Archive for the ‘Puppy Potty Training Info’ Category
Crate Training – Really the Best Way for Potty Training Puppies?
November 11th, 2009 | 
Author: Crate Training – really the best way for potty training puppies?
Im not sure if you have heard of this before but crate training can be one of the best ways to potty train your dog or puppy. Its especially good to start out early and get on them while they are young. If your puppy is raised with the right training then you are far less likely to have any accidents. Later on.
The whole theory behind crate training is to put your dog in a adequately sized crate and make this his bed. Just like humans, dogs don’t want to sleep in their own waste one bit. So by making the cage the right size the dog will be very reluctant to wet his bed.
So does Crate Training Work?
One of the great benefits of this as far as training a puppy is that it teaches them that they can hold it. They don’t have to relieve themselves every time that they feel the urge to go. Now this helped me a lot because I go to work during the day and sometimes there wouldn’t be anyone to look after Kenny for a while. Since I potty trained him with a crate he now knows that he can wait until I get back home to go. He dosen’t have to go every time he feels it. Its also helpful for making sure that if you cant watch your puppy he doesn’t go all over the house. When your not there hes stuck in the crate so he doesn’t have the option of using the bathroom wherever he pleases.
Important
The most important thing to remember if you are going to crate train your puppy is to get the right sized cage. To small of a crate obviously has problems because you don’t want your dog to be uncomfortable. It is going to be his bed, you wouldn’t want to sleep in a 5 year-olds race car bed would you? Also to big of a cage can be an issue as well. If the create is to big it can hamper your potty training efforts because the puppy will just use one corner of the cage. If he gets use to this you may find that he uses that instead of learning to go outside. This can be a major setback in potty training puppies. You have to teach them right from the start.
Hope you take this into account if you are thinking about potty training your puppy with a crate. There are some great advantages to it so i would highly recommend it.
Posted in 
Tags: 
First Rule for Potty Training Your Puppy or dog
Rule #1
While I was going though the hassle of trying to potty train my puppy Kenny I learned a lot about how dogs work. They aren’t as smart as humans obviously but they are intelligent. They just have a different way of learning, mostly through making relations between things. This is a reason clicker training is so effective. This can be very helpful information when your trying to potty train your puppy or dog. (my experience is with a puppy but I assume it would also help with a grown dog as well)
One of the best pieces of advice I found when I started looking for answers about potty training my puppy was that you should never punish your puppy or dog if you don’t catch them in the act.
I didn’t really know this and I figured a lot of you might not either. I always though that you just showed them the spot where they went to the bathroom and yelled at them “bad dog” and maybe a little cuff on the head and they would know what they had done wrong. (I say a little cuff, believe me I have never hit my dog hard and I hope you don’t either, your puppy is your new best friend, don’t start an abusive relationship).
I learned that this isn’t always true though. Puppies have a really short attention span and their memories aren’t very good when they are young either. I know it can be tempting to punish you puppy for his house training mistake but try to have patience. Only punish the dog if you catch him in the act. That why they know exactly what they have done wrong and they can learn from it.
This is a great tip and I hope it will help you when you start potty training your new puppy. I know it was something I would have kept doing wrong for a long time had not been told otherwise.
Talk to your Puppy – Use Verbal Clues When Potty Training Puppies
Talking to your dog is very important when your training him, no matter if its potty training or teaching him tricks. Using specific words and tones lets the dog know exactly what is expected of him. When your potty training your dog you can use the command “outside?”.
Some dogs will go to the door when they need to go to the bathroom. But this is not as common as lot of people think. Using a command like “outside” can make the dog come to you when he wants to go outside and use the bathroom. I think this is better because it makes you a important part of the process. The dog doesn’t just want to go outside. He wants you to take him outside.
Once you get him outside you can use another command to try and speed up the process. And also let him know exactly what the trip was for. Something like “potty”, “hurry up”, or “do your numbers”. Work pretty well. Also make sure after you have taken your puppy out and he’s done his business you go right back inside. Make it clear that the trip was for the bathroom only. Don’t start playing or take a walk with him.
Finally there is one thing to keep in mind when using verbal cues to potty train your puppy. If you do decide to use outside as your cue then you need to only use it for bathroom breaks. If you are going to take the dog on a walk or go play fetch you do not want to use “outside” as your cue to come outside with you. This way he will respond to outside by knowing its time to go releave himself.
The First Night Home with your Puppy
Potty training puppies starts the first night that you bring them home. Most puppies that are around 3 months old have very little bladder control and also, very small bladders. No surprise right? That means that you will need to take them outside about every two hours when they are awake to avoid any accidents. Its better if you can start a schedule off the bat and stick too it. Most puppies aren’t aware of themselves enough to tell you when they need to go. So if you wait to long you’ll end up with a mess on your carpet.
Taking them outside every two hours will make sure you don’t wait to long and have your puppy make a mess in the house. If you can keep him from peeing in the house then your potty training efforts will be much more effective. My making sure that he never goes to the bathroom in your house and by making him used to having grass under his feet when he needs to go to the bathroom will teach him that grass is where that is supposed to happen. A good thought to instill into your puppies mind when they are young.
When you take them outside make sure they go. Sometimes it can take up to thirty minutes but its important to make sure they actually do the deed when you take them outside. And make sure you praise them when they do so they know they did something right.
The Schedule
A tentative schedule to follow is to take him straight from the car to the yard and let him do his business. After that every two hours until supper, after dinner take him straight out to the yard again and walk around the yard, try to get the puppy to follow you, walking can speed up the process. Keep up the 2 hour routine until bed time and put him to bed right after you hve taken him outside. If he whines in the night take him out, he probably needs to go potty. After the 3-5 month range most puppies will be able to sleep through the whole night. Following a schedule like this will really help potty train your puppy faster. Hell get the system down and before you know it, he’ll let you know when he wants to go out.
My Story of Potty Training Kenny
When I first got a puppy I already knew that I had the task ahead of me of trying to potty train him. But I really wanted to get a puppy and I wasn’t going to let that little hurdle stop me from buying Kenny. And boy, im glad I went through with it in the long run.
At the beginning he was really bad about doing his business in the house. It was really frustrating having a dog that wasn’t house trained what so ever. But I just kept telling myself that he needed some more training and soon he would be potty trained.
I didn’t know much about dog training and I suppose that might be the reason that it took me so long to house train him. I must have been doing all the wrong things. I tried to take him out frequently but it seemed like whenever I took him outside he didn’t want to go. And then when I brought him back in, he would wait for an hour or two and then I would catch him peeing under my bed or marking the couch.
Let me tell you, it got old fast. I really tried not to get mad at him though. I knew it wasn’t his fault he wasn’t potty trained. Puppies don’t come pre wired to know things like that. However I just didn’t know why it wasn’t working, why couldn’t I potty train this puppy?
I asked my self that question all the time and I really had no idea what was going wrong. I started to read online about dog potty training and I picked up a few tips and tricks here and there. I realized some of the things I had been doing to try and train him were actually making it harder for me to potty train him. I had been punishing him when I saw a puddle on the kitchen floor and I found out that if you punish him for that, he doesn’t know what he did wrong. Only punish your dog if you catch him in the act, never after.
There were a bunch of other little things like this that im sure where hampering my potty training efforts. And low and behold after only a few weeks after I changed some of my house training habits Kenny caught on and was finally potty trained! I was so pleased I had finaly succeeded in potty training my puppy.
