Top Tips for House Training a Dog
When we think about potty training, we often think of puppies. Usually, adult dogs don’t need to be potty trained, or at least that is our reasoning, and many new owners decide on an older dog because of that reason. Many think that if the dog is older, he has to already be potty trained, but the truth is that sometimes adult dogs aren’t and that is one of the reasons why dogs are surrendered to shelters.
It is actually not that uncommon to adopt an adult dog that has not been properly potty trained and along with many other training issues, new dog owners are now faced with one more problem to correct.
Thankfully, the old cliché, ‘You can’t teach an old dog new tricks’, is completely false and with some hard work and determination, you can potty train an adult dog with a huge amount of success.
Click Here to Discover the Best Way of House Training a Dog
Before you begin your actual training, however, there are a few things that you will need to do. First is getting the environment ready for potty training. You will want to purchase a few things for this including:
A leash: Obviously used for taking your dog for walks but you also want to use this to restrict your dog when he is at home so you are sure he is not wandering into another room for a potty break.
A crate: Even if you aren’t planning on using a crate in the long run, purchase one right now for when you are potty training your dog.
A good urine cleaner: Regardless of what you do, there will be accidents in the house so make sure you have a good cleaner at home that will remove the scent of urine completely.
Treats: Find something that you can give the dog that he will find enjoyable. Remember, if he is a good dog and goes outside, he should be praised for it.
Now that you have everything that you need, the next thing you should do is set it up. This mostly for the crate but it is very important to make the crate as comfortable and safe for the dog as possible. Chances are you will need to crate train your dog and if this is the case, I recommend you read our article “How to Crate Train a Dog”.
Make sure you add a few treats in the crate and to begin, don’t place any water in the crate with him if you are only gone for a short period so he doesn’t have an accident in the middle of the day. When he is not having accidents inside, you can begin leaving him at home with water in his crate.
Lastly, make sure that the dog does not have any medical problems that may account for the accidents in the house. This can be as simple as a bladder infection, which can account for several accidents and can be corrected very easily.
Once you have crossed off a medical reason for the accidents, you can start with the training, which you will learn how to do in our next article: Top Tips for House Training a Dog – Part Two
Click Here to Discover the Best Way of House Training a Dog
