Puppy Crate Training and House Training

Is house training your pup a constant struggle?

Crate training and house training a puppy while he is at a young, impressionable age is vital. Puppies house and crate train much quicker than full-grown dogs because eliminating indoors hasn’t yet become a solidified behavior. Also, you won’t have the hassle of constantly cleaning up after your dog when he is potty trained and knows where it’s appropriate to eliminate.

Some signs that puppy needs to potty:

1. Circling

2. Sniffing

3. Squatting

4. Whining

If you ever see your pup doing one of the above behaviors, run him outside to your assigned puppy potty spot and WAIT until he eliminates! Do not go back indoors until he potties no matter what. It may take him two minutes or forty-five. Once the puppy has eliminated, reward him enthusiastically with praise and a treat to enforce this sublime behavior.

Some tips of when a puppy should be taken outside to eliminate:

1. Every time puppy comes out of his crate

2. Whenever pup has finished eating or drinking

3. Before puppy goes to bed and right away when he wakes up

4. After a hard play session

Crate training is highly recommended to be taught alongside house training. The pup naturally doesn’t want to soil “his space” in the crate, so he will have more motivation to wait until outdoors to eliminate. Later, the pup should understand that the whole house is to be kept soil-free because it’s “his space”, too.

As the puppy gets older, he subsequently can hold his pee and poo longer, so your trips outside should start to become progressively fewer. When the puppy starts having successes and matures, his owner should make trips between each visit outside longer apart so that the pup doesn’t get conditioned to constantly being let out. If the puppy is let out too often, he will not have had practice in learning to control his urges to eliminate.

Typically, for every month of age of the puppy, that’s how many hours the pup should be able to wait until outdoors to eliminate. For example, if a puppy is three months old, he should be able to hold his pee and poo for three hours at a time before being let out. As your pup gets older, more time between potty trips should be expected.

Tips with paper training and puppy pad training:

Using papers and puppy pads in your house is conditioning the dog to eliminate inside. It is not a recommended method by professional dog trainers, because it slows down the potty-training process and is doing the opposite of what you want--it’s teaching the puppy that it is acceptable to potty indoors.

It is important to remember that house training and crate training a puppy is a process and will require much of your attention and observation to successfully accomplish, but it is without doubt worth the time. If you are not able to watch your puppy, you should either make use of the crate by putting him there or use the tethering method by having him attached to your side at all times. The goal is to observe the puppy’s signs of needing to potty and get him outside before he has an accident in the house. If you are attentive, consistent, and diligent with crate training and house training your puppy, life will be much more pleasant both for you and your dog.