House Training of your New Dog

Once the first hours of exploration  are over, routine  must start,  with priority given to house training. This may not be the most important part of training in a dog’s life, but it is vital to get the message across in a positive fashion from the very beginning.  A puppy  can be expected  to empty  its bladder  as soon as it wakes from  sleep,  and  as soon  as it  has  been  fed;  it  may  also  pass feces simultaneously. If these happenings  can be anticipated  and the puppy put out into  the garden  – or on  to a piece of newspaper  if no garden  is available – mistakes will be infrequent, and the puppy will learn what is wanted. Watch out for  warning  signs  usually characterized   by rapid  wanderings  and  circling; there  is only a short  interval  between indication  and  performance.

The  owner must  respond  at once, take the puppy  outside and  stay with it until it has performed. This  is the time to introduce the first command, which may be ‘outside’, ‘be  clean’, ‘go on’,  or ‘be a good  boy/girl’.  Every time the puppy does what is required, be lavish with praise. Eventually  the puppy  will associate outside  performance with praise, and the phrase with performance. House  training  a  puppy  takes  patience  and  perseverance,  especially  if the puppy is acquired during  wintry weather, but the longer it is delayed, the more difficult it becomes. As the puppy grows, the intervals between indication  and performance become longer, and the adult dog can go for several hours during the day, and for most of the night, without elimination.

Normally, a puppy can control itself reliably by the age off our to six months,and  by eight  months  it will last throughout the night  provided  that it is put outside  last thing  at night  and  first thing  in the  morning.