Seven quick and easy tips to toilet training your puppy

You've been looking forward to it for a long time, but finally the time has come: your pup can come home! If everything has gone well, your puppy has already learned a lot from his or her mom and from the breeder. But now you are also responsible for further ensuring that your puppy grows into a healthy, social and reliable dog, through proper upbringing and training. One of your first to-do's: toilet training your puppy.

Toilet training your puppy doesn't happen overnight. However, dogs instinctively tend not to soil their own sleeping place. Until the age of three to four weeks, the mother keeps the nest clean by eating her puppies' feces. Later on, puppies also look for places to avoid making their sleeping place dirty. But they are not toilet trained yet ..


When does your puppy become toilet trained?

Usually it takes six to ten weeks before your puppy is toilet trained. Much, of course, depends on how much time you can spend with your puppy. Being vigilant and especially knowing when it has to make a puddle or pile, is already a big step forward in toilet training your puppy!
Does your dog mark certain places in the house? That can be a very annoying aspect of toilet training your puppy. Spray Oropharma Stop Spray in the places where your dog does this.

Tips for toilet training

  1. A puppy will always have to pee or poo after playing, sleeping and eating. At these times, go outside with your puppy and encourage him or her to do their business.

  2. After a while, you'll notice by your pup's behavior whether he or she needs to pee or poo. If your dog gets a bit restless, starts spinning and sniffing around, chances are they need to go number one or number two.

  3. Let your puppy pee and poo in a specific place in the garden. This way you don't have doggie doo-doo everywhere that you can step in! Mark out a zone in the garden, and install a pole in the middle for male dogs.

  4. Every time your dog goes to the toilet in the right place, enthusiastically reward him with your voice or with a biscuit. Also attach a word to it, such as “pee”. After a few times, your puppy will make the link between the word “pee” and the reward. That makes toilet training your puppy a pleasant experience.

  5. When you first bring your puppy home, let her sleep in her crate to toilet train her. After all, she will be reluctant to soil her sleeping place. When you take her out of the crate, let her first pee outside before letting her run free inside. Make sure that the crate is not too big. Otherwise, your pup will not soil her sleeping place in the crate, but may poo or pee in another part of the crate.

  6. Accidents can and will happen. Did you catch your dog in the act? Then reprimand him by shouting NO firmly, then picking him up and putting him outside to indicate that is where he needs to do his business. Do you find a pile or puddle when you return home? Then it's no longer useful to scold your dog. Clean it up without paying much attention to it. Avoid an angry reaction and never rub it in your dog's face!

  7. Does your dog mark certain places in the house? That can be a very annoying aspect of toilet training your puppy. Spray Oropharma Stop Spray in the places where your dog does this.
    Is your dog a bit older and suddenly beginning to pee in the house again? Be sure to consult the vet, because there can be an underlying medical cause for this behavior.

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