| By :
Grubb Young
Potty training, also called housebreaking, a puppy is hard work. The good news is that it is generally much faster and easier than potty training a human toddler. Just as in potty training a human toddler, the first step in potty training a puppy is to make it aware of the need to go potty before the urge becomes too immediate to hold it. Puppy training pads are a useful tool in your puppy house training arsenal. Like young human babies, most puppies under 12 weeks of age are physically unable to hold their bathroom functions. This makes it particularly difficult to potty train a young puppy. Of course, most people do not want to wait until their puppies are 12 weeks or older to begin training. This is actually smart- the sooner you begin to teach your puppy to hold its bladder, the easier house training will be. Puppy pads are particularly useful in puppy housebreaking pups under three months old. When training a puppy healthy "bathroom" habits, you will need to take it outside just about every hour around the clock. When you take your puppy out and get the desired result, meaning the puppy uses the bathroom outside, be sure to praise your puppy heartily and offer treats. This tells your puppy very clearly where you want it to go. Many people react to a puppy's need to go out hourly around the clock with exasperation, and who can blame them? Nobody really wants to give up precious sleep every hour of the night so that a dog can pee in the appropriate place. When you are sleeping, offer the puppy potty pads to use, so that you can still get a restful night's sleep. Potty pads are scented to attracted puppies and adult dogs alike to wee on the pads instead of randomly throughout the house. The perfect place to put a puppy pad is right by the door that you use to take your dog out. This will help reinforce to your puppy to go to that door when it needs to go out to use the bathroom. Many people crate train puppies as a means not only of housebreaking for bathroom issues, but also to control separation anxiety and to ensure that the puppy is safe while the people are sleeping or are away from home. While you do not want your dog to always think it is okay to use the bathroom in the crate, placing an absorbent, plastic backed puppy training pad on one end of an appropriately sized crate will enable your puppy to safely and cleanly pee when it is simply unable to hold it. Once your puppy has the physical ability to control its bladder- after 12 weeks of age or so- and is fully housebroken, you should stop putting puppy pads in the crate so that your dog will learn to hold its bladder until you come to let it out. Of course, you shouldn't leave your dog crated for any longer than necessary to sleep or go to work. If your daily work hours keep you gone from your puppy for prolonged hours, consider hiring somebody to take your puppy out to use the bathroom when you can't be there. A trustworthy neighborhood teenager often makes a good puppy sitter. The key to successful puppy housebreaking is frequent trips to the yard and lots of encouragement.
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