Everyone loves a new puppy. Slightly less cute, however, are the stains on the carpet and surprises on the floor. House-training may feel like it\u2019s taking forever, but the good news is that every month they can hold it a little longer and by 4-6 months old, they should be fully going outside. But until then, here\u2019s how to help your puppy (and your house) get through the experience.<\/p>\n
Create a puppy zone.<\/strong><\/p>\n Think tiled floors, zero carpeting, and not too much space to get in trouble, like a bathroom.\u00a0 This is your puppy\u2019s safe place<\/a> to hang out when unsupervised. Don\u2019t have a closed-off space like that? Section one off with a puppy gate. They\u2019re great for keeping puppies in while still letting you go about your business.<\/p>\n Take them out like clockwork.<\/strong><\/p>\n Every 30 min to an hour, your puppy\u2019s \u201cgotta pee\u201d alarm is going off. That means you need to be just as punctual at taking them outside. In addition to this hourly check-in, other key times to take them out are after they eat, after they\u2019ve been asleep (including naps), and any time before you leave them alone. Need to be gone for a while? Better send in back-up. Have a friend or neighbor take your puppy out at regular intervals while you\u2019re away.<\/p>\n Help them know it\u2019s time to go.<\/strong><\/p>\n Right now, you\u2019re trying to teach your puppy\u2019s brain (and bladder) what to associate with going. The more you create a solid routine around the ritual, the quicker they\u2019ll learn. Aside from always taking them out at the same time, make sure you always lead them to the same spot <\/a>so they can smell their scent (a clear trigger for go-time). You can also try using a word or phrase to prompt them. No matter what word you pick\u2014potty, tinkle time, atta boy, ta-da, shazam\u2014use it every time you take your puppy out.<\/p>\n Have that treat ready (and make it good).<\/strong><\/p>\n Puppies\u2019 memories are as short as their little bodies. Unless you reward<\/a> them immediately, they won\u2019t realize that they\u2019re being praised for going outside and not just for being generally adorable. Present the treat the second the deed is done, and for maximum impact, make sure it\u2019s extra tasty.<\/p>\n No yelling. Just cleaning.<\/strong><\/p>\n Yelling when they have an accident is never cool. In fact, it could cause them to start hiding from you when they need to go. Same goes for shaming your puppy for an accident that you find later. At that point, they won\u2019t even associate the mess with why you\u2019re angry. So what should you do? If you catch your puppy in the act, simply say \u201cno\u201d calmly or clap once loudly. The slight noise will scare them into stopping so you can scoop them up to go outside. And be sure to keep natural enzymatic cleaners<\/a> on hand. They\u2019ll erase any trace of the smell so your puppy won\u2019t come back to mark the spot again (but without any nasty chemicals that can hurt them).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Everyone loves a new puppy. Slightly less cute, however, are the stains on the carpet and surprises on the floor. House-training may feel like it\u2019s taking forever, but the good news is that every month they can hold…<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-training-and-behavior"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chuckanddons.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chuckanddons.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chuckanddons.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chuckanddons.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chuckanddons.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/chuckanddons.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":232,"href":"https:\/\/chuckanddons.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16\/revisions\/232"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chuckanddons.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chuckanddons.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chuckanddons.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chuckanddons.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}