You Can Make Potty Training Puppies Easy
20 Jun 2009
Probably one of the biggest headaches involved in having dogs for pets is potty training puppies. Puppies do not have a switch you can flip to have them go potty and they can't understand any verbal command unless they were trained to. Getting puppies to go potty when and where you want them does not involve rocket science though and you don't need to hire a specialist to do it for you either. The one major requirement one needs to complete this task is a large amount of patience. As long as you remain consistent in your training methods, you won't have trouble potty training a puppy.
Getting them to do their business by recognizing their nature
Animals are instinctive; they don't consider the pros or cons of a situation before deciding what to do about it. Knowing this can help you greatly in knowing how to potty train them. Puppies are like blank slates, they posses the instincts but they're still in the trial and error phase of discovering how to satisify certain drives. Urinating and defecating is a drive but, contrary to what most people think, puppies don't just stop whatever they are doing and do their business. Try to watch them when they get the urge to go, they sometimes run around looking somewhat agitated, first sniffing and searching about until they find a good spot and then do their business.
This is where the training in potty training puppies comes in. You'll have to teach them to pick a specific spot to go potty so every time they feel the need they go exactly where you want them to. How do you do it? You'll need to use something that has an earthy or musky scent, something that is distinctive so that that, when they smell it, they can easily associate the smell with doing its business. You can purchasecommercially manufactured potty training sprays in pet stores or you can go hands-on and put a small amount of your pet's urine in a spray bottle when it does its business.
Whether you opt for the commercial spray or the hands on approach, the training or conditioning phase remains the same: when your puppy shows signs of the urge to commune with nature prepare a liberal stack of newspapers and restrict your puppy within the confines of the newspaper. Spray a little amount of the scent-spray on the newspaper. Let the pup move around the area and acheive a degree of comfort. Once the puppy does its business gently hold its head near the spot you sprayed the agent close enough for the puppy to sniff the scent. Repeat this for about 90 days every time the puppy needs to go potty.
By doing the previous steps, you can get either of the two results or both. The puppy can equate going potty to a newspaper or the scent which means that whenever the puppy needs to go, it will either look for a newspaper or sniff around to find that scent, either result will lead to a properly potty trained pup and care free maintenance for you.
As mentioned earlier potty training puppies requires a generous amount of patience but aside from that it is actually a pretty easy thing to do.
