Making mistakes is part of a puppy's learning cycle while being house-trained. It is a learning cycle for the new owner as well. It is vital that somebody stays with the puppy to supervise his potty training. The longer a puppy is left on his own, the greater the chance for him to make mistakes unknowingly, so do try to spend as much time with the puppy as possible.
It takes approximately 4 weeks to fully train a puppy, and the puppy passes the training if he doesn't soil the house after a period of 4 weeks. Longer training periods will be needed to teach older dogs though. Monitor him constantly, and baby gates can be used to restrict his wanderings within the house and crates can be use to constrain him when there is no supervision. If you notice your puppy squats to urinate or relieve himself while greeting you, he could be afflicted with submissive urination. These types of dogs are very high-strung and you should refrain from reprimanding his actions as such scoldings exacerbates the issue.
However, as he grows older, he will no longer do this if you are calm and quiet. Or you could ask him to sit down for a tasty treat till someone greets him. To prevent your puppy from committing the same mistake, you should remove all urine and fecal odor so that your puppy does not return to the same spot in your house where he made a mess. Dogs tend to return to the same spot they have targeted earlier. To completely remove the odor, use a good deodorizer for doggy odors.
If he urinated on a carpet, saturate it with a cleaning agent. Shut off all those rooms in your house where your puppy has made frequent mistakes. Let him enter here only when accompanied by a family member. An extra tip to remove urine from carpet is to use black lights to find the exact urine spot to make cleaning more efficient. You can use commercial or create a homemade deodorizer by mixing 50% water and 50% white vinegar. Take note that you should never use ammonia on a urine spot.
It will encourage your dog to return to the same spot. Remember, dogs will make mistakes during the period of house-training and it is part of the learning process. This is why you need to be ready to handle these problems. a. Punishing him only after a mistake has been committed will slow down the speed of training.
b. Be patient. Like any training endeavor, potty training requires a lot of patience. Don't rub his nose into his mess.
Instead of getting him to stop committing the same mistake, it futher aggravates the situation by instilling the fear of you in him. c. If you catch him while he is in the midst of doing, stop him with a quick grab of his collar and pull him up while making a startling sound, a sharp noise or say "No" using your deep, stern tone loudly. Do this only when you catch him red-handed, but be sure not to be too loud or he will eliminate in front of you or perhaps even outdoors. d. Then, take him outside and let him finish what he is doing.
Lastly, pat him on his head while saying "Good boy!" or praising him. Remember to shower your dog with encouragement and praises when he is displaying the desired behavior. Giving him food as a reward when he does his business in the appropriate spot can help too. During potty training, the use of common sense will aid you big time in dealing with your puppy's housebreaking endeavor.
Use your common sense to determine the amount of water given to the dog before his bedtime especially if he is prone to urinating in the middle of the night. It will be useful to try to suit his timing initially before trying to get the dog to adjust to your timing. Aside from patience and common sense, consistency is also one of the important factors of this dog training activity. If you suddenly forget about the routines yourself, don't blame if your dog if he starts committing accidents more often. The risk is great - a filthy and smelly home.
If you would like to succeed in this potty training feat or just about in any other training drills, don't treat it as a game. Allot enough time and commitment on your part.
Moses Wright is a proud owner of 3 beautiful dogs and loves to help new dog owners deal with their dog problems. You can get his dog obedience training book, a collection of his dog ownership experiences for free here: Free Dog Obedience Training Book
