Navigation:
HOUSE TRAINING !!!
Ohhh... The Joy of House Training !!!
Well..... I thought I was going to get out of creating this house training page the easy way, by finding a website on the internet with the perfect information and linking to it!!!But I didn’t find one I really liked so here goes.
I have trained many, many pups and have found a system that works quite well. It is a combination of crate training and paper training.
If pups are given enough room, pups will sleep in one spot, eat in another and poop and pee in another spot. I see pups who are just barely walking, crawl away from their sleeping area to go to the bathroom. My puppy pens are big enough that the pups can do this.
I also have a larger room that I let the pups play in. When the pups are about 5 weeks old, I cover the entire playroom floor with newspaper. The pups naturally want to go to the far corners of the room to go to the bathroom. Every week that goes by I can pick up more papers from the center of the room. Bye the time pups are ready to go to new homes around 8 weeks, I only have to leave paper in the corner of the rooms as the pups are almost completely paper trained by that time.
HOWEVER..............
You do not want to rely on the newspaper too much, or you will have a pup that goes outside to play and comes in to pee on the newspaper. If this happens try putting some newspaper outside (especially paper that has been peed on) for a while to help with the transition. For those of you who want to use "Puppy Pads" the pups are not familiar with these and you would probably have to cover the entire floor (choose a small room or area) with the Puppy Pads until your pup is used to peeing on them.
So, lets start with the pups first night at your home.
Your pup may cry on his first night away from the rest of the litter. I find the way to deal with this is to let the pup sleep in a crate beside my bed. It helps to put the crate on a chair so that the pup can see you. The crate should be just big enough that the pups can stretch out and sleep. If it is too big, the pup may think that he can go to the bathroom in the crate.
So let’s say now you and your pup have been sleeping peacefully for a couple of hours and your pup wakes you up. Put your shoes on and carry that pup outside. Walk slowly around the area that you want your pup to use as the bathroom. You can use a verbal command as long as you don’t engage the pups interest too much or he will want to play. Usually the pup pees withing seconds. Poops may take a few minutes. (they generally poop about every 5 hours at this age, less if they are on raw food) Praise your pup and tell him what a wonderful pooch he is!!
After the pup has gone to the bathroom, I usually play with the pup for about 15 minutes and then put him back in the crate to sleep for the rest of the night.
The first night or two, you may have to take your pup out a couple of times because your pup is missing the other pups. Within 2 or 3 days, your pup will most likely sleep from 10:00 pm to 6:00 or 7:00 am.
If the pup is crying and you have just taken him outside, and you know he doesn’t have to go to the bathroom, talk to him and stick your fingers through the door and comfort him as much as you can. It shouldn’t take him long to go to sleep. A teddy bear to sleep with or a toy to chew on will help.
Don't feel guilty about using the crate. When I have my litters of pups out playing in the yard, I leave a crate outside with the door open. When the pups are tired of playing, they always curl up in the crate and go to sleep. Eight week old puppies still need to sleep a lot and to them, a crate is just like a den.
So now it is day time.
Always take the pup outside first thing in the morning, right after they eat, and every time they wake up from a nap.
If you have to be away from home for more than 3 hours on a regular basis, I would not leave the pup in the crate. Find a small room like a bathroom, make sure it is safe, and cover the entire floor with paper. Leave the crate in the room with the door open so that the pup can go in and sleep. Leave water out for the pup but not food. Pups almost always eat too much which can cause diarrhea. They should be fed measured amounts of food, 3 or 4 times a day.
If you are home, confine the pup to the room that you are in. Put newspapers down in all the corners of the room. When you see the pup heading for the newspaper, pick him up and take him outside. If you don’t make it in time, and the pup goes to the bathroom on the paper or even on your floor, NEVER SCOLD YOUR PUP. They really don’t understand and you will just make him nervous.
After your pup has gone to the bathroom on the newspaper, save some of the paper that has been peed on and move it a bit closer every day to an area where you would like the pup to go to the bathroom, such as near the door. Soon you will only need one small area of newspaper.
If your pup has had a good play time and is ready to sleep, put him in his crate and shut the door. This will give you an hour or two when you don’t have to watch him. That way you can take him out when he wakes up and he won’t be able to wander over to the paper and pee.
The more consistent you are with the training, the sooner the pups get trained. But, eventually they all get trained. So don’t stress out about it too much and have fun!!!
