to take him outside every thirty to sixty minutes, until you start to recognize the signals that he wants to poo or pee. The signal may be sniffing, circling or backing up.
6. Once you recognize the signal that he wants to relieve himself, you need to take him outside quickly and wait until he does his business.
7. When he does his business, immediately give him lots of praise and attention.
8. If you can’t keep an eye on him for a while you can leave him in his crate for an hour. Firstly, however, your puppy must be content to stay in the dog crate. For this you need to start crate training your dog. To do that give him small treats while he is next to the crate and gradually lure him inside with them. Once he’s been in a few times, shut the door very briefly and then open again. The time the door is left closed should be lengthened gradually. You can also put an interactive toy or a dispensing toy in the crate to keep him occupied.
9. If he does have an accident and makes a mess in the house, just ignore him when he does it but be sure to clean it up and clean the area with an enzymatic cleaner or hot biological washing powder solution. If you don’t, your puppy will still smell it and be tempted to do his business there again.
