Potty Training for Your Puppy: What’s Best?
In the early days of a puppy’s life, it only knows playing, eating, drinking, peeing, pooping, and sleeping.
Starting them too young will not get you the desired results, so it is best to only start training them when they reach around 12 weeks of age.
At this time, they have also become better at holding their pee and this makes training much more easier and effective.
Most experts will recommend outdoor potty training, but it is also important to know that it is not instinctive for dogs to pee outside.
This might come as a surprise to you, but dogs only don’t pee where they sleep.
Some dog owners will not be able to potty train their dogs outside due to many reasons, including not being vaccinated, being too young or too old, and lack of outdoor space amongst others.
Whichever scenario you find yourself in, you need to designate a spot for relieving itself as part of the training.
A crate where it sleeps at night is not the answer.
Should You Use Puppy Pads for Potty Training?
The thing about potty training is that you do not want to confuse your dog, which will lead to a longer period of time to become successful.
What do you hope to achieve with potty training?
Determining this first will help you to decide the method you should use to train your dog.
Puppy pads are useful for indoor training and possibly a temporary solution, but do know that it will prolong the amount of time it takes to potty train them successfully for the outside.
A puppy pad is also useful for the first couple of months when a puppy cannot hold its bladder.
But once it reaches 12 week and above, I would recommend removing it and starting your preferred potty training method.
Should I take puppy out of crate at night to pee?
Owners of young puppies should absolutely wake up in the night to take their young puppy out to pee. Puppies aged 4 months and younger just don’t have the capacity or control to hold their urine all night. … So now we know that young puppies should be taken out at least once during the night.
