House Training & Chewing

Your puppy will have poor bowel control, but if you follow some simple rules it will make house training a lot easier.

It is essential you give a certain amount of your time to make the process easier; you will need to catch your dog in the act to be able to stop this unwanted behaviour and train your dog to do otherwise. If you didn’t catch them in the act at the time you cannot punish them, they will get confused and not know what they’ve done wrong.

Establish a regular routine around your puppy’s needs.  Immediately after waking up, your puppy will want to urinate, be there at these times to immediately take them outside to where you wish them to go (make it the same area each time), remain there with them to give praise afterwards.  Whilst urinating/defecating, introduce a specific word or sound to give your puppy an association to toileting. This will become useful later to prompt them.

After eating a meal they will want to defecate, which usually happens approximate 30mins later, again be there to take them outside.  Get to recognise the signs; your puppy may behave in a certain way just before they need to go.  Every hour or two get into the habit of taking them out for a wee break, as they get older you can extend the time. Puppies will urinate spontaneously if they get over excited. If you see your puppy starting to urinate, immediately take them outside, (don’t wait until they have finished) most of the time they will stop and continue when you have taken them to the correct area.

Create a diary of when your puppy eats, sleeps, urinates and defecates.  This will make it easier for you to establish a routine on the house training.

Chewing

Chewing is a natural pastime for puppies therefore it takes time for your new puppy to grasp the idea of what they can and can’t chew, chewing and biting is quite normal for a puppy as it helps with the teething whilst their jaw is changing for the initial six months or so.  The chewing can reoccur again at adolescence stage.  Adolescent dogs often have an uncontrollable urge to chew, which could be because of discomfort in the gums as their adult teeth are settling into the jawbone.

Introduce natural chews, nylon bones, large hard biscuits, and Kongs.