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HOUSETRAINING FOR BOSTONS
My housetraining methods have been a combination of reading many books and magazine articles, as well as, from conversations with other dog owners and friends all rolled into one. Of course, then there’s the actual work of doing it and what I’ve found to work and what just doesn’t. It’s not surprising that the process can be stressful, but if the proper mindset is in place and you really try to understand the dog that you’re dealing with, it goes much smoother.
Dogs as a species are naturally clean animals. Meaning, they do not want to soil their den area. This is why you’ll typically hear that small dogs are harder to housetrain than big dogs. If you give a big dog the run of the house, he is bigger therefore he considers his den to be a bigger space. A small dog can make a den area in the corner of a chair and everything else is outside of his/her den. Understanding this gives us a little insight into why a small dog will sleep on one side of a room and potty on the other, while a large dog will sleep in a room and leave that room to potty in another. It is important to keep these natural den instincts intact. It is possible to override mother nature if you cause your puppy to have to potty in his/her crate. He/she then gets used to pottying in the crate and may even search it out to go potty in it. This is certainly not a desirable action.
Typically housetraining is done with puppies. Puppies are small with small organs and little control of their bodies. As they grow, so does their body, organs, and mind giving them the abilities to understand themselves and then comes control. General rule of thumb, your puppy can hold his/her urine and bowels the same number of hours that he/she is in months. Three months old, means he/she will usually be able to hold it for three hours. Therefore, potties during the night are going to happen. I don’t want to get up every three hours during the night to take my puppy out in the dark to go potty. So I make housetraining easier for me and therefore less stressful, which I believe makes it easier for the puppy.
The most important tip I can give you about training your puppy, is establish a schedule and routine and then, stick to it. If you feed him/her the same times every day, then follow that with a potty time, followed by play time, etc. you will find that your puppy will catch on much quicker.
As I said before, your puppy has inherited den instincts. They have been reiterated to him/her by his/her mother by her cleaning up after him/her immediately after he/she pottied. She also kept his/her fur clean and wiped their butts, shall we say. In order to keep those den instincts alive, you must continue what she has begun. Keep your puppy’s bed and area as clean as possible. Change blankets daily if need be. I find that 2-3 times a week is usually sufficient, but if you are having troubles, do it more often. Sanitize his/her crate at least once a week using a pet safe cleaner. And be sure to give your puppy a bath as often as necessary. Once a week is pretty typical with a young puppy, but more often may be needed. Establish an area that he/she can be left alone in while you are gone from home, sleeping at night, or just need some time to get something done without him/her underfoot. I find it best to use a bathroom or laundry room. These typically have easy to clean floors and have little that the puppy can
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