Toilet Training a Puppy – Basic Concepts
Toilet training is a big part of owning a dog. For a lot of people, it is one of the things that add to the negatives of having a dog. Although the un-pleasance of picking up after your dog, there are easy ways to get through toilet training fast.
When toilet training your dog, you will need to have a lot of patience and commitment. She won’t just learn instantly ‘I need to go outside when doing my business’. As well as this, Consistency will make training your dog much faster and easier.
Starting off, keep an eye on your dog throughout the day and try to mainly stay in distance where you can see her. If you see that your dog is about to go inside, rush over to her, pick her up and put your dog outside before she goes inside.
Consistently repeat this behaviour, taking your dog outside when she is about to go inside. If you commit to this for a few days, your dog should learn to go outside when they need to go to the toilet.
Fake Grass Toilet Training – You can also get some fake grass and teach your dog to use that. The fake grass can be placed inside so you don’t have to take your dog out. Whenever your dog is about to go inside, take her over to the fake grass. This would require the same toilet training method noted above, but you are using fake grass instead of your garden.
Again, this training method will need a lot of consistency but eventually your dog will find her own way of demonstrating it. The fake grass will need some maintenance, you will have to still pick up after your dog.
Dogs in Apartments – Toilet Training
If you live in an apartment and are reconsidering getting a dog due to toilet training, you don’t have to worry. If you live in an apartment (or any area) with not very good access to a garden, you can simply use the ‘Fake Grass Toilet Training’ method explained above.
This will include you having a patch of fake grass inside for your dog to go on instead of having to guess when to take your dog out.
It is an especially effective method when you are a far distance away from grass or the gardens you are close to are not permitted for dogs to go on.
Doors, Open or Closed?
Keeping your door open or closed is up to you. You might find it is a better decision to keep the garden door open for when your dog needs to go out. Depending on your dog and her personality, you would have a different solution.
If your dog barks a lot and this becomes a disturbance to the neighbours, you will want to keep your door mainly closed most of the time. Your dog would not be able to get outside as a result of this, but she could communicate in different ways.
Although dogs do not speak the same language, there are other ways that they reach out to us. If you want to have your garden door closed most of the time, you should toilet train your dog with it closed. Every time your dog needs to go, pick her up, open the door and take her out.
After a while, your dog might develop a way of communication. Watch out for different behaviours she does to communicate with you that she needs to go outside. If she does something that lets you know she needs to go out, then open the door.
Different behaviours that your dog might be communicating to you through could be:
- Standing at the door that leads outside
- Barking at the door
- Pawing at the door
As you can see, the behaviour would most likely be related to the door that leads outside.
Gardens/ Area Management
The part that most people dread about having a dog is picking up after their dog. Although, this is quite a simple and easy job.
When owning a dog, it is essential to manage your garden, fake grass or whatever your dog is doing her business on. This is an important thing for every dog owner to do as it respects the public and cleans up your own garden. You do not want people to have a lovely walk and then step in your dog’s poo.
As a simple job, all you need is a disposable bag. Some bags are dedicated to picking up after dogs and others you can use may just be an old plastic shopping bag. Simply stick your hand in the bag and pick up your dog’s poo (your hand does not come in direct contact with it because your hand is in the bag). Now simply turn the bag inside out so that your hand is now on the outside and her business is inside. Tie the bag up and finally, dispose of it.