I’ve had dogs and cats all my life.  Currently I have three small 20 pound dogs.  The first one is a jack Russel/ terrier mix, the other is a rat terrier and our last dog is a pug mix.

All of them were house trained within about three weeks or less of coming to live with us.

Puppies are probably the easiest to train as they haven’t developed bad habits already.  But older dogs can be trained as well using the same steps you would use on a puppy.

First of all it’s important that you keep them in cage at night, if they are are larger dog try to keep them in a smaller space with their bed.  Dogs won’t normally eliminate where they have to sleep and eat unless they really can’t hold it anymore.

First thin in the morning walk them straight out to the yard, or walk them so they can go.

Then after that feed and water them and let them out again.

With a dog that needs to be trained do not let water or food sit out.  The reason is that at this stage you need to learn how long it takes until your pet needs to go out after eating and drinking.

So, if you feed your dog three meals.  You should set the food down for them.  let them eat, and if they leave any pick it up and away from them.

Then wait until the dog has to go.  Some dogs are very easy to train and on the smarter side.  After being let out in the morning and going, they get it, and if you walk them out they will go outside again.  

A lot of puppies however will take a few times.  You must watch them and then as you see them squat pick them up gently and put them outside.  DO NOT, yell at the puppy or hit it and yell no. 

They will not understand that you mean to do it outside.  Their reaction to being yelled at and swatted will be to run and hide from you in a back room and poop thier instead.  And then you will find a little present when you least expect it.

So, after feeding/ watering the puppy keep them near the door and play with them for few minutes. Once you see them squat or pick up their leg pick them up and bring them out. Each time you bring them out. Say, “Go outside.” 

This will help the dog to learn the signal, “go outside?”

Watch your time.  After a while you will know that your litle quadroped needs to take a lead x amount of minutes after drinking or eating. 

So, instead of waiting to take them out, simply take them out at what is the usual time. Again say, “go outside?”

Once you get to the point where you know the time the dog has to go and the dog actually goes outside and does it’s business it’s time for positive reinforcement.

Every-time the puppy pees or poops outside reward them with praise/pets and a little treat. 

At this point the dog will know it’s supposed to be outside when it does it’s business, but not how to tell you when it is time.  Without you taking the dog out it will probably still go inside.

Now it the point where we teach the puppy how to notify you.  

Every time it becomes your puppies time to go take them to the door.  Open it just a little, so that the dog can’t get out.  Do it a few times so that the urgency builds up in the dog. They will approach the door.  With enough urgency they will scratch at it.  Again say, “go outside?”

As soon as  they scratch at it, open the door wide and let the dog run out and do their business.  As they go out say, “go outside.”  Follow up with positive reinforcement.

Keep doing this until the dog knows that scratching the door is a signal to be let out.   Make sure you let the dog out as soon as it signals otherwise it will revert.

Until the dog is fully house broken they may make a few mistakes.  Again do not yell at them. Pick up the poop and take it outside, while saying, “go outside.”  Get the dog to follow you and put the poop in the yard where you prefer them to poop.  Often times the puppy will still have to go a bit and pick up it’s leg.

It’s important when housebreaking your puppy that you say the same phrase.  This is the phrase the dog will learn as a signal.  Depending on how smart you puppy is they will be able to learn a lot of signals . Our dogs, know, “go outside, bed bed, sit, spin, roll over, go get um, bad, treat, watch TV?, go for a walk, and a bunch of others.

But, for them to learn a signal easily you need to repeat the same phrase followed by what it means.

When your puppy is older it will make the occasional mistake.  With our dogs they don’t like going out in the rain and or cold so our little male will sometimes opt to go inside when the weather first turns.   

At this point they know, they are just being lazy.  Again don’t hit them.  Grab them bring them to the spot of the accident and tell them no while putting their nose in it or close to it so they know exactly what you are talking about.  They either point them to the door and say, “outside,” or physically put them outside.

Most dogs will have guilty look on their face and the ears will be down, they know at this point the expected behavior.

Also, watch to see if your dog has it’s own signals that it gives you.

Our pug mix learned to go outside, but if someone was not close enough to the door to hear him scratching he would go look for someone and jump in their lap  and run around the house like he was being frisky and wanted to play.    After a couple of mistakes we figured he was trying to get our attention so that we would go to the door and open it for him.

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