Toilet training your puppy will make life much easier and more pleasant for the both of you. It will make you stop having the accidents that make you clean up after him several times in the day. Start potty training immediately the puppy arrives in your home. The following training tips will help you get your puppy toilet trained in no time.
Before you start, understand that your puppy is a baby that has not learned much about controlling bowel movements. He could urinate or defecate without restraint. Therefore, you should be as gentle as you can. Praise him when he gets it right for reinforcement but do not punish or be harsh when accidents happen. Punishment when he goes in the wrong place will make him associate it with punishment and he will learn to start hiding the evidence.
The first thing is to know the signs to look for when he wants to “go”. He could start running in circles, sniffing the floor, scratching at the door or whimpering. Puppies go to the toilet mostly after eating or immediately they wake up. They like to ‘go’ on surfaces like grass, wood, or soil.
Start by placing a placing a wee wee pad or some newspapers in the place you want him to use as his toilet. It should be far from where you keep his food. Choose a word like pee pee or poo poo that he will associate with ‘going’. As soon as he shows signs of going, take him to the spot and stay with him until he goes. Praise him as he is doing it so that he knows he is doing the right thing. With some persistence, he will know and accept that spot his ‘going’ spot and you will not need to take him again.