Helpful Hints For Housetraining

When we first got Maggie, she was not housetrained.  It took a lot of work to get her to where she is now.  Now, we have her trained so she goes to the door when she has to go to the bathroom.  So what can you do if you are at the end of your rope and don’t know what else to try?  Take a look below for some helpful hints to get you through this difficult stage of dog ownership.

• Try crate training as an alternative.  We have a decent sized crate for Maggie to stay in when we are unable to watch her.  Dogs will not soil their bed area, so odds are your dog will hold it as long as she is in her crate.  Be sure to take her out frequently – and take her straight to the door when you let her out of her crate.

• Keep her on tile flooring – dogs are more likely to soil carpet or something absorbent and will refrain from peeing on tile or linoleum.

• When your dog does go potty outside, be sure to give plenty of praise (it doesn’t hurt to also keep some treats handy)! Being there to give your dog praise at the exact moment she is doing the right thing will make all the difference in your housetraining.

• Control the amount of water your dog drinks.  Maggie has her water bowl emptied at 8pm.  This means from 8 o’clock on, we don’t have to worry about her sneaking off to potty inside.  We have to take her out one time before bed, but then she is able to settle in and relax for the night.

Above all, DO NOT get discouraged!  It took Maggie a little bit of time, but now she goes to the door regularly and we don’t have to worry about indoor accidents!  What other suggestions do you have for housetraining?  What worked (or didn’t work) for you?  Please leave your comments below!

Thanks for reading!  We’ll bark at you later!

This entry was posted on Monday, October 5th, 2009 at 08:56 pm and is filed under Dogs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.