House Breaking your Puppy Like a Pro—Your Ultimate Guide

When it comes to house breaking, there’s really no easy way out. You need to give your pup patience and a lot of time. Unless you invest on their potty training, you’re most likely to come back with “surprises” in the living room and chewed up slippers in the morning. The only way to keep pets responsibly it by house breaking them well. Here are tips you can follow to make the job easier.

Newspaper training vs. walks

The lazy man’s way of house breaking a puppy is by placing newspapers on specific doggie “go” spots. However, this is only good for the meantime. Especially if you’re keeping a large dog, you might have a hard time getting them to unlearn what you’ve taught them once they’re older.

As much as possible, you should train your dogs to do their business only when they’re outdoors. You can do this by making sure that they’re not kept in enclosed spaces for too long. Putting them in a kennel the whole day and letting them leave little surprises for you in their play area is not a good thing. Take them out of the kennel or out of the apartment every thirty minutes so they can do their business outdoors. The first stages of house breaking a puppy may be meticulous, but it’ll pay off in the end.

You should watch out for signs that your puppy needs to go especially during the first few weeks of training. These signs include walking around in circles while sniffing a particular spot. Even adult dogs do this when they’re about to do their business. When you see your pet behaving this way, take them out of the kennel and/or the apartment as soon as possible. After two to three weeks, you’ll find that they’ll actually be calling you when they need to go. As they grow older, their “toilet intervals” will decrease as well, and just like in babies, you won’t have to keep your eye on them every minute anymore.

Nice vs. Hitler

Some dog owners muzzle their pet’s faces near the doggy droppings in the false belief that they’ll recognize this as a “punishment” for a mistake. Contrary to this belief, you’re actually just confusing your pet more when you do this. You’re also being very mean as an owner, and you shouldn’t be allowed to keep pets if you treat animals this harshly.

Instead of punishing them whenever they make mistakes, talk to them in a calm but firm tone. A single “No!” can be recognized by your pet as a negative reaction. Make sure that you’re standing up as you say this because height, for your pet dogs, signifies domination. They’ll follow you as long as you’re recognized as the leader of the pack. Keep on repeating the same routines until your pet gets it, and don’t be stringy with the praises and treats when they do get what you want them to do.

Positive training is always the better approach to house breaking. Remember, your pets aren’t your slaves, so you don’t need to take the whip out every time they commit a mistake. They’re very young, and they should be treated with as much care as possible.

Kennel toys

Toilet training isn’t the only area in house breaking that we need to cover. Like babies, your puppies are also bound to “teeth”. When they’re bored, or teething, your pooches might chew on the sofa or the slippers or your favorite book. Make sure that they have enough kennel toys to chew on when you’re not there to keep an eye on them.

However, you should also make sure that these kennel toys don’t resemble the very things you don’t want them to destroy. For example, if you don’t want them chewing on your shoes, don’t give them shoes, even if they are old shoes, for toys. Pets learn by repetition, and you need to be very careful with what you’re consciously and unconsciously teaching them during house breaking.