Similar to human babies, puppies should not be left alone unsupervised. Just like babies, puppies are not fully aware of what is the expected protocol and might make mistakes. Do ensure that there is somebody who can be with the puppy to make sure he is monitored. This lessens the frequency of mistakes committed. Time and patience is a natural part of the learning curve. A puppy is not seen to be house-trained until he manages to avoid defecating in the house for at least 4 weeks. Bear in mind that it might take slightly longer if you are training older dogs.

Until then, you should keep a constant vigil over him, set up baby gates to control his movements in the house and confine him to his crate when unsupervised. Take note that if your puppy squats and urinates when he greets you, he may probably suffer from submissive urination. Such dogs are hypersensitive and should not be scolded for this behavior, since punishment only worsens the problem. However, as he grows older, he will no longer do this if you are calm and quiet. Or you could ask him to sit down for a tasty treat till someone greets him.

To prevent your puppy from committing the same mistake, you should remove all urine and fecal odor so that your puppy does not return to the same spot in your house where he made a mess. They have an innate tendency to go back to a spot they visited earlier.

To completely remove the odor, use a good deodorizer for doggy odors. If he urinated on a carpet, saturate it with a cleaning agent. Shut off all those rooms in your house where your puppy has made frequent mistakes. Let him enter here only when accompanied by a family member.

An extra tip to remove urine from carpet is to use black lights to find the exact urine spot to make cleaning more efficient. You can use commercial or create a homemade deodorizer by mixing 50% water and 50% white vinegar. Take note that you should never use ammonia on a urine spot. It will encourage your dog to return to the same spot.

As mention earlier, it is quite natural for a dog to make a mess during the potty training period. This is why you need to be ready to handle these problems.

a. Punishing him only after a mistake has been committed will slow down the speed of training.

b. Be patient. Like any training endeavor, potty training requires a lot of patience. Don’t rub his nose into his mess. This will not teach him not to repeat it and will only end up making him frightened of you.

c. If you catch him while he is in the midst of doing, stop him with a quick grab of his collar and pull him up while making a startling sound, a sharp noise or say “No” using your deep, stern tone loudly. Do this only when you catch him red-handed, but be sure not to be too loud or he will eliminate in front of you or perhaps even outdoors.

d. Then, take him outside and let him finish what he is doing. Lastly, pat him on his head while saying “Good boy!” or praising him. It is important to show your dog praises whenever he does something correct. Giving him food as a reward when he does his business in the appropriate spot can help too.

During potty training, the use of common sense will aid you big time in dealing with your puppy’s housebreaking endeavor. Use your common sense to determine the amount of water given to the dog before his bedtime especially if he is prone to urinating in the middle of the night. It will be useful to try to suit his timing initially before trying to get the dog to adjust to your timing.

Aside from patience and common sense, consistency is also one of the important factors of this dog training activity. If you suddenly forget about the routines yourself, don’t blame if your dog if he starts committing accidents more often.

Remember that the stakes are high