House Training Your Puppy - Q&A

If you're a new puppy owner, then house training your puppy is one of your first (and most important) tasks!

It's no fun living with an adult dog who thinks your entire home is fair game in terms of his bathroom habits, so it's important to start potty training a puppy just as soon as you get him home.

Crate training is the simplest and quickest way to teach your pup what you expect from him and it works with a pup's natural instincts in terms of keeping his 'den' clean.

Consistency and patience are the keys to successful housebreaking - as is having realistic expectations!

Your puppy has no idea that the living room isn't a perfectly acceptable 'potty spot', and unless you show him what is acceptable to you and what isn't, he will never know any better.

If you're consistent and patient, your puppy will most likely be fairly reliably trained by the time he's 6 months old, and that would be normal.

Don't expect overnight miracles, or believe that you can accomplish house training puppy in 7 days, it won't happen!

See Real Questions From Real Puppy Owners!

This page has lots and lots of Questions & Answers about potty training and I'd recommend that you scroll through the whole page as you're bound to find one of these questions mirrors yours!

All the questions were submitted by visitors to this site and I've done my best to give them the benefit of my experiences!

There is a link where you can add your own comment or advice to individual question pages, so please feel free to do so.

What you've learned may be very valuable to someone else, so do share!

If you'd like to search my entire website for pages/articles about a specific topic, you can do it quickly and easily by using the searchbox below.....

House Training A Puppy Q & A

Click below to see contributions from other visitors to this page...

11 Week Old Boxer Puppy won't stop crying in crate
Hi, We bought our puppy at 7 weeks old and we have been trying to crate train him. We have a wire crate with the divider in it. We originally had him …

cannot confine puppy
I have an 8 week old chi/doxie mix, she cried for the first couple days when crated at night, but has now started sleeping well in her crate. The other …

10 week old pup-potty training getting worse
Hello. We are the proud new parents of a 10 week old shih tzu. We have two main issues...the first one is house training. We made the decision to wee …

Help! My puppy wants to play at 3 o clock in the morning!!!!!
Hi. I have an 8 wk old yorkie puppy, her name is Cocoa-bean! On an average, we go to bed between 9 and 10 pm every night. She sleeps in her crate which …

Training to potty pads Not rated yet
My 3 month old yorkie female dosen't always potty on her potty pad. My husband allows her to roam the house and she potties in other places other than …

Training two puppies Not rated yet
I have two, four month old shih tzus and have been keeping them together since I got them at eight weeks. I just read about keeping them separate and …

How do I paper train a baby yorkie? Not rated yet
Okay, I got my baby girl June 14, 2008; her name is Allie. And at first she was going to the bathroom on her pee-pad. Now, she goes any where. She will …

Puppy piddles Not rated yet
My puppy is 15 weeks old now and we've been trying to house break him since he was 8 weeks old. He knows to jump up on the door if he has to go, but he …

Should I get two crates? Not rated yet
Greetings, SO happy to have found this site; Thank you for being here. We are bringing home our Standard Poodle puppy, Jet, in three weeks, (when …

How to house break your puppy Not rated yet
I have a 7 wk old puppy. How do I go about house training her? Also I caught her eating her own poop, is that normal? Hi Tammy I'll answer your …

toilet training Not rated yet
i have 5 dogs, 4 trained, but my new wee yorkie is more difficult. i don't tell her off when she gets it wrong but praise her when she gets it right. …

Crate Training Not rated yet
I have a 8 week old tiny shit tzu and i am using the crate method to train and potty train him. My question is how many times should i take him out during …

Crate training Not rated yet
I just got a new min doxie puppy on 5-2. She is 9 weeks old. I am working on crate training. She seems to do fine at night in her crate but during …

How long can a 5 month old Great Dane Hold it? Not rated yet
Hello, we have a 5 month old Great Dane. He is house trained to the point where he'll sit by the door and whine when he needs to go out, however he wants …

Sleeping Through the night Not rated yet
Hello. My name is Melissa. My fiance and I just adopted a puppy from an animal rescue. He was rescued from a high kill, gas shelter in Kentucky. He …

Litter Box Training Not rated yet
Hello, I have a 9 month old yorkie-pom named ella who is not fully house-trained. She is a very small dog and needs to go to the bathroom a lot, she goes …

Crate Training a 9 week old Golden Retriever Puppy Not rated yet
My husband and I are planning on adopting a Golden Retriever puppy who will be arriving in about 4 weeks - she'll be about 9 weeks old at that time. …

House training & learning "No" Not rated yet
Ok I think I am doing a pretty good job house breaking. My puppies are going to be 10 weeks old this week and they already know when to go out, but here …

Yelping & crying at night Not rated yet
How do I stop him from crying & yelping all night? I keep him VERY busy in an effort to wear him out so he'll sleep well. We go out right before bed. …

Puppy Potty Training - Help! Not rated yet
We got our Maltipoo about 1.5 weeks ago and she is doing great! She is 9.5 weeks old. I was wondering if you had any advice on crate training. First, …

Potty Training Frustrations Not rated yet
Our newest member of our family is Speckles. He's 4 months old and he's half chihuahua and half dachshund. We got him over two weeks ago. We're 1st …

Potty Schedule Not rated yet
I have a three month old cairn terrier and westie mix. I was hoping you could tell me, or at least estimate, the growth stages of his bladder. When …

puppy shots Not rated yet
hi! First i want to thank you for my Puppy Pawprints E-zine , I love it, so informative and fun at the same time. Now my question... My little …

Crate Training Issues Not rated yet
Hi, we just adopted (last week) a 12 week old Beagle mix pup, and he is peeing and pooping in his crate and on the floor. I am a stay at home mom, …