The Right Way to Give House Training to Dogs Part One
Have you recently adopted a dog in Singapore? You must have immediately imagined the excitement of having new friends at home. Unfortunately, most adopted dogs are untrained when you bring them home. While you’ll need a lot of patience, this is a great opportunity to bond with your pet.
Training a dog or puppy at home takes patience, commitment, and a lot of consistency. Accidents are part of the process, but if you follow these basic home training guidelines, you can make a very friendly new family member within a few weeks. Here’s how to give your dog the right house training:
- Set Routine
Like babies, puppies will continue to adjust to a regular schedule. The schedule teaches them that there is a time to eat, a time to play, and a time to urinate and defecate.
- Teaching Peeing
In general, puppies can control their bladder for an hour at one month of age and their ability increases by an hour each month. Adult dogs can hold urination for up to 12 hours, but at least allow the dog to urinate every 8 hours. Don’t go any longer than this between bathroom breaks or they’re bound to get wet.
Take puppies outside as often as possible, at least every two hours and as soon as they wake up, during and after play, and after eating or drinking.
Choose an outdoor bathroom spot, and always bring the puppy (on a leash) to it. When your puppy poops on its own, use a specific word or phrase that you can use later before their leaves to remind them what to do. Invite them for longer walks or playtime only after they are done with their business.
Reward puppies every time they pee outside. Praise or give them a snack, but remember to do it immediately after they’re done, not after they’re back inside. This step is very important because rewarding dogs for getting out of the house is the only way to teach them what is expected of them. Before giving a gift, make sure they have finished urinating. Puppies are easily distracted and if you praise too quickly, they may forget to finish their pee.
- Feeding
Put the puppy on a regular feeding schedule. Depending on their age, puppies usually need to be fed three or four times a day. Feeding your puppy at the same time each day will make him more likely to go to the bathroom at consistent times too, making home training easier.
Get your puppy’s water container about two and a half hours before bedtime to reduce the chance that they will have to pee at night. Most puppies can sleep for about seven hours without needing to go to the bathroom. If a puppy wakes you up at night, don’t take it too seriously. Otherwise, they’ll think it’s time to play and won’t want to go back to sleep. Keep the lights on as little as possible, don’t talk or play with the puppies, get them out, and put them back in bed.