Making the best of a new puppy’s first few weeks is, for many new dog owners, much harder than it has to be. For most folks it is not lack of desire but a lack of understanding about what needs to be done and in what time frames it needs to happen.
Everybody wants their little dog to act like a big dog right away. This is not possible no matter who you are or what kind of dog it is. Puppies are puppies and will they will act like one and behave like one 10,000 years from now.
It bears repeating that the only thing a puppy needs to learn in their first six months of life is to go to the bathroom outside and not to bark. Let’s cover the first one of these this week and other one in a future week.
The new dog owner normally does one of two things when they start house training a dog. First they might put the puppy in the laundry room and put papers on the floor. They let the dog out as often as they can but the puppy always does his business in the house on the paper somewhere. This can go on for months with little change. It can work once in a while, but it is a low percentage method to teach the dog what you want him to know.
The rule of thumb here is that if a puppy can sleep in one place and relieve themselves in a different pace they will do so as long as these two spots are far enough apart. A laundry room or a large kennel will both provide enough space that the puppy does not have to lay in his number one and number two. I have not nor will I ever use the laundry room method.
I start with a cat porter. This is a super small kennel that the puppy will sleep in for the first few weeks. The quarters are so close that the puppy will do everything in its power not to look for relief inside the puppy kennel. Using a small kennel and letting the puppy out often will go a long way toward house training a puppy. As the puppy grows you will need to move to a slightly larger kennel, but not a big one at this point.
The same points are made here. The quarters are close and the puppy wants to stay clean. Successful house training completed in the shortest amount of time will require that the owner will either own or borrow about three different kennels of different sizes as the puppy grows up. It is this expense that most dog owners try to avoid and in the process end up with a dog that takes a long time to house train.
I have heard dog owners say that their puppy has never had an accident in the house. I respond to them that the puppy is then not house-trained. If the dog has never had an accident in the house, how does he know that going bathroom there is wrong? It will take a few accidents and a few no,no,no’s and quick trips outside to get the puppy to fully understand that in the house is a no-no.
A few other tips: If you take the puppy out of the kennel, the very first thing that happens next is that the puppy is escorted outside for a potty break. If the puppy does not go he/she then comes back in the house and goes back into the kennel. The reward for going potty outside is getting to run around and play inside. They learn quickly if they want to interact with the humans, going outside when given the opportunity is the best thing to do.
If you take the puppy outside and he does his thing and then shortly goes back in the kennel he will need to outside again the very next time he comes out of the kennel no matter how short or long a time that might have been. You will take the puppy outside four times in 20 minutes if he enters and leaves the kennel four times in 20 minutes. You might think this is excessive and you can do it any way you want, but this method works for shortening the time it takes to house train a dog. Never rub their nose in it, never yell so loudly as to spook the puppy and remember that it took you a long time to get out of your own diapers when you were a human puppy.
Puppies need lots of fresh water, but I do cut them off after 7 p.m. as to try to limit the number of midnight potty breaks in your robe and slippers at 3 am. If your puppy is very young, please remember to add water to their dry puppy food to soften it up before you feed them. I have seen puppies die of choking when they eat really fast and the food has not been softened.
Nothing turns dog food into dog turds faster than a Labrador puppy. Don’t feed them if you are not in a position to let them out within just a few minutes.
Puppies take a lot of time early in their lives and it is one of the best parts of having a dog. Puppies bond to you and it is this bond created in these first weeks that will carry on the entire life of the dog. The dog’s desire to please you is cemented in this bond and without it the relationship between dog and owner is different. It can still be good but in my opinion maybe just not quite as good.
What you do with a puppy from the day you take it home until it is 6 months of age will have more to do with how the dog turns out than any other thing. Breeding is important and having a good trainer is important, too, but your socializing of that puppy properly is critical as to how it will act over its entire lifetime.
If you have a puppy question, email fredhartmn@gmail.com