House breaking

Unfortunately, house breaking your puppy takes time and a lot of patience usually. On average, puppies prefer to do their business around six times per day. It is particularly important to take the puppy for a walk for this purpose after every meal. If your puppy is turning around in circles, it is a good indication that it wants to go and relieve itself.

There are various methods that you can try to be successful in housebreaking your puppy. You can try to use a crate to prevent the dog from relieving itself in the floor or always keep the dog inside rooms with hard, easily cleanable floors to reduce the problems if it does go. It is important to realise that your dog may not fully understand what housebreaking involves. You need to tell your dog, in a firm, clear voice that the act of relieving itself is not appropriate. This needs to be done when your dog is trying to relieve itself and not five minutes afterwards. It will not associate the two issues otherwise (the act and the mess it has made) with being a problem.

It may understand that in displeases you but won't realise that it is the mess and not the act that is the problem. Simply state in a clear, firm voice ‘no' and tell the dog it is not allowed to relieve itself inside the home. When you see the dog going to do its business, quickly take it outside and after it has done what it has to do, praise it thoroughly so it learns that going outside instead of in the home is a very good thing indeed. After a while, the dog will begin to associate the act with being the problem and learn to hold it all in until the appropriate time such as when going out for a walk.

Smaller dogs that permanently remain inside may require paper training. Place several newspapers down in the corner of the room in which it eats and drinks and take the puppy there after every meal. Remove the top sheet of newspaper and leave the rest after it goes and the puppy will tend to prefer this area of the home to any others as it can still smell the scent of its business even after you have removed the top sheet.