For a person who loves dogs, there is nothing more satisfying than owning a puppy and watching it grow up. There are many things that you and the puppy will discover about each other en route to establishing a long and trusting relationship. One thing that must be accomplished first if you are planning on having the puppy stay indoors for any amount of time is housebreaking, or house training. Fortunately, a puppy learns things very fast, and house training can be learned very quickly. It goes without saying that while the puppy is at a young age, this is the best time to establish his house training. It is crucial to get the house training routine established correctly the first time, because it is hard to break a bad habit once it is ingrained.
Watching the puppy during the initial house training phase is one of the most important things you can do. Keep a close eye on the puppy while at the same time observing the time. If your puppy is very active, and the weather is nice outside, it is nothing wrong with taking him outside more than once an hour. A puppy's metabolism is so fast, that he must consume more water than he would if he were fully grown. Also, to feed this high metabolism, he must eat a lot more often. With all of this food and water going in, it is easy to understand that he has to "go" more often.
You may want to try house training your puppy by using the paper method, which basically has the puppy using the bathroom on newspapers. Teaching your puppy to relieve himself indoors, then expecting him to make the transition to relieve himself outdoors will tend to confuse your young puppy. Actually, this technique will make it more difficult and take longer to house train your puppy. By teaching your puppy to "go" outside, he will learn that it is not acceptable to "go" in the house. Also, the puppy could get in the habit of relieving itself near the newspaper rather than on the newspaper. It is vital that you keep the puppy on a regular schedule by having him "go" outside.
Another system, known as the "crate" system, has been shown to have very good results. You keep the puppy in a crate for about an hour, and then take the puppy outdoors so he can relieve himself. The crate system trains the puppy to "hold it" until he is given the chance to relieve himself in an area chosen by you. The logic behind this system is that a puppy doesn't want to mess up its living area if it doesn't have to. If your puppy does relieve himself in the crate, it was because he could no longer hold it and because you kept him in the crate too long. This could have a negative impact on this training method if he does relieve himself in the crate.
House training a puppy is an essential step in dog training if you would like your puppy to establish good habits from the beginning. Being consistent and giving you puppy a lot of praise is an important part in house training your puppy. Understand that the process may take a while and it is important to remember that whenever the puppy has an accident during training, it is okay. You should just increase the frequency of trips outside. If the puppy has an accident after training has ended, don't punish him. Merely return back to the training process temporarily and you'll be back on track in no time.
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