house breaking your German shepherd puppy

House breaking you German shepherd puppy can be an easy process or difficult depending on the method you use. Prior to bringing home a new puppy you should have everything necessary to make house breaking easy and successful.

• Purchase a small crate with a latching door (one crate per puppy). The crate will be used to limit the puppy when not (training) house breaking.
• Buy a bag of small biscuits that can be broken into tiny bites (the size of an M&M peanut candy). Place inside a plastic bag or in a basket.
• Have plenty of Dog Urine and Stain removing liquid. Liquid Enzyme products like Natures Miracle do not work at removing the marking scent left in a puppies urine accidents. It does remove stains on carpet thanks to the Isopropyl alcohol it uses. Something you can buy at the store for pennies. Make certain you use a product containing bacteria or active enzymes that are bacteria in a friendly name. Like Life's Great Products, Bad Pup’pee Scent Retraining Aide (you can also use black pepper mixed in with distilled vinegar for about one hour , strained and then applied to the spot).
• Place a ding-ding (Christmas type) bell on a rope hanging from the door knob of the door where the puppy will use to go outside.
• Make certain you have a long leash to attach to the puppies collar.
• Have a Walkman style radio for you to listen to music while waiting for the puppy to go potty. Warm clothes, gloves, umbrella ready if necessary.
• Decide on command words for the puppy. Single words to represent: Go Potty, and praise.

The following house breaking approach will house break most puppies (5-7 weeks old) in three to four days. You must be diligent for this method to work. Using the steps for a few hours and skipping a day or two will not lead to a house-broken puppy in a short period of time. The age of the puppy and breed can also alter the time necessary to house break a puppy.

Puppies have to fecate approximately twenty minutes after eating solid food or drinking water. Time your outside trips around this knowledge. Do not feed your puppy and take right to door and outside spot. Give them time to digest and process food. Play with them right before taking outside after eating. Always do repetitive treat-praise at the door. Ringing the bell with paws and using single word praise. Wait outside while they do their potty. Do not leave the puppy alone outside. Wait for them and observe that they have completed their steps. Give them a treat and word praise.

Do not attempt to paper train a puppy. This approach confuses a puppy when it is time to outside train. From the moment the puppy comes home you have to begin the outside training process. Select a door where the puppy will go to be let outside. This door must be where someone in the family will hear the dog. A door far from where the family spends its time will not work. You have to hear the dog request to go outside. Whether using a bell or the dog scratching you must be able to hear the puppy. Place the crate in a location where the dog will sleep at night. A warm location where it will not see you when not being cared for. It is your choice to place a pillow or towel inside the crate. Normally puppies’ will not soil their sleeping area. But this is not always the case. A chew toy may be the best thing to place inside a crate and nothing else to save on clean up of messes.

Immediately upon bringing a puppy home, you take the dog on a leash to its spot to go potty. Never carry a puppy to its potty spot. When the puppy has reached the location where it is to go potty, use the command word selected and do not say any other word. Say, (example) "Poop! ." Then wait for the puppy to do something. Either urinate or fecate. This may take sometime. Wear the Walkman and listen to music while waiting. Immediately upon seeing the puppy complete its dropping or urinating, bend down and give the puppy a biscuit treat. Say a word selected for praise, (example) "Excellent!" Then wait for the puppy to complete the other half of its droppings and praise again with a treat. Only one treat per dropping and single word praise.

When finished, on its leash lead the puppy into the house through the door it will use to go in and outside. Do Not carry the puppy. Only use the leash. Inside the house play with the puppy for no more then five or ten minutes. Walk the puppy to its water and food dish. Allow the puppy to drink water. Play with the puppy for a few minutes and begin the house breaking method: Take the puppy on the leash to the door with the bell or door where the dog will scratch. Lean over and lift the puppies front paws to the bell or door and scratch the paws against the bell to ring or make a scratching sound. Praise the dog with its one word, "excellent!" Give the puppy a single treat and open the door. On its leash take the puppy to its potty spot and wait for it to urinate. After it does good, give the puppy a treat with its one word praise and walking the puppy, take back inside the house. Repeat this process for the next two to three hours. Placing the puppy in the crate after an outside inside play session is okay if the puppy must be left temporarily until you can complete the process. Never leave the puppy to roam the house when not engaged in house breaking. Always place the puppy in the crate without water or food when not house breaking. A chew toy is okay in the crate.

Immediately after removing the puppy from the crate, attach the leash and walk to the door. Lift its paws and use a one word praise, give treat and walk outside. If the puppy has an accident on the way to the door do not discipline. Take the puppy back to the crate and clean up the mess with Bad Pup’pee Retraining Spray. Never let the puppy see you clean up its mess, and this means never. Do not scold the puppy for having an accident. Do not use a newspaper to discipline or another punishment tool. Make certain everyone in the household and any friends or guests understand not to punish the puppy for an accident. Just place the puppy in the crate away from the accident. If the accident were inside the crate, then place the puppy in a bathroom while you clean up the mess inside the crate. Follow the directions on the bottle of liquid products. Do not wipe up immediately after applying as this will prevent the liquid from removing all traces of urine and pheromone’s left in an accident.

The steps again are: Take puppy outside after being in crate. Wait for potty then give treat and praise. Bring inside house to drink water and play for a few minutes. Take to door and repeat process. Do this non stop for the entire day. Do not get bored with process. Three to four days will likely have a house broken puppy. This will save you many dollars in urine and stain removing liquids and the mental anguish associated with house breaking a puppy.

Puppies have to fecate approximately twenty minutes after eating solid food or drinking water. Time your outside trips around this knowledge. Do not feed your puppy and take right to door and outside spot. Give them time to digest and process food. Play with them right before taking outside after eating. Always do repetitive treat-praise at the door. Ringing the bell with paws and using single word praise. Wait outside while they do their potty. Do not leave the puppy alone outside. Wait for them and observe that they have completed their steps. Give them a treat and word praise.

This process should take place for the entire next three to four days after bringing home a new puppy. At night right before going to bed, you take the puppy out for the last time. Inside the house place the puppy inside the crate without food or water. Close the crate door and go to bed. Do not let the puppy train you with moans and whimpering at night. Leave the puppy to adjust to its new environment. In the morning, go to the puppy and put the leash on the collar. Walk the puppy to the door quickly and begin the house breaking process again. Following all the before mentioned steps. If the puppy soiled its crate, cleanup the mess without bringing attention to the puppy that it had an accident. Remember to place the puppy someplace where it cannot see you clean up its mess. Ignore all accidents by getting frustrated yourself. Never scold the puppy for accidents. Just remember to remove the puppy from the area of the accident so it does not see you clean up the mess.

After a month or more when the puppy always goes to the door to go outside, begin to wean the puppy off treats. Skipping a treat every once in awhile. When the puppy is completely house broken you can wean them off the treats completely.

This approach violates many preconceived ideas of house breaking puppies’. Long time approaches to house breaking have proven to take weeks or months and even years to completely house break a new puppy. We have proven that this approach worked in just days or a week depending on the age and body development of the puppy. Some small puppies have bladders that cannot hold liquid for a long period. You have to gauge the right time for your new puppy to go potty. Twenty minutes may not be the right time to wait. Your puppy may go potty in twenty-seven minutes or fifteen. Work out in time what works best. Just remember to not give up on training the new puppy to follow a set procedure to let you know it wants to go outside. Do not use dog doors until the puppy knows its proper spot to go potty and not to go inside. If the puppy marks the inside of the house with accidents that are not cleaned up completely, it will use the pheromone in these accidents as the indicator of where it should leave its droppings. A puppy from birth use its mother’s pheromone scent in her urine as a method of finding its way home and the correct spot to go potty. Pheromone’s are like sticky mucous. Very difficult to remove and impossible to see. You have to use products specially developed to remove this sticky substance. Nearly all the stain and odor products sold in pet stores, grocery stores and janitorial companies do not remove the pheromone’s left in the puppies accident. Most of these products do a poor job permanently removing the urine and odors left in the carpet and floor after an accident.

You can use a Black light to find old urine accidents. This will at least give you the opportunity to find the source of smells inside the carpet. Remember even after a carpet cleaning by professional carpet cleaners, the pheromone’s are still in the carpet pad and flooring and on the back of the carpet. Carpet cleaning top treats carpet. Pheromone’s are like chewing gum in hair, and it sticks really well. Removing it is a specialized process. Puppies’ smell the pheromone’s left after a carpet cleaning and will go potty when they smell the scent.

Be diligent and your new puppy will be house broken in a short period of time.