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Housebreaking a Puppy
By Steve Wong
Housebreaking a puppy requires a lot of patience. If your puppy has an accident inside the house, you'll need to remove the urine and get rid of the smell quickly or your puppy will continue to return to that spot. You should use a product with active enzymes rather than something that will only cover up the smell for a short period of time.
Puppies usually like to mark territory, and marking territory is more of a problem with male dogs than a female dog. This can be stopped by spaying and neutering your puppy as soon as possible.
In housebreaking a puppy, it is important to keep your puppy on a regular drinking and feeding schedule to prevent any accidents and messing up of the house. You may not want to bring any food out until feeding time and continue with this effort until your puppy is finally potty trained. At that point you have gained a full control over your puppy for the times when it needs to relieve himself.
If you are going to disappear from your home for a long period, do not feed your puppy large amounts of water. A young puppy does not have a large bladder. As a rule of thumb, a puppy that is two months old can hold its urine for up to two hours and a 3-month-old puppy can hold it for three hours and so forth. If you are going to leave your puppy in the crate for the whole day, use a puppy potty pad as an accident is anticipated. Of course the estimated hours for a dog to relieve themselves can be different with every dog or dog breed.
Sometimes accidents do happen even for the best-trained dogs if you leave them alone for too long or you miss that potty time. This happens particularly for puppy who is on a regular toilet schedule. Sometimes dogs can get bored when being left unaccompanied in the house for too long and they may surprise you by relieving inside the house. While you are away you may want to provide your dog with a puppy potty pad, a toy or keep the TV on to make your puppy feel as if someone is at home. This will make your puppy feel comfortable. Leaving a light on at night while you are away will also make your dog feel more at ease.
It is the dog's nature to please its owner. In the effort of housebreaking a dog, you must remember that the more efforts you put in to comfort them the more they will want to make you happy and not to annoy you by urinating in the house. On the other hand they can also show you they are upset by breaking the rules.