How To Potty Train Your Puppy

When puppies are welcomed into their new homes, often the first question owners will ask is “how do I potty train them?” In this video, expert dog trainer Mike Stewart shares how his positive training methods can help your puppy become housetrained quickly and easily. So they can understand your expectations, and you can deal with less mess.

Housebreaking The Wildrose Way : Video Transcript

Mike Stewart: When housebreaking a pup, there's only three things you need to know. One, get them on a schedule, feeding, watering, the routine of exercise and going out to relieve themselves. Number two is we want to control the water, we want to control the feed, and time that to going out for relief. And we always take them to exactly that location. And three, avoid mistakes. Watch the puppy, make sure they don't have accidents in the house. There's really no correction for an accident in the home. Just clean it up and kill the scent. You can use a scent eliminator, or you can use a mixture of vinegar and water, 50/50, and spray the area. You don't want the scent to remain for the puppy to re-identify that area.

An important tool in housebreaking is the crate. It keeps the pup in a confined area. So we want the puppy comfortable in the crate. But the size matters. Take these two crates. This is far too large for the puppy to have free roam inside this crate. He could soil the back and live in another section. Puppies do not really want to soil their own space. So by keeping the puppy in a more confined area, you stand a better chance that the puppy won't eliminate in this crate. The puppy's always learning, so be careful what you're teaching.