HOUSEBREAKING YOUR NEW PUPPY 

The number one question that we are asked about a new puppy is "How do I housebreak my new Puppy?" There are several different techniques that you can use. The teaching that you use needs to be the type that suits your lifestyle.

Decide first if you want it to go outside or use a potty box in the house. If you are gone from the house for long periods of time, you might select the potty box. These are plastic and can be purchased in several sizes at your local pet store. You can buy the blue pads or simply use newspaper. When you bring your new baby home, keep it in a small area with newspapers on the floor. The puppy will pick out a special place in the corner where it wants to go potty. After a few days, place the litterbox in that space and put lightly soiled newspapers as your top layer. Eventually, the remainder of the papers can be removed and the puppy can go to other areas of the home to play. A puppy or grown dog will need to go potty when waking up from a nice nap and after eating. The elimination functions are going on while the puppy is asleep and a full stomach will exert pressure on the bladder and colon and trigger the elimination process. Be sure that you give the puppy a lot of praise and tell it that it did good. Puppies like to please you and will do what makes you happy.

If you are home most of the time, you might want the puppy to go outside. This takes a little more supervision and you need to be aware of the puppy most of the time for the first few weeks. The puppy will need to go potty when it wakes up and after eating. Simply take it outside for a while but do not play with it until after it goes potty. After it eliminates, then praise and play with your new friend. A puppy will start a sniffing and circling pattern when it is looking for a place. If this happens in the house, take it outside immediately when this is observed. A doggie door is a wonderful invention and this might be considered. Our kennel has doggie doors so the puppies can go outside whenever they have the urge to potty. The mother dog teaches them to use the door as soon as they can walk. She gets tired of cleaning up the "cave" and wants them to go outside. We never have to clean up accidents inside the kennel.

Some puppies do not like to go outside if it is cold, snowy or wet. Using a doggie door and also a potty box is useful. This way the puppy can go outside when it is pretty weather and go in the potty box in bad weather. Most dogs like to go outside because this is the natural way that dates back to the wild dogs. In the wild, the babies will go outside the cave to go potty. It is a natural instinct to keep the cave clean. Your home is the cave to your new puppy.

A male dog makes just as good, or better, pet than a female if you have him neutered before he learns to raise his leg. Marking his territory is a warning to other dogs that your home belongs to him. He does not want to have any strange dogs coming into his area. Neutering him takes away this instinct, but it has to be done while he is young. Your veterninarian will decide on the proper time for this to be done.