Here at Misty Ridge Kennel it is important that we provide you as a new puppy owner with information that will make your new puppy a joy to live with. We encourage you to follow the following steps as you housebreak your new puppy. This information is provided by Andrea Arden. Her web site www.DogTraining101.com has a host of informative books available for you.
1. Supervision: When you are home and want to spend time with your puppy, keep him on a leash by your side or tethered right near you while he rests or plays with his toys. This way he can't run around your house and make mistakes. Just as with a confinement area, this is a temporary measure until your dog is house or chew toy trained and can be trusted to spend time alone loose in the house. Until then, he can't get into trouble if you are attached to the other end of the leash.
2. When to go: Every 45-60 minutes take your 8-10 week old pup to his toilet area. The older your pup gets, the less frequently you need to take him to his toilet and the more time he can begin to spend off-leash in one room with you supervising him. Wake your pup as early as you can. Carry him, attaching the leash as you go, to his doggie toilet (either indoors on paper or outdoors on concrete or grass. Use of the leash, even indoors on paper or in a fenced in yard, serves many purposes-you can express immediate approval and your dog learns to go in the specific spot you have chosen rather than all over your lawn.
If you are taking your puppy outdoors, choose an area of about ten square feet as his designated toilet. Pace back and forth-and don't talk to your pup (this will only distract him). If he eliminates, give him lots of praise, tiny treats and play! If he doesn't eliminate within 5 minutes carry him back indoors and hold him in your lap for 5 minutes. Then take him back out to try again. This way your dog will become a prompt eliminator-especially useful on a rainy night.
After a successful potty session bring him back indoors for a 15 minute on leash play/training session before tethering your dog to your side or putting him back in his kennel and feeding him breakfast.
After about 45 minutes to an hour carry him back to his doggie toilet and let him relieve himself again. If you will be at home with your puppy throughout the day, continue this routine of taking your dog to eliminate and play/train every hour or so.
If you leave your home for the day, confine your pup to his long-term area while you are gone for more than 3 hours. When you get home, resume the routine of frequent trips to eliminate.
Make sure your pups last feeding and watering is 4 hours before bedtime so that he has plenty of time to empty out before he goes to bed. A very young pup should sleep in a long term confinement area unless you are willing to wake up and take him to his toilet in the middle of the night. In this case your pup can sleep in his kennel by your bed.
3. The Kennel as a Housetraining Aid (Short Term): In order to get your dog to the right place at the right time you need to know when he needs to eliminate. A kennel is one of the most efficient and effective aids to housetraining because it helps you to accurately predict when your dog needs to eliminate.
Most dogs don't like to soil their resting/sleeping quarters if given adequate opportunity to eliminate elsewhere. So, temporarily confining your dog to a small area strongly inhibits the tendency to urinate and defecate. If your dog does not eliminate while in his kennel, then he is building bladder and bowel control and will need to eliminate when he is released.
When you are home but can't attend to your puppy, let him rest in his kennel and take him on leash to his doggie toilet every hour for very young puppies and a little less frequently as he gets older. Take him to the same area to eliminate and give him five minutes to do so. When he goes give him a treat or praise him highly. Now you can take him for a walk or play/training session. Be sure to kennel your puppy a few times each day when you are home, so that kenneling does not always predict that you are leaving.
4. The Kennel as a Housetraining Aid (Long Term): The major purpose of long-term confinement is to restrict "mistakes" to a small protected area. It is unrealistic to expect a young puppy to have sufficient control to "hold it" for more than a few hours. So, when you need to leave your puppy for longer periods of time, confine him to an area where he has access to a doggie toilet, such as paper or a square of artificial grass turf in a pan. This is a temporary measure until your dog is old enough to be able to "hold it" for longer.
It is important to cover the entire floor with paper so your pup learns to go on paper, not the flooring underneath. While your puppy is confined, he is developing a habit of eliminating on paper because no matter where he goes, it will be on paper.
After a week or so, gradually reduce the area that is papered. Eventually you will only need to leave a few sheets down in that area. If he ever misses the paper, then you've reduced the area too soon. Go back to papering a larger area or even the entire room.
Unless you intend on having an adult dog who eliminates on paper (as well as outside), you can plan on getting rid of the paper by the time the pup is about 5-6 months old and/or has developed sufficient bladder and bowel control to be able to hold it in his kennel for 3-4 hours in between walks.
5. Mistakes and Accidents: If you find an accident in the house don't reprimand your dog. All this will do is teach your dog that you don't like to see him eliminate, in which case, he is unlikely to eliminate in front of you outside. Instead, he will do so when you aren't looking or in a hidden spot - such as behind the couch.