House Training Your New Puppy!

House training puppies is reasonably easy and requires patience and consistency. Here are some general guidelines that will help you and your family in housebreaking your new puppy:

• Your puppy should be taken outside, in your own yard on a leash, at least every 45 minutes to an hour.
  
  
• Wee-wee pads and or newspaper should not be used. This will confuse your puppy on where the proper place is to eliminate. Using wee-wee pads and or newspaper will encourage your puppy to go indoors.
  
  
• If you have already begun using wee-wee pads and or newspaper, you should bring these materials outdoors to a designated spot where you would like your puppy to go to the bathroom.
  
  
• Lavishing praise and rewards is encouraged when your puppy eliminates outdoors. HAVE PATIENCE, THIS WILL TAKE TIME.
  
  
• Do not reprimand your puppy for eliminating in doors unless you catch your puppy in the act. If you do observe this, ONLY A VERBAL REPRIMAND IS NECESSARY..DO NOT HIT YOUR PUPPY. This will make your puppy hand shy.
  
  
• If you find that your puppy has had an accident in the house without your knowledge, best to just ignore and clean up mess.
  
  
• Crate training is also an excellent way to housebreak puppies.
  
  
• Proper crate size is determined by the size of your pet. The crate should not be much larger than the puppy .You want the puppy to be able to lie down and turn around comfortably, if the crate is too big the puppy can use the bathroom on one side and lie down on the other side. As the puppy grows you may have to upgrade to a larger crate.
  
  

For more in depth and detailed information, please visit the housetraining section on Veterinary Partner.