Toilet training

The young puppy is similar to a young child; curious, investigative, and ready to experiment with each situation as it presents itself.

This natural behavior must be made acceptable to produce a well-adjusted pet. All training should be aimed at gaining the puppy's confidence, rewarding it with praise whenever it performs acceptably and administering quick, sharp correction whenever it misbehaves.

Most dogs res¬pond satisfactorily to a reward, which is merely a word of praise and a rub of the ears or chest, and to a correction, which is a stern, reproving 'No'. Both praise and correction must be immediate, otherwise the puppy will not understand your action. The first major lesson that a puppy must learn is that there is an acceptable time and place for relieving itself. House-breaking can be a simple task with some puppies, while with others it can prove a long, frustrating process. The puppy's built-in behavior patterns help with all aspects of training, and house-breaking is no exception. The puppy has very little control over its bodily functions until it is at least twelve weeks of age; nevertheless, it usually moves away from its bed before emptying itself. You will notice, too, that your puppy wakes from a deep sleep, it starts to romp and play for five to ten minutes, then it will sniff the floor, circle backwards and defecate.

It will then probably play for another fifteen to twenty minutes and then sleep, and this completes the cycle, which is constantly repeated. A puppy generally defecates about five minutes after eating a main meal. Knowing when to expect defecation is a help in successfully house-breaking your puppy, as you then know just when to place it on its special patch of paper or earth. A great deal of patience is necessary at this time and the puppy must be praised profusely whenever it performs well, but must not be heavily chastised for making a mistake.

Puppies may be trained in two stages if necessary: they can first be taught to empty themselves on newspaper then, when this has been successfully learned, they are retrained to use the garden or yard. With very young puppies, or in really harsh weather, this may be the only practical method of house-breaking; however, it does make the overall training more complex, and direct house-breaking is far more preferable. .