Toilet training
The key to successful toilet training is positive management. Be aware of when your puppy need to toilet and ensure that you take your puppy on a leash to the designated toilet area either in the garden or outside during those times. Stand still and repeat your command to toilet – most puppies will urinate within 2 minutes of each trip to the toilet area and will defecate within 3 minutes every other trip. Praise and reward when he toilets in the designated area. After a dozen or so times, your puppy will learn to toilet on command.
A puppy will most mostly likely need to toilet during the following times:
· When he wakes up from his nap
· After eating
· After playing
· When he starts circling and sniffing around
· Every couple of hours
Never scold or punish your puppy for toileting in your house. Your dog/puppy will not associate the “accident” 5 minutes ago with the punishment you give.
Prevention of mistakes is crucial to toilet training. Whenever you are not at home, leave your dog in a confined area, such as the bathroom, laundry or kitchen with the following:
· A bowl of fresh water,
· a number of stuffed chewtoys,
· a comfortable bed in one corner and
· a doggy toilet in the corner diagonally opposite from his bed.
Your dog will naturally want to eliminate as far as possible from his bed, and so will soon develop the good habit of using his toilet. For a doggy toilet, use sheets of newspaper sprinkled with soil, or a litter box filled with a roll of turf, or a concrete paving slab. Thus your dog will develop a preference for eliminating on soil, grass, or concrete rather than on your carpet.
“I have just been through the “delightful” experience of toilet training a new puppy - my advice is to persevere with the above, it may take more your puppy longer than a few minutes to toilet at the allocated spot but he will eventually.If you consistently take him outside when it is time for him to toilet, he will learn to toilet outside.”
