House Training your New Puppy.

Meet Prancer!

Prancer reminded me of a circus poodle aspiring for applause by leaping through a sparkeling hoop. This ecstatic apricot toy poodle is a gem! At sixteen weeks, his lust for life is admirable and his energy impressive. Prancer's owner called us to make sure that Prancer was headed in the right direction. She wanted to be able to bring Prancer to work with her but wasn't sure he was ready for the responsibility.

One thing that we noticed right away was the wee-wee pad in Prancer's kitchen. Prancer was trained by his breeder to go the bathroom on a pad inside even though his owner preferred that Prancer pee or poop outdoors. This proved to be very difficult since she worked a few days a week for a couple hours at a time.

Training a puppy to eliminate outside when he's already doing it in the house is highly confusing for the puppy. Either it is okay to go the bathroom in the house or it is not. The secret to successful housetraining is in 100% supervision. Remember, when a puppy has to go to the bathroom he will do it where ever he can get away with it! If you're unable to provide 100% supervision, then having a confinement area or a crate can help prevent accidents.

We helped Prancer's owner set up a crate in the kitchen for times when he couldn't be supervised. This freed up his owner to do things she needed to do without the stress of worrying about Prancer's comings and goings.

To learn more about Housetraining your puppy, visit Zen Dog Training Online.