Tips for Toilet Training Fido
Owning a new puppy can be an extremely exciting experience. Most individuals fall in love with their dogs as soon as they see them in a pet shop window, but many fail to realize all the training and responsibility that goes along with taking care of a pet. One of the most difficult aspects of being a new dog owner is trying to train your dog to use the bathroom outside, rather than using the living room rug. While it may be difficult and at times taxing on your patience, once you get through it all, it will have been well worth it and a very necessary process to endure.
One of the first things you need to do when training your dog to use the bathroom outside is to train your dog to go at specific times. Setting up a fixed time to go to the bathroom will help you greatly in training him. You should set up some time for after meals, at night just before you and your family go to bed, and also after you get up in the morning. Typically, your dog will need to use the bathroom 15-20 minutes after a meal, so make sure that they are on a regular meal schedule, as this will help enforce your fixed toilet time.
Another great tip to help you along in the outdoors toilet training process is to use the exact same signal phrases each time your dog goes outside to the bathroom. If, for example, you use the phrase “go potty” the first few times, you will have to keep on using it from that time on. Don’t try and switch up the signal phrases, because you may confuse your dog and he may not go when you let him out.
It’s important to keep in mind that potty training a puppy isn’t that much different than teaching the puppy to sit, stay, or fetch. By getting your dog to understand that it needs to hear the command before going to the bathroom, your dog understands that it can’t just go whenever it wants, but that it needs permission first. This will help make sure that your dog realizes it’s not allowed to go in the house, and in the long run will save you a lot of cleaning up.
Once your dog has returned inside the house, make sure you reward the dog for doing as it was told. Dogs in general respond very well to praise and reward, as this helps to condition their behavior. By affirming that your dog did the right thing, you increase the chances of your dog repeating this behavior later on. There are a lot of tools available to help aid you in this process. One tool that you may find very helpful, especially if you have a very young puppy, are puppy pads. These pads are placed around the house and you train your dog to only go on the pads and not on the carpet or floor. Eventually you can work on getting them outside.
It’s important to remember to be patient with your pet during the training process. There will still be times when they go in the house, so be sure to correct them, but do so with love and gentleness. Try not to get discouraged if it takes a long time to get a dog housebroken, just hang in there and keep on trying. Some dogs will catch on a lot faster than others. Each dog is different, so keep that in mind when you’re training.
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