Ah, house training your dog. Don’t you just love the idea? If you’ve ever had to go through this experience, then you know how challenging it can be. If you’ve never done it before, I’ve got great news. By learning some basic essential knowledge, you’ll soon discover that it doesn’t have to be as difficult or challenging as you were initially expecting.
I’ve had several dogs over the years, and have tried different methods of house training them. The one method, however, that stands out above all the rest is known as the crate method. Crate training refers to housing your puppy in a small crate, or indoor kennel, and keeping her in there when she is not out for walks with you, or when she’s not being actively supervised while in your home.
The whole premise behind this method of crate training is that all dogs have an inbuilt dislike of going to the bathroom in an area where they normally sleep. Therefore, because she’s spending most of her time in her “sleeping quarters”, she will naturally wait until put outside before relieving herself (assuming that you let her out at reasonable intervals).
When choosing a crate, make sure you get one that will allow your new puppy to grow to her full size without having to replace the crate. Be sure it has enough space for your dog to easily stand up and move around a bit. As the dog gets bigger, you don’t want her being housed in a crate that’s too confining.
Unless you’ve got a puppy that will remain small even after being fully grown, you’ll have to place some kind of divider inside the large crate that will temporarily block off some of the inside of the crate from being used until she’s big enough to need the extra space. Otherwise, the extra space might be used as a bathroom space, and that defeats the whole purpose of crate training.
Crate training works like this: your puppy is in that crate at all times unless she’s sleeping, eating, outside with you going to the toilet, or being played with (active supervision). You’ll need to be consistent, or else it won’t work: you can’t let your puppy wander off through the house unless you’re focusing your complete attention on her. If you allow her access to the house before she’s thoroughly house trained, you’re basically encouraging her to relieve herself inside – and remember, each time she does this, it’ll be easier for her to do it again (and again and again ).
So, how long should your puppy be in the crate for any length of time? Use the following formula to determine this: how old is she, in months? Now, add one. Thus, if your puppy is only two months old, she should be in the crate for a maximum of three hours at a time. Ideally, however, it would be good to take her out to stretch her legs and to go to the bathroom every 2-3 hours. However, if she’s sleeping, then just let her keep sleeping (especially if it’s through the night!).
Training a puppy using the crate training method is not an overnight solution. It can take up to two months maximum, usually less, for this process to work. But that a short time considering the number of years she’ll be part of your family. As you progress with your crate training, you can begin to reduce the amount of time the puppy is in the crate, but make sure you continue to monitor her while she’s not in the crate. After all that hard work, you’d hate to start back one square one again because she starts going to the bathroom in the house.
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