House Training a Labrador Puppy

cristina January 13, 2017 6 Comments

 

 

 

I think this is the first thing we want to know when bringing home a new furry friend. House training a Labrador puppy is one of the problems a lot of people have to deal with. Many Labrador parents have asked me different questions like ‘how can I teach my puppy to not pee in the house?’, ‘How long does a puppy need to learn to go to the toilet outdoors?’.

Every dog is different but all of them will learn this very fast if we have the right method to teach them. I can’t promise you that you will achieve this goal in a few days but for sure you have to be patient because puppies, when are very young don’t have an idea of what is right or wrong, where they have to go to toilet and they don’t control too much their bladders.

The best time to start this process is exactly from the first day you bring the puppy home.

Small steps

 

The first step is to establish the toilet area of your puppy. Fortunately, puppies don’t like to wee or pooh on their personal area where they sleep or eat. This step has to be done when the puppy is 8, 9 weeks old.

Take your puppy to the right place for pottying as often as possible.

To avoid mistakes supervise your puppy all the time. A good solution for this is to have your puppy attached to you with his leash. In this way, you can correct his mistake right away and also he doesn’t feel uncomfortable to pee when next to you. But to not make any mistake, you have to take your furry friend to the right place very often, even if in the beginning he needs every 20 min.

You have to take him out after every meal, after drinking water, after playing, every time you think he needs.

When they are very small even if they want, they can’t hold very long so this is why they need very often to be taken to the potty place.

The next step is to restrict your puppy access in the house. In the beginning use a small area and he will not pee where he sleeps. Then, you can expand this area, step by step. For this, you can use a puppy play -pen, baby barriers or baby gates.

Of course, you take him out of the area. When you come back after his walk, you can keep him out of the baby gates, for a few minutes.

Also in his area, you can use newspaper or a dog diaper.

Other important factors

 

The quality of the food you feed your puppy is very important. If the food is of a bad quality this means more poop, more often, because you have to give him more food to have the right nutrition and also cheap food is more difficult to be digested.

Very important also is to feed your puppy the same hours every day. His body will make his own routine and after the food, take him out.

Next stage is to teach your puppy self-control when he is about 10-12 weeks old. Now, they should be able to hold about an hour. So you slowly increase the time between the walks to the toilet.

If happens any accident, don’t punish him, just for 1 one two days take him again, not every hour but every 40 minutes. So, in a few days, he will learn to hold his wee.

From three to six months is the third stage when you extend the zone where he is allowed to stay. Step by step, he will see the entire house like his own place and he will not poop or pee inside.

When you take the baby barriers away, you extend the place to only one room, the kitchen for example and then step by step all the house.

What about in the night?

 

For sure in the beginning, they can hold their pee all night. So the only thing you can do is to take him out last moment before the night sleep as we said, and at the first hour in the morning. Also, if you can, it is good to wake up 2-3 o’clock in the night to take him a few minutes in the garden. To be honest, my Labrador was waking me at 3 o’clock every night crying when he was about 3-4 month old.

When they learn what is good, depends on you to make these sacrifices. If you don’t wake up, don’t blame the pup because it is just impossible for him to hold. So, if you want to make it easier and faster, put your alarm clock 🙂

Don’t forget

 Always praise your puppy, give him a hug, treat, a ‘bravo’ when he uses the right place for his toilet. Every time you have to say a good word 🙂

Don’t loose your patience and don’t expect your puppy to be fully trained before 6 months old. To be honest my Labrador stopped doing it in the house from about four months old. But you have to know that not all dogs are the same.

Don’t punish your puppy. It will slow the process.

If accidents happen you have to clean very well and right away. Your puppy has to not smell that place because they want to pee where they did before. So you have to not leave any trace.

More tips

 

You can teach your puppy to wee on command and this will make the process faster. How can you do this? Just by saying a specific word (for example: hurry up) every time when he has his wee outside in the right potty place. By hearing this word, later, he will know is time for pee 🙂

Let’s remember

 Take your puppy out:

-First thing in the morning

-Half an hour after every meal.

-every time after the puppy wakes up (after every nap)

-15 minutes after drinking water

-after playing or any excitement

And it depends on their age,

2 months old take him out every 30-40 minutes

3 months every 1 -1.5 hours

4 months every 2 hours

5 months every 5 hours

Conclusion

 

So I will just wish you good luck and don’t forget, before you take a puppy just think about these things, accept the idea that your furry pup is like a small baby, it needs patience and love.

Don’t worry! If you are doing the right things, your Labrador will be a very quick learner because they want to please you, so it is just your job to teach them what it is you want 🙂

You have to remember that after making some sacrifices after 2-3 months and waking up early, going many times out, later you will have a happy dog, a clean house and you will be very happy living with your furry boy for the next 12-14 years 🙂

Thanks for reading and if you have any questions I am here to help you.

 

For further reading about your furry babies choose below

Cristina