Potty training your new puppy doesn’t mean you have to be armed with a roll of paper towels for the next six months. Housebreaking your new pooch can be fairly easy and we’ve covered the basic principles to potty training below that will hopefully make the whole process just a little easier.
What Goes in Must Come Out
Puppies urinate pretty often because their bladders are so small (once every thirty minutes or so). Learning how often your new pup pees is one of the most important points to potty training. Once you’ve figured out how often they urinate, anticipate this time and take them to a designated area to do their business.
Food doesn’t take that long to go through a puppy’s system. It’s a good idea to take a puppy out about 15 to 20 minutes after they eat so they can poop. The best case situation is to schedule a walk around that time so they will get used to where they will pee and poop.
The Closer the Better
Dogs have a natural den instinct, which means they don’t want to soil their home, but this instinct has to be encouraged. By showing your pooch where he or she should go to the bathroom, you’ll help designate in her mind the boundaries of “home” and “bathroom”. Make sure the chosen bathroom is close and convenient so you can get them to their spot before they have an accident.
Habit Makes Perfect
Keeping a strict bathroom routine will help your pup learn where and when to go much faster. This involves a little more then just taking your pup to the same place at the same time. Make sure that you also vocalize a similar phrase (such as Let’s go potty now”) every time you take them to the bathroom and that you use the same route and even go through the same door to the same spot each time. Your pup will start to associate that routine with going to the bathroom and help them understand where and when they should go.
Good luck with your new pup!
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