Housebreaking, Housebreaking a puppy

Posts Tagged ‘Housebreaking’

Successfully house breaking a puppy is possibly the main issue in the minds of new owners when bringing home their pups.
Praise vs. Punishment

Yet it is training that can be quite easily accomplished if approached the right way and with the right attitude.  Housebreaking entails patience, kindness and awareness.  Establishing a routine for your puppy and learning to read the signs will prevent a lot of stress, for both of you.

Puppies don’t bode well in an atmosphere of fear and anxiety. A puppy needing to go to the bathroom is natural – it is not naughty behavior and should not be treated as such.  A puppy should not be shouted at, smacked, kicked or jerked around. They should be admonished when accidents happen and praised when they do something right.  They should not be punished.  A gentle and kind approach will reap far more rewards from your puppy than punishment.  If a puppy is consistently punished they will learn how to hide the evidence, but worse than that they could develop behavior problems.

After all housebreaking a puppy is about tailoring or focusing their behavior not about trying to break them of a habit.

Routines

It is simply not possible for a puppy to be trained in a day or two.  As with a human baby a puppy has no control over their bodily functions.  As they grow older they will become more reliable.  This means that it is up to the owner to take control over the situation.  They need to be vigilant and be consistent.  Knowing in advance when a puppy is ready to ‘go’ and reading the signs correctly, will ensure successful housebreaking.

There are many techniques to help an owner read the signs.  With the correct training techniques and owner will make their own lives easier as well as their puppy’s life.  A puppy needs to be taught how to integrate into an owner’s life. They live to please their owners and will do almost anything to do so.  However an owner must be able to instill a sense of trust in their puppy.  With the right housebreaking techniques this can be accomplished.

Putting routines in place will not only encourage housebreaking but will also offer the owner a housebreaking agenda that is easy to follow.

In Summary

Housebreaking a puppy should be beneficial for both owner and puppy.  Instead of traumatizing, it should bond.  If a puppy is shown what behavior is expected of them they will happily comply. There are techniques that if followed will ensure the process is as stressless as possible.

A puppy should be put onto a routine from the first day it arrives.  It should be shown what to do and when to do it.  Praise should be given and physical punishment withheld.  Housebreaking calls for high levels of patience from owner and a positive attitude.  The onus is on the owner to ensure that housebreaking is conducted in a manner that will not have an adverse or negative effect on a puppy.

The Yorkshire Terrier is like a potato chip, you can’t have just one. Yorkies are great as pairs and you can even have two males or two females without having any disagreements. They are suited to living in close quarters and need close companionship to thrive. Once you’ve decided to get your Yorkies and take them home, you’ll need to housebreak them. Housebreaking your Yorkies may be easier than you think. Not only can you train them to have a bowel movement on command, but you can control where they go too.

When it comes to housebreaking a puppy, one of the first things that you have to contend with is feeding. What goes in must come out. Generally speaking, a dog will have to poop 15 to 20 minutes after a meal. The easiest way to housebreak Yorkies is to feed them regular meals and take them out in an acceptable timeframe. After a little while, you will know when your puppy will need to go and thus increase your chances of successfully training your Yorkies to poop at the right time.

As an example, if you give your Yorkies three meals per day, expect them to have three bowel movements per day. As puppies, they should be fed at least three times per day, but when adults, that can be decreased to two times per day, maybe even once per day depending on the situation. Housebreaking a puppy and getting them to poop and pee where you want them to is the same when you transition them to a different feeding schedule.

Puppies will need to pee more often than an adult and should therefore be allowed to urinate several times per day. They will often pee on the same outing as pooping, but they also will need to go out more times throughout the day to go pee. When you begin housebreaking a puppy, taking them out often is the key. You will need to come up with a consistent command; “Poop” and “Pee” are good because they’re one word and can be preceded by “Go” and/or your Yorkies name.

As you begin your training to housebreak any puppy, you should have your puppy on a leash even if you are in a fenced in yard. This gives you control over where your puppy can go. It’s best to start out with a loose grip on the leash. Let your Yorkies take you where they want to and when they stray away from a certain area, correct them with the leash and take them back to the appropriate area and be sure to give the proper command as you do so.

Once the deed is done, give lots of praise. Have a conversation with your Yorkies. “Good girl go poop.” Along with physical contact and petting, this is a good way to housebreak a puppy. Lather, rinse and repeat often until they get it and you will have mastered the art of housebreaking puppy.

Housebreaking a puppy should be based on prevention rather than punishment. A key to housebreaking a puppy or dog for that matter is close supervision. In just a matter of seconds your puppy can have an accident, so to help prevent that from occurring you should watch for signs that your puppy needs to potty. If your puppy starts to run in circles, sniffing at the door or suddenly runs out of site, that he/she is trying to let you know it’s potty time.
Another way that helps in housebreaking a puppy is keeping his diet consistent. High quality premium brand dry puppy food is a better choice that canned food or table scrapes. If you need to change his food for any reason try and do it gradually over a period of 5-8 days, gradually increasing the amount of new food each day. Remember, the more changes you make the more difficult housebreaking your puppy will be.

During the day when your puppy can not be supervise I highly recommend your puppy or young dog be kept in a crate or a small confined area. If done properly crate training is a safe and very effective way of housebreaking a puppy. In order for the crate to be used in housebreaking a puppy it should not be used for long periods of time or for punishment.

This my sound like common sense but puppies need to urinate soon after they eat, drink water or sleep, those having troubles housebreaking a puppy tend not to think about that. Another thing that is over looked is the fact that most puppies over 13 weeks of age will need to go 8 or 10 times a day.

So, keep a record of your puppies potty times for a few days. The secret to housebreaking a puppy is figuring out the amount of time between potty times and subtracting about 15 – 20 minutes. For housebreaking a puppy we call the “Safety Zone”. By doing this we can figure out how long our little puppy can be trusted to hold out after his last potty break.

Another trick to housebreaking a puppy is not setting him up to fail, what I mean by this not allowing him access to areas carpeting, rugs, ect. Puppies like certain areas to do their business, when you find one (or he does), make a note of it and try and keep him away from it.

When your little angel does have an accident despite his best intentions use a neutralizer with an enzyme based deodorizer to clean the area…there are a number of pet safe products available and should be added to your housebreaking kit.

One area that is overlooked is submissive peeing, it is completely involuntary and scolding your puppy for it will do more harm than good and should be avoided at all cost.

The last thing you need to do when housebreaking a puppy is to use lots of praise. Find a trigger word both you and your puppy can live with and use that in combination with praise and rewards as soon as your puppy potties ( I use “go potty”). This positive reinforcement lets your puppy know that you’re pleased with him and he’ll try even harder to please you.

Those are just a few of the tips for housebreaking a puppy. I hope this helps both you and your puppy.

Housebreaking a dog is the formation that takes place in training your pet to abide by rules so that it can live among you and your family without bad habits and there are many methods that can be used for housebreaking a dog.
One of the most talked about methods that I am aware of is the crate method and works in a way that teaches the dog to treat your house as its den. This is because dogs like other animals do not like to soil on their own ground and works with all dog breads when executed in the correct way.

Of course there are other elements that come into house breaking a dog such as the behaviour and temperament that the dog presents when it is in your home and for some dogs that are not trained and are new to your house, this can be difficult to master and instil in the dog.

There are many methods that work without the use of products and such and even for the most disobedient of dogs, with the right training method, housebreaking a dog can be easy even if your dog has issues that you think you will never be able to get rid of.

There are many manuals floating around the internet that focus on housebreaking a dog but they mostly focus on certain aspects of training for certain problems that a dog owner might face such as barking, jumping up, chewing and so on.

Having this said I set out to look for a comprehensive guide on housebreaking a dog that was both full of information and at the same time was in the reach of most dog owners because as we all know this can be a costly route to go down if you are going to try different methods of training and with this said I have found one that fits this criteria perfectly.

So what is this guide focused on…? It is that as the title says; Housebreaking a Dog

This all in one guide covers housebreaking, barking, chewing and much more and so I found this to be the best all in one guide I could find and it comes in the form of audio which I am sure you will agree, is a lot more easier to listen and learn than read because sometimes you can get lost and let your thoughts run away.

For me it was the perfect solution because I could listen to the audio provided and just takes notes on the specifics to what I needed and this was EXACTLY how to housebreak a dog and found it easier than reading a book or the new format a PDF eBook.

I hope you do take the time to have a look at this resource because like me it has helped many other people in getting the most out of training there dog without having to shell out in getting a professional trainer or by trying lots of different products.