Puppy Potty Basics – How to House Train

To quickly get your puppy house trained, you would have to be vigilant and on twenty-four duty every day.  Since that is not likely to happen, expect that your puppy may not be fully house trained until about five to seven months of age, depending on when you started. Be advised that puppies eat and drink a lot.  After all, they are growing so quickly! Therefore, be prepared for lots of "bathroom breaks." Puppies burn off a lot of calories and they also have not developed much control on their bodily functions.  It will seem for a while that all your puppy does is pee, poop and eat!

There are a few things to know when house training.  First of all, do you know what you should do when you are not at home?  You should close your puppy in to a single room that has been dog-proofed and the floor lined in plenty of newspaper to capture the accidents. Make sure that his special toys, bed, food and water are there for him.  Initially, your puppy will have no system or care in the world as to where he poops and pees.   He will probably play in the newspapers, chew them up and even scatter them all over his room. It is important to change the newspapers every day to ensure that your puppy and the room stay clean.

When you puppy is in his room lined with newspapers, he is starting to realize that he can only perform his bodily functions on the paper.  And as he gets older and accustomed to his paper-lined room, he will start preferring one area of the papered room over another.  Once he develops a routine and the same one area becomes his "permanent" elimination spot, start taking away some of the newspaper in the room, typically some of the papers in the outside perimeter.  As time goes on, slowly take away more newspaper until all you are left with is his favorite elimination spot. 

The point to house training using the newspapers is that once your puppy understands to only go on the newspaper, you can eventually move his elimination spot from the puppy-proofed room to a location of your choice.  Remember though that small steps are necessary so you don’t run into the "one step forward and two steps back" problem.  And if he misses the newspaper after you move it a little one day, move it back for a few days.  In time, you will have moved the papered elimination location to your desired spot and the puppy along with it.

When you are home, continue the house training routine as mentioned above.  However, you can take a more active part in his house training by physically taking him to his elimination spot every forty-five minutes to an hour.  There are some specific times when you should do this too:  immediately after eating and drinking; right after play time with you; and also right after waking from a nap or sleep.

Be sure to heap the praise and love on him when he eliminates in the appropriate spot. However, do not get upset and raise your voice when he has an accident.  After all, he is essentially a "child" and is still learning.  Don’t become overconfident as he house trains.  You need to slowly introduce other parts of the home to him.  And when you cannot actively take him to his potty spot or watch him, be sure to place him back in his newspaper lined puppy room.