House training is usually the number one priority for most families when they get a new puppy.
Very few puppies will be house trained as soon as you get them.
There are two very effective methods you can use to house train your puppy and you can use just one of them or you can even use them simultaneously.
The first method may be the most difficult as you will need to be very vigilant about staying with your puppy and noticing his behavior.
Puppies will squat to urinate and defecate and you will need to watch closely but as soon as you see your puppy changing posture you must scoop him up and take him outside to his designated spot.
If you happen to miss the signs you must not scold your puppy because he does not yet know what is expected of him.
Also, if you do miss the sign and you come across it later, it will only frighten your puppy if you scold him then.
Dogs are not like humans and they can only relate to what is happening now.
If you scold him later for a potty accident he will not realize that is why he is in trouble.
He can only understand if you scold him for something immediately.
The second method of house training you can use is the newspaper method.
You must cover the entire floor of where your puppy runs around.
He will quickly learn that the newspaper is okay to do his business on.
Gradually remove more and more newspaper until there is only a small piece left.
You may then take the newspaper out to the designated spot and he will then learn that he must only go in that outside spot.
Both of these methods can be very effective.
You may want to use the first method of vigilance during the day and the newspapers at night.
If you are often busy with other things you may want to use the newspaper method more often.
Sometimes an older puppy will go through a stage where he seems to have forgotten what he has learned about house training.
This can be extremely frustrating but try not to punish him for it.
It is a normal behavior.
When this happens you can use his own instinctual behavior to get him back on track.
A dog will typically not soil his own space.
You can use a crate and make it comfortable for him so that he thinks of it as his space.
If it seems he has "unlearned" his potty training you can let him sleep in his crate and immediately after you let him out, take him to his designated spot.
He will need to relieve himself right away and he will quickly get in the habit of only going in his spot.
House training a puppy does not nearly need to be as daunting as you may have come to expect.
When you use either of these two methods, combined with some patience, your new puppy will be house trained before you know it.