The New Arrival 

As soon as you bring the puppy home, take her outside. She will have to go anyway because of the excitement of the car journey coupled with the unfamiliar faces, sights, and sounds. If you can work it out so that her first toilet break occurs outside instead of inside, then so much the better. And not just from the perspective of short-term hygiene, either - the more your puppy relieves herself inside, the more likely she is to do it again.

The homecoming is a great opportunity for you to set a precedent for toilet behavior!

- Take her to the area you picked as the potty area, and put her down on the grass.

- Wait while she sniffs around. Do not pet her or play with her because you don’t want her to associate this area with playtime and games. You are potty training your puppy and she has to learn that this part of the yard is for potty breaks only.

- When she begins to relieve herself, say the phrase you want her to associate with potty breaks: “Go pee” or “potty time” or whatever works for you. It’s best if that phrase is short and easily recognizable. Use the same voice inflection each time so that your dog can easily learn the meaning of the phrase.

- When she’s done, make a big fuss over her. Shower her with praise and affection, and give her a little treat.

When you take her inside the house, the house training should start immediately.

As far as house training goes, crate training is generally accepted to be the most effective and efficient means of house training a puppy in a short space of time. Crate-training is the use of a small indoor kennel (the crate) to confine your young puppy when you’re not actively supervising her or at home.

Crate training is based on all dogs’ dislike of soiling the area where they sleep. Because you’re restricting your puppy’s movement to her sleeping space, she’ll instinctively “hold it in” until she’s let out of the crate (provided you don’t leave her in there too long, of course!)

This is why it’s important that the crate is sized properly: if it’s too big, she’ll be able to use one end as a bed and one end as a toilet, which defeats the whole purpose!

You walk through the door and your puppy is all over you, lavishing you with affection and wanting to play. Your puppy behaves like he hasn’t seen you for days, even though all you did was make a quick run to the store. What do you do? Why of course you return the affection and play with your puppy. Why? Because that is what you want to do. And you don’t want to hurt your puppy’s feelings. After all, puppies give unconditional love, are so cute, and are a great source of entertainment and companionship.

Now let us take a look at what just happened. Your puppy has trained you to give her affection by misbehaving. Yes, I said misbehaving. And your puppy will expect the same results from others when they walk through the door so she will jump on them, pull at their pants leg, and nip their heels (there’s the misbehaving part). And remember, your puppy will grow up to be a full size dog that will jump up on people, pull at their pants or sleeves, and nip (bite) them - trying to get the same attention that she trained you to give her as a puppy.

I’ll bet right now you’re saying “That’s NOT what I want!” and then “But what do I do?”. Lets try the following.

You walk through the door and your puppy is all over you, lavishing you with affection and wanting to play. Do not even acknowledge that your puppy is in the same room. Do not make eye contact. Do not say a word to your puppy, no matter what. Just walk on by, open your mail, hang up your coat or whatever you would normally do if you did not have the puppy. In a short while your puppy will give up and sit. Immediately say ‘Sit’ and calmly praise your puppy - even give him a treat. In due time your puppy will learn to associate sitting and being calm with getting the affection he wants. And he has also learned the ‘Sit’ command.

What just happened? Your puppy has learned that jumping on you (and other people) won’t get him anything. Remember, even a scolding at this point is a form of attention. You have trained your puppy instead of your puppy training you. You are the boss - the alpha. And this behavior will carry on into adulthood. Now you have a dog that, when a guest or other family member walks into the house, will sit and remain calm. Your friends will look forward to coming over, instead of dreading it because they know the dog is going to jump on them.

Teaching your puppy to sit is the beginning point for obedience training, or just teaching him tricks. He will look forward to learning from you because he has learned that he will receive the affection he craves.

For more information -
For further information on typical puppy behavior, including a fantastic resource for training how-to’s and loads of detailed information on preventing and dealing with problem behaviors, check out SitStayFetch. Written by a professional dog-trainer, it’s an absorbing guide that deals with all the subjects a responsible dog-owner could ever want to know about - well worth a look.

Here is the link to SitStayFetch - Just Click Here.