Having a puppy as a pet may be fun, but it is also hard work especially when it comes to toilet training them. If you’re not careful with getting this behaviour right in your pets from the start, you’ll have a lot of mess to deal with.

Plus, the stains that dog pee or poop leave behind can be extremely challenging to deal with.

So here are a few tips on how to toilet-train your little friend.

Familiarize it with the Spot

It takes time for the puppy to get familiar with the new environment that it is in and also with its owner. So simply try to familiarize it with the environment and don’t let it go exploring places where you don’t want it to go. Familiarize it with the spot you want it to relieve itself on routine.

Look for the Signs

Every time your puppy has to pee, it might start giving you clues that it has to do so. Watch out for the signs such as circling, scratching, sniffing, barking etc. When your puppy starts giving you the signs immediately lead them to your desired area where you want it to relieve itself.

Do not Punish Them for Accidents

Sometimes accidents may happen and things might get a bit messy during the training, but keep your calm and simply clean up the mess. Shouting at them or punishing them would just make things worse. Your puppy won’t learn where it shouldn’t relieve itself, but instead, it would learn that it should relieve itself when you are not watching.

Try to impede the accidents when you catch your puppy in the act in a very non-scary way, a simple “no” or a clap would do but do not go overboard with the punishments.

Praise Them for Being a Good Boy/Girl

When your puppy relieves itself at the spot you wanted it to, simply reward it for being the good pet it is. This would stimulate positive reinforcement. Your little pup will learn that if it wants a reward, then it simply needs to repeat what it did to get the reward in the first place.

Add Cue words

Teaching your puppy certain cue words like “toilet”, “poo” or “we” would be an ideal choice as it teaches your puppy to relieve itself on command. Teaching them commands that will help them relieve themselves will come in particular hands, especially before and after bedtime or before a long trip.

If you are looking for many other training tips and other useful advice for pet owners or puppies for sale near your location, MyPetzilla is a great website to visit that also has a huge collection of different dog breeds for sale.