Housetraining Your Puppy or Adult Dog: a Dog’s Point of View

The most important thing to remember when housetraining your dog is to use positive reinforcement. It is far more effective to ignore your dog when he eliminates where he shouldn't, than to yell at him, rub his nose in it, hit him,... This will only cause your dog to become afraid to eliminate in your presence. If on the other hand you praise your dog, give him treats, pet him... whenever he eliminates where you want him to, he'll quickly catch on to this and try to please you (and himself) by repeating the good behaviour.

Here are some basics you should keep in mind:

-All dogs are "naturally housetrained". By this I mean that every dog will try to avoid eliminating where he eats and sleeps. The mother dog will reinforce this behaviour the first weeks. As soon as you take the puppy home with you, it's up to you to fine-tune it; teach him where and even when he should eliminate.

-At 7 or 8 weeks, about the time you take your puppy home, he will develop a preference of surface to eliminate on. They particularly prefer an absorbent surface like grass, paper, pads and of course your expensive living room rug. You can help your dog make the right choice by using an indoor dog potty like the Wizdog indoor potty.

-For a puppy, indoors is just as good as outdoors (maybe even better; safe, warm and dry). Your puppy focuses on surface, smell and location, so teach him at an early age where you prefer for him to eliminate, for example only on grass or sod, only in your backyard. Keep in mind though that you might someday take your dog somewhere with no grass, sod,...this might cause a problem because your dog might refuse to eliminate altogether. Nothing to worry about if it's only for a couple of hours, but you might want to consider housetraining your dog using a portable dog potty to prevent him from "crossing his legs" for hours on end.

-As dogs prefer to keep their sleep/eat area clean, using a crate can be very helpful when housebreaking your dog. Just remember not to leave your pooch in a crate for more than 4 hours.

-Never forget that your puppy is just that, a puppy. He can't hold up as long as an adult dog, so accidents will happen. But he will send out signals to let you know it's time to go potty. Going around in circles, sniffing are good indicators. If you catch you puppy in the act, you can pick him up and put him where he should eliminate. Puppies immediately stop eliminating when picked up, so you don't have to worry about cleaning up a whole trail.

To start using the Wizdog indoor potty and get a free e-book go to the Wizdog website