Potty Training Tips For New Puppy Owners

So you got your new puppy home, now what?

We recommend that before you come to pick up your new puppy that you already have a crate for him to

Good treat for training

sleep in, his bowls, and also you will want to puppy-proof your home. You will also need a collar (or harness) and a leash. If you plan on doing any kind of training you will also need some puppy treats. We recommend Bil-Jac liver treats (for small dogs).

Food

As for the food, we will give you a sample of whatever food we are feeding them. When it comes to what type of food to feed them it will be your choice. You can do your own research, but I will say that Labs can sometimes have allergies to different types of foods. We tried feeding our dogs Blue Buffalo because it does

not have corn which can irritate dogs digestive system, but Hans would puke it up everytime. After trying a couple of different brands, it wound up being Dog Chow that he was able to eat without any skin or digestive issues so there you go, he does not have caviar taste.

Potty Training

The most important thing to teach your new puppy when you bring him/her home is boundaries and potty training. If you are to get your dog potty trained in a hurry this will require you to be vigilant and constant. If you do it right and stay on schedule you can get your new puppy potty trained in as little as 10-14 days with the occasional accident. For both of our dogs we bought them in the summertime. This was not a conscious decision at the time, but after our second puppy we realized this helped speed up the potty training process for us. I will explain that in a moment.

Puppies learn from repetition. When dogs are on a schedule it can be a beautiful thing. Of course it can also be annoying at times because even though you might stay up late on the weekends, your dogs will still want to go out at the same time each morning. For the new puppy it is important that you do a couple of things. First and foremost you need to introduce him to his crate. We put our crate in a room where we spend a lot of time that way they feel like they are still a part of whats going on. You have to make sure that you put a toy in there, or possibly make them fetch a toy from the crate if they do not want to go in on their own. They need to feel like going into the crate is their decision and that its a safe haven. They will not feel that way about it at first, but eventually they will.

The schedule that we put our young puppies on was basically a 45 min in, 15 min out rule. We used our oven timer and since we got our puppies during the summer our kids were home a lot during the day and using the timer 45/15 rule the puppies quickly became accustomed to the schedule. As soon as the 45 minutes was up, we take the puppies straight out and let them do their business. If you have a yard that is fenced in and can possibly just let them go out on their own and run around, I would still recommend using a leash and going with them to make sure they do their business. Take treats with you and once they do their business, then and only then give them a treat. If they do not go that time bring them back inside. Now assuming they went outside and did their business and got a treat you can let them out for 15 minutes. When our puppies did not do their business we put them back in their cage and reset the timer for 45 mins. If you allow them to run free without having done their business, they will most likely go on the floor.

Assuming they did their business, bring them back in, set the timer for 15 minutes and play with them and let them run around, but keep them in a specific area and watch what they are doing. Do not just let them run around with free reign. If you do this they will get into things you do not want them to and it's hardly their fault. Be constant with this scheduling and you will be surprised how quickly it takes. If your puppy has an accident you can decide how you want to handle that. We give a stern "No!" and let them know what they did was bad.

For the long hours of the night how you handle their training is up to you. Some tips that we have done is to try and NOT feed them or water them much after 6 pm. This way they have a few hours to empty themselves. A young puppy has a tiny bladder so do not expect them to be able to hold it for more than 4-5 hours. How you want to handle this part is up to you, but we would get up once in the middle of the night and take our puppies out. We would do this for 6-8 weeks and it seems to work. After that your puppy is eventually able to hold it. If you do not want to get up, that's fine, but understand you will most likely wake up to a mess.

**TIP** If you want to train your puppy/dog to let you know when they need to go out, put a bell on string and tie it on the door knob. As you are taking them out, make them sit and then shake the bell and try to get them to do it. If they hit it with their nose, give them a treat. Eventually they will associate ringing the bell with going outside.