Guidelines on House Training a Puppy

A lot of experts agree that bringing a new puppy into the home at the age of 7 weeks will make training and socialization a lot easier. If you wait until the puppy is 12 weeks of age or older you will be challenged with breaking habits the dog may have already formed that are unacceptable to living in your home. One of the most frequently asked questions is when do you begin house training a puppy?

You are actually training the puppy the minute you introduce it into your home. This takes a lot of time and patience. You are essentially altering a puppy's instinctive behavior patterns into behavior that is appropriate for inside your home. Remember, puppy training is all about forming good habits. If you let your puppy run wild and do whatever it wants, bad habits will result. You will find that it takes much less time to form good habits than to correct bad ones later.

You should never use any training technique that brings mental or physical pain to your puppy. You have brought your puppy into your home and it is now a part of your family. It will look to you as its protector and reach out to you, in its adorable canine way, for love and security. A puppy will respond to positive reinforcement. When it understands what you want, it will be eager to perform in the manner you want because of the way you behave when it succeeds.

The most important rule to house training a puppy is if you didn't see the puppy exhibiting inappropriate behavior, don't punish it for it. Mistakes are going to happen. Your puppy is adjusting to its new environment and you are adjusting to your new puppy. Discipline will not help unless you catch the puppy in the act. Besides, its not really the puppy's fault. If you had been watching you would have noticed the puppy's behavior and known it was time to go potty.

Don't just use "No" when you catch your puppy doing something wrong. Praise your puppy when it does something right. Specific verbal communication will also help the relationship between you and your puppy. Always try to use the same word as a signal for your puppy. For example, consistently using the word "outside" to let your puppy know you want to go outside.

There are several methods for potty training puppy. You can put down papers or treated pads. When you observe your puppy in its "pre-potty" pattern you pick them up and carry them to the papers or pad. Don't forget to praise your puppy when they go to the bathroom.

These were just a few tips on house training a puppy. Now that your new puppy is home you will want to create an environment that benefits both you and your puppy. It can be tiresome, frustrating, and sometimes seem very difficult. But in the long run, all your and your puppy's efforts will be worth it.

90% of puppy owners experience house training problems. You can easily change things for you and your puppy and get a positive house training experience.