Effectively house training your puppy makes a huge difference in the success of you and your dog living harmoniously together. This is a big deal and we want to help you do it right.
Baxter & Bella Online Puppy School says, "We start house training a puppy one room at a time. The idea is to keep their living space small enough to set them up for success. We use crates/pens and baby gates to limit your puppy's access to the rest of the home. Once your puppy keeps their current space consistently clean without accidents for at least a week, is ringing the bell in the area consistently to go out, then add another room to their current living space. If they were in the kitchen, add the living room, etc."
Quick Tip: Playpens can be easier than putting up gates. Facebook Marketplace can be a great place to snag one quick. If you can't find one on Facebook click here to find it on Amazon.
Before allowing them in a new area of the house, take them to potty beforehand. Then immediately come inside and have a play session in the new space. Try to spend enough time there until your puppy needs to potty again. This gives you the opportunity to continue helping them build good habits, by finding the bell to tell you to go potty. The first few times you include the upstairs as an added space they're allowed in, you may need to use a leash to walk your puppy to the bell from upstairs until they learn that, "Yep, I must ring the bell no matter where I am in oder to go outside and yes potty must be done outside." (Need to order the bells? Click here.)
Dogs do not generalize like we do so each new environment means behavior must be retaught there. They pick up on the behaviors in the new space more quickly so we repeat this process until our entire house is included. Once they generalize a few new rooms it goes faster. We may introduce the entire basement at once, but we usually wouldn't recommend this until your puppy is at least six months old before we even get to that point. As a timeframe, we wait until after 1 year to completely trust a puppy in our home. Also note, every puppy is unique and we work with each puppy on their level. If they are not ready by one year we keep helping them by limiting their living space until they are ready.
(We love these crates pictured above! They're pretty enough to use as end tables! Click here to find them on Amazon!)
It's never too early, or too late, to begin training! Baxter and Bella, has built an entire online doggy school with over 75 lessons planned and field trips to help you teach your dog a variety of behaviors. Need help in this area? Give their online puppy school a try and gain access to personalized advice from their trainers any time you want! Happy training!
All our families that have us it, absolutely love it! If you have any questions or want to learn more about it click here.
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Looking for a bernedoodle for sale or cavapoo puppies for sale? We would be honored to help your family grow by four paws! Have questions? Check out our Frequently Asked Questions page or give us a call directly at 270-350-2513. Whether you're ready now or later we would be honored to welcome you to the Bluegrass Family.