Puppy potty training is one of the FIRST things you need to work on with your new puppy. Here is the step by step road to house training your dog.
Start with a CRATE. Crates are not cages. Crates are a great benefit to your dog, who is naturally a "den" animal. He has been brought up by his dam, from the beginning, to respect his "bed area", and keep it clean. Watch a tiny two week old puppy and you will see that he crawls to the farthest corner of his bed area to go potty, and that his dam immediately licks it up and licks the puppy clean also. This is Mother nature's way of protecting the puppies from predators. (And it doesnt pay to argue with Mother Nature!)
So, keeping your puppy in a CRATE for sleeping and for safety when you are away is not a cage or a punishment and should never be treated as a punishment. The dog should begin to think of the crate as his bed area, his den area, his place for comfort and security.
The crate also serves as a housebreaking tool. Your puppy will not want to potty in his crate. Put him in a crate for sleeping and whenever he appears to be ready to go to sleep. Then let him out, and when you let him out, take him immediately to the outdoors to go potty. It is as simple as that. There are no shortcuts. Yes, you may have to listen to him hollering and whining in the crate. This usually will not last, and there are things you can do to lessen it. For one thing...a fan on the puppyor near the crate, running on low, will soothe him. Giving him a little treat, while he is in the crate and being QUIET, will teach him that if he is not whining, he sometimes gets a cookie. Puppies are smart, they pick up on this quickly. The noisey stage passes fairly quickly, provided you, his master, do NOT give in. Be firm. The puppy should be crated several different times during the day, and immediately when you take him out, take him outside to potty. Then give a BIG praise and cookie reward whenever he potties outside.
Do not confine the puppy to a crate for periods longer than one hour when you are home and he is not sleeping. (and it is not night time with everyone in the household in bed.) However if he should fall asleep in the crate, by all means let him sleep. When he wakes, then you will know that his whining is for real and he needs to go potty. Also, put him in the crate, at night, when the family goes to bed. You can keep the crate in the bedroom so he can be near you, that will make for less noise and crying...just don't take him out because he is carrying on, provided you know that he doesnt need to potty. And he should be able to stay in the crate most of the night, or for at least six hours if not longer. Most 8 week old puppies can hold it for about 6 hours.
When you are away from home, he should be crated. If you just plain dont have a crate, you can put him into a confined area, with newspapers on one side, so that he will learn to go potty on the papers...A crate is the best solution but if you can not get honme during the middle of the day to let him out then the second suggestion is a confined small area where he will be safe and where there will be newspapers for him to potty on. If you bought your puppy from a responsible breeder, he will already know that newspapers are the thing to potty on.
Potty Training your puppy is only as effective as your determination to carry through. That means watching your puppy and paying attention to what he does when he needs to go pottty. A puppy that begins to sniff around and run frantically around from room to room is most likely a puppy that needs to go potty! Take him outside when you see this behavior. When yo get your puppy outdoors, take him to the place you want him to go potty, ignore him until he goes potty, and then immediately give him a cookie or treat and praise him outside for going potty. Even if you have a fenced in yard, you should go out with him so that you can praise him when he goes. And also, it is easy to forget, if your yard is fenced, that every puppy still needs to learn to go potty on a leash, so that if you travel with your dog, he will go potty in other places while on a leash. This is important for any dog to learn, but especially for a Show Dog.
**clicking on the links on this page will take you to further information and sources for training help
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