Puppy House Training Guidelines

Consistency is the key to puppy house training…and that means “It’s good to pee outside and bad to pee inside.” If you allow your pet to pee indoors on paper placed in a particular spot but nowhere else indoors…or start her off paper-training her inside and then try to teach her to eliminate outside later on…you are sending mixed signals. You are saying “You can pee here, but not there” or “I used to let you go inside but now you can only go outside.” If, for whatever reason, your puppy will only be going on paper or in an indoor litter box, then please refer to the Puppy Potty Training lesson (coming up in my next blog post).

Keep it Simple for Your Puppy

Just like humans, puppies have to go when they get up in the morning, after eating or drinking and when they get excited! Take them outdoors after each and stay with them until they go. You are training your puppy by not giving them any choice.

Heap loads of praise on your puppy when they go outside. In Dove’s dog training program (with over 50 videos) you can hear exactly how to talk to your puppy to produce the fastest results while house training.

First Days In His New Home

Dogs go by smell and so if he poops in your house (while you are away or not watching to see what he’s up to) he’ll want to return to his “favorite spot.” If an accident happens, you’ll need to clean it up right away with an odor-removing product.

Here’s a tip: If you keep a record of feeding times and how much later (usually 30-60 minutes) your puppy needs to go, then you’ll be able to predict his movements…so to speak. Crate training will make your life (and your puppy’s life) easiest.

I’m a big believer in crate training. It’s easiest to clean (especially if you get a plastic crate), easy to move, and very durable. There’s more information on crate training in the lessons library.