HOUSE TRAINING YOUR PUPPY – my experience

Here we are!

The puppy is beautiful and cute... but how difficult is to house train him?

Obviously it depends!
I got my first dog when he was 6 months old, coming from a pound.
We were living in an apartment and he was NEVER soiling in the apartment!
Incredible! 

I don’t know how he learnt himself... but he was brilliant!
I spoke with a friend that got his Labrador from the breeder when he was a tiny pup.

He learnt alone as well to don’t pee in the house!

With Jago… another story!

He needed to pee? Everywhere was good… except for the garden!!!

In the first week I was at home, so I started the “crate training”.

The pup should be in the crate and hourly (or every 30-45 minutes, depends from the age) you should bring him outside, maybe running a bit and hopefully he will pee. When he finishes you should give him the command, a treat and praise him a lot.

It was December when Jago arrived.

So, following the directions, I had him in the crate with toys and every hour we were going outside... he was staring at me like asking: “now what?” And I was just standing there … freezing … for 20 minutes!!!

 2 on 3 times he was not doing his pee... we were going back inside frustrated…. and YEAH! PEE TIME!

J

I went back to work.
I didn't want to lock him in a crate for 4 hours, so I gave him access to the garden and the kitchen.
Obviously coming back from work the kitchen was dirty, so the training was proceeding slower than expected, as I wasn't always there to teach him which was the right place.

DO NOT use aggressive strategies, don’t be angry or upset, and don’t put his face in the pee. He won’t understand, he will lose confidence in you, he will be scared and think he needs to hide his pee and it will make everything worse! If you catch him on the act just say a no and take him outside, hopefully he will finish there...

It is very important the product that you use to clean. It shouldn't contain ammonia or other perfumes that will stimulate him to go toilet there again.
It’s very important to cover the smell or he will use that place as his favorite spot.

I think that for at least 3 or 4 months I had ALWAYS the cleaning instruments ready to clean the floor.

The key to house training is preventing "mistakes" and rewarding the puppy for going in your chosen spot.