Tips to Keep Your Puppy from Pooping on the Floor

It's impossible to housebreak every puppy using the same method. Every puppy is different and they all have various personality traits. Some puppies are easy to housebreak and others can take months to get it right. I, myself have housebroken many puppies and each experience has taught me something new. Here are a few tips I picked up along the way.

Pepper your carpets
For some puppies this method works the first time you do it. All you need is a good sized can of ground pepper. Sprinkle it liberally on your carpets. It will smell bad and you will probably sneeze a few times but that's temporary. Within minutes the smell goes away. Rather it goes away for the human nose but for a puppy the smell is as strong as ever and puppies don't like the smell of pepper.

You will need to sprinkle pepper on your carpet at the very least every other day. I recommend doing it every day but eventually even dollar store pepper gets expensive so do what you can. The nice thing is, it vacuums up easily and should be done before each new sprinkling session.

Redirect the preference
House breaking a dog all boils down to preference. You want your puppy to prefer doing his or her duty outside on the lawn and not inside on your carpet. In order for your puppy to prefer the grass to the carpet you have to give him a reason to. Never correct a puppy after you find an accident by rubbing their nose in it or swatting them with a newspaper.

A puppy doesn't have the ability to understand why you are being so mean to them. All they know is you have suddenly become a horrid monster and they don't know why. You can only correct a puppy for pottying in the house when you catch them in the act.

The proper way to correct the puppy is to make a loud noise first. This startles the dog momentarily so that they stop the body function in mid action. Then either pick the puppy up or shoo him outside to the grass. Then, this is important, don't pay any attention to the puppy. Can you go to the bathroom with someone ogling you?

When the puppy does go potty, reward it with a treat or toy. This is how you redirect the preference. Essentially what you are teaching the dog is that when they piddle on the carpet they are interrupted which as you probably know is not very comfortable, especially when you really gotta go, and that when they potty in the grass they get fun, praise, play or treats. I guarantee you once the connection is made, your dog will prefer to potty in the grass.

Leash the dog to your belt loop
This is not easy, I know but it is a tried and true method that works every time. This is the one our dog trainer taught us and we used it on all three of our dogs. If you can't be home with your puppy, find a relative or close friend that can. Ask them to stay at your house during the day and be leashed to your puppy. Good luck with that.

The idea is that if the puppy is leashed to you, you will never miss an accident. The key to housebreaking a puppy is consistency. In order for the dog to understand that EVERY time they potty on the floor there is going to be an interruption the interruption has to happen EVERY time.

This is also a great way to bond with your puppy. Your puppy will learn to read your body language and walk easily on a leash so you are accomplishing 2 tasks in one.

These techniques will work on any dog of any age. The more effort you are willing to put into your dog the more you will see the rewards come in ten fold. Before you start blaming the puppy for pottying on the floor, start blaming yourself for not keeping an eye out for potential accidents. You can't expect a two year child to know how to use the potty on its own and you can't expect a puppy to be housebroken on its own either.

Enjoy your puppy, treasure the years you have coming with your pet because they can be some of the most love filled years of your life.