Housebreaking a Puppy : Information, Advice & Tips

Housebreaking a puppy is the process of training your dog to defecate and urinate in the place that you want it to. As puppies cannot hold their urine or bowels until they are about three months old, they need to be taught where is appropriate to relieve themselves through housebreaking.

Housebreaking a puppy often takes a lot of time. It is important to understand that the learning skills of your puppy may be entirely different from the skills of another; therefore, training should not be rushed.

To start the housebreaking process, you should keep your puppy in a crate or a small room in your home. This place should be secured not by a closed door, but a baby gate. In this new place, your puppy will learn to stand up, run around and curl up; it must find comfort in this place before it goes on to the actual training.

It is thought that the best approach to housebreaking a puppy is to set, and stick to, a simple routine. If you are consistent with your training, you will find that your puppy will learn faster and better. Regularly changing a puppy's routine will confuse it, and confused puppies make slow, if any, progress.

The next step in housebreaking a puppy is determining the area of your yard that you want your puppy to use as its potty area. This is where your puppy will do all of its training as this is going to be your puppy's comfort zone.

What you should do is take your little dog to the potty area every so often. Wait around in the area until it begins to defecate or urinate, and then give the puppy a treat. You will have to do this to let your puppy know that it is doing what you want and that you are pleased with its behavior.

You always have to reward your dog for a job well done. It can be great if you incorporate useful words like go poo or pee in there, so that whenever the puppy hears you say those words, he knows exactly what he is supposed to do.

Keep in mind that it is important to do go through this process regularly. Take your puppy to his comfort zone as soon as it wakes up in the morning and just before it goes to sleep at night.

Another important consideration to take into account is the puppy's feeding schedule. Housebreaking a puppy can definitely be made easier if he has a consistent feeding schedule.

Feed your puppy according to a schedule so that you can begin to learn its bowel and urine habits. You decrease the chances of your puppy urinating or defecating in an appropriate place if you know when it is going to have to relieve itself.

Finally, it is important to ensure that your puppy is getting the right diet, as some types of food will cause irregular bowel movements. Stick to plain foods meant for dogs to begin with, and only introduce plate scraps and leftovers when it has made good progress.

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