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Housebreaking Your Puppy

A puppy can be a delightful addition to your home; however, their antics are not quite so endearing when you find yourself having to constantly clean up after them because they have not been property housebroken. Rest assured that a housebroken pup is not something that is going to magically appear out of thin air. An unhousebroken puppy is going to turn into an unhousebroken dog-and unhousebroken dogs leave much bigger messes than their adorable counterparts!

It is especially important that an animal be housebroken right from the very beginning because anyplace in your home that it urinates is going to be considered marking its territory. While this is going to suit your pet just fine (after all, your house is his house and it should consequently smell like him) it is not going to suit you so well, not only because you are going to have to constantly clean up after it but because any animal that visits your home is going to smell the spot and feel the need to mark that same spot for themselves. This means that if your darling Rover has not yet mastered the finer points of doing his business outdoors and your friends come over and bring their dog for a visit the battle for whose scent is going to be marking your carpets is going to begin.

Housebreaking a dog is not hard if you approach it from the very beginning. When your puppy first comes to live with you be sure that you take them outside at regular intervals, the same way that you would when you are potty training a child. When they do their business in the proper place be sure that they are rewarded accordingly-even if the out of doors was the only place available to do it at the time. Dogs are not going to understand from the very beginning that it is necessary for them to ask to go outside when they need to use the bathroom. Positively reinforcing every time that they do so will help them to understand that the grass, not your carpet, is the most desirable site.

By the same token, negative reinforcement is going to be necessary to discourage random urination. It is all well and good if they learn that they need to do their business outside while they are outside, but if they do not come to the realization that they should not do so inside when they are there you will have a dog that goes wherever it happens to feel like it. When your dog has an accident in the house take them to it, firmly (but gently) rub their nose in it so they can smell what they have done and apply a swat to their backside before depositing them outside and telling them that is where such things belong.

The most important part of housebreaking a puppy is to be consistent. If they are punished for going in the house part of the time and get away with it other times they are not going to learn to go outside; they are simply going to become sneakier about it. By consistently employing positive and negative reinforcement from the very beginning you will soon be the owner of a well trained and delightful dog.

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