Tips and Tricks: House-training Your Puppy

Hello everyone and welcome to another post!

If you don’t already know, we got a puppy for Christmas/our first anniversary and let me tell you it is totally different from having a kitten.

I thought since we had Kevin for a few months, I was prepared for taking on a puppy.

I don’t know what I was thinking, Kevin and Cooper couldn’t be more different. Kevin will sit quietly on your lap purring up a storm while Cooper is a wiggle worm ball of wild energy. It is impossible to keep him still, which is to be expected because he is a puppy. I just thought he would calm down every once in a while so I can enjoy my coffee without being trampled in a storm of puppy love and affection.

But the differences between cats and dogs is a post for a another day.

I would like to talk about house-training puppies and dogs.

First let me say that having Kevin did not prepare me at all for the task of house-training a puppy.

Okay. Let’s jump right in!

General Information

Your puppy will take a little while to get used to their new home and because he or she is nervous to be in a new environment, they will probably have plenty of accidents during the first few days. Don’t let that discourage you. Your puppy is just young and learning which places are appropriate potty spots and which aren’t.

It is also important to remember that a puppy is young. They won’t be able to hold it for very long because they have short attention spans and tiny bladders. Patience and kindness are going to be your best friend during the house-training days.

One more thing to remember is that your puppy will display certain behavior such as sniffing the floor, going to a corner and just generally looking like they need to go. So make sure you pay attention and let them out in order to prevent accidents.

House-Training Tips

Put your puppy on a schedule. It took Cooper about a week before he got the hang of it, but he knows now when he can go outside, when its time to play, when its time to eat and when its time for bed.

Take your puppy outside before transitioning to another activity to prevent accidents. For example: Right after they wake up, take them out. Right after they eat, take them out. Right after they play, take them out. This way they have plenty of opportunities to relieve themselves out of the house.

Take your puppy to the same “potty spot” each time. This teaches them that there is one appropriate spot to do their business and that going in any other spots including in the house will not be acceptable.

Reward good behavior. Every time your puppy goes outside successfully, give them tons of verbal praise and a treat. This is more effective than punishing your puppy for having an accident. Think about it, if all you ever heard was negative feedback, you would probably get depressed and have anxiety. It’s the same way with puppies. They also have hormonal responses to the tone of your voice, so they release Oxytocin when they are praised (making them more likely to repeat the activity) and stress hormones when they are yelled at or hit (making them more nervous and more likely to have another accident).

So there you have it folks, those are the things I learned first hand from attempting to house-train a puppy after I spent hours researching “how to house-train a puppy”.

If you want to know more about Kevin, you can either check out my previous post New Kitten! or New Kitten: Name Reveal

If you want to know more about how I litter-box trained Kevin you are more than welcome to see my post Tips and Tricks: Litterbox Training

And if you want to know more about Cooper you can look at my post New Puppy: Welcome to the Fam Cooper!

Thanks for joining me today!

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