Have you just bought a cuddly and cute young puppy? If you are like most families you are probably very worried how to house train your new puppy. The first thing you should know is that dogs do not naturally soil where they live. In their natural environment they will do their business outside and away from their den. Your puppy’s mother will have taught these good housekeeping habits to your puppy during its first few months with her.

Some dog owners interfere with this natural habit. A dog that is chained up for lengthy periods may not have the option to leave its kennel, which is why a dog should be allowed to run free several times a day to help keep its living quarters clean. To house train a pup kept indoors, the first step is to limit its sleeping quarters to a small area that is the equivalent of its “den”. It will naturally wish to keep that area clean. Some people use a crate for this purpose.

You can take two approaches to your house training from that point: training your pup to hold on until it can obtain relief outside, or teaching it to use a dirt tray inside. Either way, the main aim is to have the puppy relieve itself in an acceptable place, not just anywhere in your home as if it were the great outdoors. Personally I prefer training a dog, especially if it is a larger breed, to go outdoors, but this may not be practical if you live in an apartment situation, have no outdoors kennel or you are very busy or often absent.

Here is what you do for the first approach. Take your puppy outside onto grass as soon as it wakes up and soon after it is fed, and several times through the day. Every 3 to 4 hours is a practical guideline, much like a baby! Leave it longer and the risk of a mess increases. Learn to recognize the signs your puppy wants to go, and act quickly! Give a lot of praise when everything goes to plan. Eventually your pup will tell you it wants to go outside whenever it has the urge, which shows it is starting to get the idea.

Expect that reaching this stage will take several weeks. Accidents will happen, and should not be punished. Rewarding positive behavior is a more effective training method. You would be well advised to have the puppy live initially in an area with a hard floor that is easily cleaned, such as in your garage or laundry.

Keeping the puppy in a yard outdoors during the day, so that it will be asleep for most of its time indoors through the night, will reduce the demands on your time as its temporary “nanny” during this process. If you have a dog door giving the puppy access to the outside, train the puppy to use it when required. This is much less labor intensive for you, and speeds up the learning process.

Ideally the “den” area where it sleeps should initially be adjacent to this door. Of course, free access outside should not mean freedom to roam beyond a secure yard.

Giving access to a secure run outside may not be possible for you. A dirt tray inside the house is the usual solution. Absorbent substances to use in your dirt box are readily available at pet shops to eliminate most of your odor concerns. You should place the dirt tray close to where the puppy sleeps but it must be clearly separate from its “den”.

You must take the puppy to the dirt tray when it awakens and about 20 minutes after it is fed. You need to reinforce success with praise, until it gets the idea of how to use the dirt tray. This method is a little more taxing than taking the puppy outdoors, but you must be patient. Some trainers recommend a paper-training stage before using the dirt box, to better communicate the idea. This is simply the use of newspaper laid on the floor as an alternative to a dirt tray. A little “starter” scent from last time the puppy went left on the paper helps to communicate the idea.

The advantage of using paper is a broader target-zone, and paper is cheap and easily cleaned away. You gradually narrow down this area over a couple of weeks to just the dirt tray. Once the habit of using the dirt tray is firmly imprinted, you gain some freedom to move it step-by-step further away from the den or sleeping area, perhaps to a utility room or attached garage, where the family spends less time.

Eventually the puppy can be allowed more access to your home, which amounts to giving it a bigger den. You would be wise not to permit access to any tempting dark and hidden corners too quickly. Disruptions to the routine visits outdoors or access to the dirt tray will be difficult for the puppy to cope with until it grows a little. You need to be tolerant during this time as your puppy learns to respect all of your house in the same way it would naturally keep its den clean.

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