Introduction To House Training

We are thrilled you have joined us for this important class that will set your pup up for success. If you follow our advice, we are sure that when you have completed this class your puppy will be well on its way to being completely housetrained, and you will be ready to complete the process on your own as your pup matures.

Together, our ebook, videos, modules, and lessons will give you all the information you need to understand how to house train your puppy.

House Training Goals

When potty training your pup, your goals are to teach:

• where to go to the bathroom
• when it should go
• that if it asks to go outside, someone will respond
• all indoor places are potty-free zones

These will require that your puppy:

• understands what you want
• is physically able to do it
• is motivated to make the effort to only pee and poop when and where you want

Why Is House Training A Puppy Hard?

Although cleanliness is natural to and good for dogs, house training can still be a challenge for many owners. How come? Well, there are three main reasons:

1) House training requires muscle development that many puppies do not have until they are 5 or 6 months old. Some take even longer.

2) House training also requires mental maturity in a puppy and the ability to understand where and when to potty, which takes time to get across to puppies.

3) Finally, house training requires puppies to be confined, which they complain about, often loudly. Most owners do not know how to teach a puppy to be relaxed and quiet when confined. The end result is a dog that cannot be either confined or house trained.

This class will help you develop their pup’s physical ability and mental understanding by teaching them to be calm and relaxed while confined. m.

Set the Right Expectations

All of this takes a while for most pups. Having a reasonable expectation of what you should expect from your pup will go a long way in your success in house training. Although there are anomalies, the vast majority of dogs are not fully house trained until they are at least six months old. Most people are sure their dogs are going to be the exception to the rule, but we can honestly say we have never known a puppy that was fully house trained before six months of age. This is not because the owner and pups aren't trying, it's because a puppy’s brain and muscles have to be developed so they can hold urine and feces for long periods.

Assuming your pup is healthy, by the time your pup is 5 months old, you can expect that it will be able to:

• communicate with you that it needs to go outside
• keep its ex-pens and crates clean
• not pee and poop for four to six hours when all is calm and quiet

Your pup may not be perfectly reliable in all circumstances, like a hotel room or friends' houses, but it will know to keep your home clean. It won't be able to go an entire eight-hour workday without pottying, but it will be able to go at least half a workday.

House-Training Details

Here are some details you should keep in mind while house training your pup.

• Puppies need to urinate more during the day than they do at night. Many owners do not realize that puppies can hold it much longer at night than during the day. Like people, dogs are diurnal, meaning they are more active during the day than at night. As a result, puppies produce less urine at night and thus need to go out less often. The majority of puppies will sleep through the night months before they can be completely house trained during the day. Since sleep is a priority for us, we count that as a blessing!
• Puppies vary in how many times they need to poop each day but it's normal for them to go the same number of meals they have. So when you are feeding them three times a day, expect your pup to poop three times a day. Adults will typically go twice, morning and evening. This variation results from individual differences in digestion but also the quality and compatibility of the dog food that you feed. If a dog cannot digest its food well or eats ingredients that she cannot digest, she will poop more. So if your puppy is 5 months of age and poops more than twice a day, consider changing to a better quality or different food.
• Puppies less than 4 months old will usually need to go potty:
  - 15 to 30 minutes after eating or drinking
  - upon waking from a nap or long rest period
  - during or after vigorous play or excitement
  - MUCH more frequently when active than when confined
• How long can your pup go between walks? When quiet and confined, pups can typically hold their urine the number of hours that equals their age in months plus one. Check out the chart below that can guide you in deciding how long your puppy can most likely go without pottying during the day.

• Your pup's breed and size matter. Depending upon breed and/or size:
• Puppies need time to develop the muscle control to be house trained. Although puppies appear to grow quickly, it takes months for them to develop the muscle control for house training. Very young puppies are only able to toddle a foot or two and can only hold it a few seconds before they have to potty. With training, their muscles will strengthen and they will gradually be able to go longer and travel further to potty.
• Puppies need the right conditions to develop enough muscle control to be house trained. If puppies are raised in facilities that allow them to potty wherever and whenever they feel like it, it will take much longer to house train them. Similarly, if puppies are raised where they cannot get away from urine or feces, they may lose their natural desire for cleanliness. If your puppy grew up
• Puppies do not inherently understand that our homes should be kept clean. Puppies want to keep their immediate living area, what we will call their “room,” clean but we have to teach them that our homes fall under the definition of “immediate living area.” Once they are clean in our homes, we then must teach them that they should consider all indoor spaces to be their “room.” This is not an obvious concept for our pups.

Too Much Freedom Too Soon Will Result In Failure!

Here is our warning—if like many puppy owners you let your puppy have more space than it is ready for, you will hinder its house training and instill bad habits early on when they are the most powerful. As a result, you may have to live with a dirty house as long as you have your pup or you may have to make a much greater effort to house train later in life when you will be breaking bad habits rather than creating good ones. Puppies learn best what they learn first so tackle house training now so your pup learns from the start to be clean in the house!

So, download the Puppy Potty Training Solution book now and then go to the Gear and Set Up module to get started.