Can anyone tell me some good ideas on how to house train a puppy.I am at my wits end?

Answer 1

A puppy is like a baby. He will relieve himself anywhere, anytime. Because a newly adopted adult dog is unfamiliar with your home, he may not understand where he should "go"! Housetraining, or teaching your dog to go outside to relieve himself, is an important lesson your dog must learn.
It is up to you, the new parent, to housetrain your new puppy or dog with patience, love and understanding.
CRATE TRAINING
In the wild, wolves live in a den or cave. It is important the entire wolf pack keep this area clean. The same idea works with your family pet. Your dog’s crate is his home, his bedroom. It is likely that your dog will not like to soil his bed. Therefore, he will wait until he is let out to do his business.
HOUSETRAINING WITH YOUR CRATE
On average, puppies can hold their bladders one hour for every month they have been alive, plus one hour. For example, if you have a three month old puppy, he can wait 3 + 1 = 4 hours. If you work longer than this, the best solution is to have someone (a neighbour, a relative, a dog walker) come in at an appropriate time to let your dog out.

100 PER CENT SUPERVISION
Supervision is the key to housetraining! While you are at home, your dog must be supervised. Whether you are watching television, making dinner, on the phone or on the computer, your puppy must be watched. While it sounds like an impossible task, it isn’t. Keeping the crate in a social part of the house makes it easier. Using a house lead – a small, thin lead with a little clip on it – also helps immensely. Outside, you put a lead on your dog so you can control him. If the lead is removed after returning home, control is lost. For example, when watching television, have the lead tied to a couch leg. Your dog can have his blanket and toys with him. He’ll feel safe and comfortable. The majority of accidents happen when your pup wanders off and you haven’t noticed. You don’t want him to sneak off into the kitchen and find a puddle a short time later. If your pup is kept from wandering, the possibility of an accident is diminished because he will not eliminate where he is sitting. 100 per cent supervision means ensuring your dog is playing with you, in his crate, outside or on his house lead.

SCHEDULING
In the morning, take your dog outside. He should urinate and possibly have a bowel movement. Spend about five to seven minutes with him and then bring him in. Do not play with him yet. Feed him breakfast, either in the crate or with the lead, and supervise it. If your pup did not have a bowel movement earlier, take him back outside about 15 minutes after he has eaten. Use the lead to keep your pup moving along while outside. Otherwise, he may start sniffing, stopping and playing to avoid the job at hand. You can say “hurry up” and your dog will begin to associate these words with the task at hand. Praise him excessively when he has eliminated. Bring him back in the house and place him in his crate if you are going to work. Continue to supervise him with the crate or the lead if you are home. When returning after being out, go directly to the crate, let him out, praise him and put him back in. Feed him his meal, take him outside 15 minutes after he has eaten, praise him after he eliminates, and bring him back in. Continue to follow the same steps consistently.

While you are home, you should take your pup outside on a regular basis. Even if your pup is in a crate or on a house lead, he still needs the opportunity to eliminate. Also, be careful what you wish for! A pup who barks to go outside may be cute and clever now. However, you must try not to fall into the habit of leaping up every time your dog wants in or out. It is a very submissive gesture on your part. Have your pup wait a moment or two.

Setting up a schedule is also a good idea. If your pup is under four months of age, take him out for five minutes every hour on the hour. If your pup is over four months old, take him out every second hour on the hour. The schedule will help you remember when to take him out. Go out for five minutes only. It provides the opportunity to eliminate even if your pup may not need to go. Take your dog out after active play and also after napping. If an accident occurs, you may have forgotten to take him out .

FEEDING TIME
Having a puppy drink a lot of water and then placing him in his crate is much more unkind than letting him be a bit thirsty for an hour or two. Adult dogs should have access to drinking water at all times. However, this is not the case for untrained pups. Most parents will not allow their children to drink a big glass of water before going to bed. Avoid setting your pup up for failure. Restrict his water intake to three or four drinks daily and make sure you remove the water dish about three hours before bedtime. This will help your dog sleep more comfortably.

If it is a hot evening, supply your pup with a few ice cubes. They will enter your dog’s system at a slower pace. When feeding your pup, provide a high-quality food that is a good source of protein. The food must be concentrated so your puppy’s body doesn’t require much of it. If you feed less, your puppy eliminates less. Food is directly related to how well puppies do in their housetraining.

EXERCISE
It is important that your pup gets a lot of exercise, especially while crate training. You can play fetch, chase or hide and seek in your home. You can call ‘come’ at the same time to provide further training. Anyway you do it, your pup needs to be able to run and play.

Answer 2

We followed Lynnie Goodman's (of Wonderdogs!) advice stricly and seriosuly, it was EASY. I've used this technique for adults from rescue as well and have never really had a problem breaking them. The trick though is to be consistent and to really follow this for the first week or so. I know it's hard but the way i think about it, if you are strict up front, then they get trained much quicker and they get their freedom quicker. The more mistakes they have in the house, the harder it is so it's your job to make sure she doesn't have any accidents while she's learning...

Anyway, here's the technique:

1) 90 second rule:
a) Take pup outside on a leash to the exact same spot, be prepared by having very very special food treats in your pocket.
b) When you get to the potty place, stand still and make no eye contact and say nothing. Canine has 90 seconds to pee and/or poop. If canine eliminates, reward immediately and let it off the leash to play.
c) If nothing occurs after 90 seconds, go back inside the home and crate the canine. Crating after a no response is not punishment, its decreasing the ability of the canine using the home as a bathroom. Wait 20-30 minutes and return outside.

2) Timing of trips outside:
a) Immediately if the canine wakes up from a nap or when you arrive home.
b) 15-20 minutes after a meal or a large consumption of water or a play session.
c) Every 45 minutes excluding the above mentioned situations.

3) Increase supervision:
a) Canine is stationed on a 4 foot leash under supervision or dragging a 6 foot leash around that can be used to escort the canine outside.
b) When canine has an accident in the home, never never ever punish the animal. If you want, you can hit yourself with a newspaper. Through training, canines learn to eliminate in specific places and punishing them for an incorrect response is wrong.

Answer 3

Hi, I understand that you are looking for some advice or resources to help fully train your dog or fix behavior problems. If a professional dog trainer is not an option at this time, or if you want to trt training your dog on your own (a great way to bond), I'd suggest you https://bitly.im/aNNLa

A friend recommened it to me a few years ago, and I was amazed how quickly it worked, which is why I recommend it to others. The dog training academy also has as an excellent home training course.

Answer 4

Its alot of work house training a puppy as you are finding out. I had to watch my puppy all the time and as soon as I saw him start to sniff around I would run him outside and encourage him to go potty and when he did I gave him praise. I took about 2 or 3 weeks and he was trained. I think all puppies have an accident now and again. Good luck!

Answer 5

I haven't been on a train for a long time now, but I guess if I ever do travel through the train in the near future, I would like to read an interesting novel. Now that I imagine it, it seems like something I'll seriously look forward to.

Answer 6

puppies have extremely small bladders and need a lot of water so that causes us alot of problem depending on how young or old the puppies r there r different ways to train them.If they r 3 to 8 months put them in a small area by a door you can put them behind a baby gate . usually they wont make a mess in the place they will sleep un less they r like really small or extremely young. thats the best time to train them.

Answer 7

Dogs work well with consistent schedules. I crate trained my dog when he was a puppy. First thing when I get up is take him out, then feed him, then walk him again. Come home during lunch and take him out. Come home from work and take him out. Feed him and take him out. And take him out one more time before I go to sleep. I took him to the same spot every time.

Crate training forces them to hold their movements because it's in their nature to not soil their bed. I do not recommend this if you are going to coop you poor little dog in there for more than 3-4 hours at a time.

He's about 1.5 now and when he's inside he knows to go to the back door when he needs to go potty. I always keep an eye on him when he's inside. If he sees me, he might go running to the back door to let me know to let him out.

Answer 8

This sounds kinda wierd, but I left my backdoor open most of the day when I was home. The fence was secure enough so he could not get out and I just left it open for him to go in and out as he pleased. I just got another puppy and instead of leaving the door open, I invested in a dog door. The older dog helped to train the puppy to go outside.

Answer 9

You should have your dog on an eating schedule. Do not give your dog food late at night. I put my dog on an eating schedule. I gave him food then I would take him out right away. With puppies you have to take them outside very often. Especially after they eat or sleep. Now I leave the food down for him, and he doesn't have a problem.

Answer 10

Learn your puppies tinkle schedule and take him outside when it it's about that time. My puppy pee's every two hours and poops every six hours. So I take her outside every two hours. If you live in apartment you may want to train him to go on puppy training pads as well.
I trained mine to go outside and at night she goes on the pads.

By no means should you ever hit or rub your dogs nose in an accident. It's counter productive and will teach him to fear you everytime he makes his business. If he has an accident in the house just clean it up and move on :)

Answer 11

starting out = when trying to housebreak a puppy, make sure you take the puppy out to go to the bathroom (whereever you desire) frequently, so he/she knows where to go, when the puppy goes in the spot you wanted her/him to go, you should encourage it by giving him/her a small dog treat and/or with an excessive amount of attention at the time. and if the dog goes in a place you dislike, you have to discipline it. a light smack on the nose (sensitive area) will usually handle it. the smack shows that the puppy is not allowed to do their business there.