Potty Potty Potty Training

You have you perfect puppy comfortable in his cozy den. Plenty of toys available, the nice warm blanket for a bed and your neat potty area made up of newspaper on a large tray. After every nap you faithfully put puppy on the papers and hold him there until he does something and then praise praise praise and reward. This works like a charm at first, you know you have the smartest puppy in the world. But then puppy decides the potty papers are better playthings than his toys. He scatters them all over, rips them vigorously or decides they make a great bed. Then he pees on the bare floor.

You faithfully clean it all up, redistribute the paper and start all over.

The first few days of potty training require constant vigil. Young puppies bladders last about 20 minutes. So about every 20 minutes you need to take puppy to the paper and encourage him to use it. It is so important to keep puppy confined at this time so there are no accidents throughout your home. Even a few accidents throughout the house can cause lasting potty training problems.

Then comes the hideous diarrhea. You wake up in the morning to runny yuck all over the pen and all over your pup who appears to have rolled, flopped, skidded and played in it. Pups do occasionally get diarrhea that lasts for a short time. If it lasts longer than a day check with your vet.

So you faithfully clean it up and start fresh again.

About this time you decide newspaper just does not cut it. It doesn't soak up very well and is too easily scattered about. Pet stores have puppy training pads that absorb wonderfully. However they are expensive.

A good reference for house training is Drs Foster and Smith Pet Education.

There are several different methods for potty training puppy depending whether or not you have a lot of time to devote or are away from home for long periods of time. Doing this right, however is tremendously important for everyone's happiness!

Remember lots of praise and rewards when puppy does it right.

Bringing my new puppy home

Exciting! Bringing your new puppy home is a wonderful day! You have hopes and dreams of a great companion for years to come. A pup that will always be there for you, listen closely, obey immediately. You have a clean slate! An untrained ready and eager to learn adorable puppy!

You pick up your new friend, hold him and cuddle him all the way home, play for hours and then its time to go to bed. Your puppy cries, howls, whines and refuses to settle down. What to do...

Sadly many puppies at this immediate juncture will suffer from your lack of know how! I have read the majority of puppies fail to live long enough to enjoy their second birthday 1. because they will not lived up to your expectations . Its not their fault, they are clean slates in need of training and they are totally dependent on you, their new owner to train them. So it is imperative you do your homework ahead of time and have their home ready to receive them.

What do I need to have prepared for my puppy?
Have your puppies new home set up before you pick her up. She needs a long term and a short term confinement area which includes a:

• Comfortable bed
• A fresh supply of water
• The potty area
• A chew toy

Your puppy will spend many hours in this area to begin with, it is their safe haven.

Picking up Gunner
It was another snowy day, most people wisely stayed home, when we drove the 40 miles to pick up Gunner. We brought only a soft cushy blanket to wrap him up in and spent only 5 minutes at the breeders signing papers and wrapping him up in the blanket.

He was young, too young! Most experts agree pups should be with their mothers until 7 to 8 weeks of age so she can do much of their socialization. Gunner's breeder had to take the mom away at 5 weeks so rather than leave him with just his brothers and sisters we decided to pick him up early.

This gave us extra responsibility especially with the biting and chewing. Puppies need to learn how hard they can mouth. Moms train this well with a good nip back if the pup mouths too hard.
We had his home ready,

• A plastic Veri Kennel for his bed
• A plastic play pen surrounding it
• A tray with papers for his potty
• Water dish
• Kong chew toys

The blanket we picked him up in turned out to be the most important item. He slept soundly wrapped up in it every night and was never with out it. The one time I took it out to wash it he cried loudly until I put it back still unwashed.

Our adorable puppy was settling in.

1. Before and After Getting Your Puppy, Dr. Ian Dunbar, New World Library, CA 2004

Choose your puppy wisely! Ya right....

The experts agree. You can read any puppy or dog information book and they all agree you must choose your puppy wisely.

• Observe the litter for at least a half hour
• ask lots of questions
• view and interact with the canine parents
• interrogate the breeder

Then and only then decide on the perfect puppy.

So we met with the breeder on a cold snowy night, took one look at the little black wiggling bundle and paid the money.

Yes we did everything wrong but still ended up with the most delightful perfect little puppy. Maybe we were just lucky.

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