How To Teach Your Puppy To Stay Clean
To teach your puppy to stay clean, it’s essential to have a good deal of discipline and patience. It’s not just about bathing him regularly, but also training him to do his needs in a specific place, especially if you live in a small or space-constrained place.
If you are able to take it out into the open, it is recommended that this be done at similar times each day. That is, when getting up, after eating or before going to sleep. This will create a routine that will allow your puppy to stay clean longer.
Pay attention to biological processes
Initially, you will have to adapt your routines to the dog’s needs, which are reliable and predictable when they are very young. Puppies need to urinate immediately after getting up. Therefore, you should immediately take it to the garden or the space you have designated as the ‘bathroom’.
Eating stimulates the dogs’ digestive system. Puppies usually urinate within 15 minutes of consuming food and defecate within half an hour after eating, although this may vary slightly for each individual.
Puppies have very little bladder control and need to urinate at least every one to two hours. In addition, they may spontaneously urinate when they are overjoyed. So take your pet outside often if he’s active, playing, or exploring space.
Creating habits and reinforcing positive actions
It may be helpful to keep a record of when your puppy eats, urinates, and defecates. A simple daily list is enough. Repeat simple keywords such as ‘pee’ and ‘poop’ while the dog is urinating or defecating.
Use different words such as ‘eat’ and ‘walk’ for each action you want to reinforce so that you can train the puppy later.
You should always go to the garden with your dog to reward and link your keywords to the correct actions. Fortunately, puppies are creatures of habit. So as long as you introduce the garden as the bathroom early on, it will likely avoid needing other areas of the house.
Common Mistakes When Training Your Puppy
Unfortunately, there are many reasons why toilet training may not be as easy as it should be. So make sure you don’t make any of the following mistakes:
- Inadequate diet, high in fat or irritating foods.
- Do not feed the animal at regular times.
- Punish the puppy for his accidents indoors, which can make him afraid to go to the bathroom in front of you, even outside.
- Salty foods that make him drink more water than usual.
- Wait for the puppy to indicate when he needs to leave. This is unrealistic, so it’s best to go out with him at regular intervals.
- Leave the back door open so the puppy can come and go as he pleases. A puppy will think of the garden as an adventure park rather than an area for needs. Besides, what’s he going to do when it’s cold or rainy and he’s in front of a closed back door?
- Leaving the puppy alone for a long time so that he is forced to do his homework, setting a bad precedent or even the habit of always doing so unless there is a specific area for doing so.
- Being too lazy to take the animal outside when he needs it, resulting in needing more indoors than outdoors.
It is unfair to expect a puppy to go through the night without urinating while he is still very young. Putting your puppy to sleep in a cage or a puppy carrier can help with training, but you should let him out to do his chores overnight.
How to teach your puppy to ‘go to the bathroom’ during walks
Many guardians are disappointed that the puppy doesn’t go to the bathroom when he goes for a walk, but does his chores as soon as they get home. This is because the puppy has been taught to go to the bathroom only at home (hopefully in his garden) and, as a creature of habit, he usually waits until he gets home before emptying his bladder or bowel.
To change this habit, you’ll have to wake up very early and walk your puppy before he goes through his morning routine. You must not take him home until he is forced to take care of his needs.
However, if you are not successful and the animal has not been able to go to the bathroom, take it immediately to the garden on your return, or you risk having it do away with indoors.
