Parkway Animal Hospital's
PET OWNER'S GUIDE TO
Housebreaking Your Puppy
THE PUPPY MUST EARN HIS FREEDOM:
- Supervise the puppy constantly when he is loose in the house.
- Confine the puppy properly whenever you cannot supervise him.
Types of acceptable confinement include:
- Small, portable dog crate
- Safely fenced backyard or kennel
- A small area in the utility room or kitchen that has been boarded off so the puppy cannot injure himself or destroy property.
- Bathroom with floor protected
REWARD THE PUPPY PROPERLY FOR RELIEVING HIMSELF OUTSIDE.
- Take the puppy outside (on a leash) and praise the puppy when he relieves himself. Take the puppy to the same area of the yard for bathroom purposes each time. Use a verbal cue such as “Hurry Up,” “Go Potty,” “Do your Business,” etc. Say this in a gentle, quiet tone of voice. In the beginning, this will mean nothing to the dog, so do NOT become upset when he fails to respond. After 2-3 weeks, he will start to understand if his eliminating is followed by warm, sincere praise.
- Keep his bathroom area picked up except for the most recent stool.
- Give the puppy approximately 10 minutes to relieve himself. Do not form the habit of waiting 20-30 minutes for the puppy to eliminate. After he is consistently relieving himself within 10 minutes, gradually over a period of several weeks shorten the time span to 5 minutes
DO NOT REPRIMAND THE PUPPY FOR FAILING TO RELIEVE HIMSELF!
HAVE THE PUPPY ON A SCHEDULE FOR HIS MEALS AND OUTDOOR BREAKS.
FEED THE PUPPY ALL IT WILL EAT IN 10-15 MINUTES 3 TIMES EACH DAY.
Do not leave food down all day for him to nibble on. Continual input leads to continual output! If the puppy is fed on a precise schedule 7 days a week, his bowel movements will become very predictable.
HIGH QUALITY FOODS PRODUCE MUCH LESS STOOLS.
You get what you pay for in dog food. High quality foods are priced higher because they have much better quality (and digestible) ingredients. Cheaper foods use poorer quality ingredients, which are much less digestible and therefore produce more stools.
Housetraining will be much easier if you feed the best foods available. We recommend SCIENCE DIET GROWTH. For best results when feeding these foods, they should be fed exclusively not mixed with other foods to cut your cost. See PREMIUM PET FOODS for more information.
TAKE THE PUPPY OUTSIDE AFTER:
- Each meal
- Anytime he drinks water
- When he wakes up in the morning or from a nap
- When he plays hard, gets excited, or chews hard on his toys
- When he has a scheduled break
- When he gives you “intention signals” by CIRCLING or SNIFFING.
GOING OUTSIDE:
Pick the puppy up and carry him outside if he is small. Do not rush at the puppy and frighten him. Do not yell or threaten him. Simply get him outside as quickly and calmly as possible. Young puppies in the 8-12 week range will need to go out every 1-2 hours. Pups in the 12-16 week range will need to go out every 2-3 hours.
Do not expect a young puppy to tell you when he has to go out by barking at the door!
If you have taken the puppy out and he does not relieve himself, when you bring him back in, put him back in his crate or keep him on a leash with you and take him back out in 20-30 minutes. Do not let him wander through the house unsupervised after an unproductive trip outside. Sometimes puppies are distracted and actually forget why they are outside or that they needed to relieve themselves.)
BEDTIME:
- No food for 2 hours before bedtime.
- No water for 1 hour before bedtime. (Unless has exercised a lot.)
- Take the puppy outside for a break the last thing before bedtime. Place the puppy in the crate. (It is best to remove all collars & halters to avoid injury).
- Show no attention to the puppy once it is placed in the crate. Any attention you show (even yelling at it) simply tells the puppy that if it whines or cries, you will show it more attention. For the first few nights, you may want to place the crate in a different room where you can close the door so you do not hear the puppy crying or whining. Once the puppy has learned to stay quiet, many people prefer to move the crate to the bedroom. Later, after the puppy is thoroughly trained, many people will simply leave the door of the crate open (or even take the top of the crate off) and use this as the permanent bed for the puppy.
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Most puppies will make it through the night without accidents
if they are confine but, get them out immediately upon waking. The fact that the
puppy can go 8 hours at night does not mean it can go 8 hours during the
daytime. - Crate training depends upon the instinct of dogs to keep their beds clean. CONFINEMENT IS NOT CRUEL UNLESS ABUSED. See CRATING YOUR PUPPY for more information.
- For the crate to remain a positive, enjoyable retreat, the dog should never be placed in the cage for punishment. If social isolation or “time-out” techniques are used for punishment, an area such as a washroom, laundry room, or basement might work best.
- Never go to a crying puppy, as this would only serve to encourage (reward) the crying.
CORRECTIONS FOR HOUSETRAINING ACCIDENTS MUST BE MADE AT THE TIME THE PUPPY IS IN THE ACT OF MAKING THE MISTAKE!
CORRECTIONS ARE MADE IN THE FOLLOWING MANNER:
- Say the word “NO” in a firm, low tone of voice.
- Do not use the puppy’s name.
- Walk over to the puppy, take hold of him by the scruff of the neck, and turn him around so he is looking at the mistake.
- Give the puppy a short (2-3 sentences), verbal reprimand while he is looking at the mistake.
- Do not “rub his nose in it.”
- Do not yell, scream, hit, shake, threaten, slap, or in any other way react and frighten him.
- The reprimand is made in a firm, low-pitched tone of voice.
CLEAN UP THE MISTAKE THOROUGHLY USING AN ODOR NEUTRALIZER:
If the puppy urinates submissively (as he wiggles as he greets you or as he is being punished for misbehavior), do not punish him because he cannot control that behavior.
Most dogs will outgrow this as they mature
FOLLOW OUR ROUTINE PUPPY “WELLNESS PREVENTIVE HEALTH CARE PROGRAM.
It is important that your puppy have regular internal parasite examinations, as well as physical examinations to detect problems early that can cause constipation and/or diarrhea, which can upset your housetraining routine.
Anytime vomiting or loose stools are observed for more than 12 hours, your puppy should be examined to determine the cause.
COMMON MISTAKES TO AVOID
Giving the puppy too much unsupervised freedom while loose in the house.
Relying too much on punishment of bad behavior rather than teaching good behavior and trying to prevent bad behavior from happening. That means for housebreaking scheduling to get the puppy outside at proper times is much more important than punishing the puppy after an accident happens. Excessive reliance on punishment will not only impede housetraining but may also damage his emotional stability. Remember, your puppy is an infant. It is your job to teach it to want to be housetrained. Training not only takes effort and attention, it also takes time and patience. Puppies are just like “babies in diapers.” It takes time for them to learn what to do and for their bodies to mature enough to react properly.
