You’ll probably want to get started as soon as possible on housetraining your puppy after you’ve experienced the excitement and possibly crying of your puppy’s first night. There are a couple of key factors that go into potty training your little pup: patience and a routine.
Of course, house training your dog is going to involve more than just a being patient and following a schedule. You need to have some idea what exactly it is that you’re doing when you try to potty train your puppy. You also need to understand that accidents do happen. You can’t expect this new puppy to just naturally understand what’s going on.
Get on a Housetraining Schedule ~ Figure out when your puppy needs to go and get on that schedule. Stick to a routine and make sure you’re available during those times. Understand that your puppy will have to go more frequently the younger it is. You’ll probably have to get up during the night when she is very young but this will get better with age. Make sure you let your puppy go outside the very first thing in the morning. Don’t wait until it’s too late. If you’re going to be away for an extended period of time, especially early in your puppy’s life, make sure she has easy access to wherever you want her to go or find someone to help you out.
Make Opportunities Happen ~ Take your puppy outside to go to the bathroom even if she’s not showing signs of needing to go. If you give her the opportunity to go the bathroom outside, she might just realize she can go out there.
Repetitive Housetraining ~ As part of your routine, pick the same spot to go outside and use the same words. Then, if your puppy goes outside make sure there’s lots of praise and attention. Make sure she knows she’s doing something right. You can give her encouraging words or a little treat or whatever it is you use to praise your puppy.
What Goes in Must Come Out ~ You need to not only stick to a puppy housetraining routine but a feeding routine as well. Pay attention to when you can best feed your puppy and then how long afterwards she might need to go to the bathroom.
Accidents Happen ~ Of course your puppy will have an accident or two…or four or five. Don’t freak out and don’t lose hope. If you catch your puppy going in the house make a loud noise, but don’t scare her, and some sort of command like “Potty” or “Outside” and try to get to the potty spot outside so she can finish. Then don’t forget to offer some more praise and let her know she did a good thing.
Don’t yell at her, rub her nose in the mess or hit her. These will not work but will only make your dog afraid of you and possibly make it difficult for her to go to the bathroom in front of you, even outside. If you find a mess, just clean it up extremely well so she doesn’t think this is the new bathroom spot.