One absolutely essentional part of training your dog is House Training Your Dog.  I agree it is  not the most pleasant topic of conversation, but it’s essential for a harmonious life.   As well as teaching your dog to be clean inside, you can even teach him to urinate and defecate on command.   It will take quite a lot of work, a good measure of patiece and you will need to be consistent at all times, but any dog that is healthy can be house trained.

Do remember though that if you have a puppy (under about six months)it should not be expected to be “good” all day while you’re at work, and there is no-one at home to let him out. If you are not able to arrange for someone to let the puppy out as well as exercise and feed it during the day, then perhaps it may be best to put off having a dog until you are home more.

The old traditional way of house training a dog was by using newspapers.  Although this method does work, it can make the transition between going on paper to going outside much harder for your dog, so it is not the best method to use when house training your dog.

If you have a small dog you may well find that giving him access to an indoor toilet area is the best option, and it is quite easy to get hold of a litter box for this purpose.  Small dogs tend to need to eliminate more frequently than the larger dogs, so having a dog litter box indoors can be one way round house training a smaller dog.  If you do not fancy this idea, then just go with the standard training methods.

Here are some tips to help you with house training a dog:-

1.The first thing you need to decide is where are you going to have your dog “do it’s business”, once you have agreed on the best place you will need to take him there throughout the day at regular intervals.

2.  Decide on the command you are going to use when you want it to eliminate or defecate, and stick to the same word or phrase at all times.

3. First thing in the morning or any other time when you know it is desparate to go, it is worth carrying your dog to its toilet area so you are less likely to have him go in the wrong place.

4.  Make sure that you give your dog lots and lots of praise when it performs

5.  If you catch your dog going in the wrong place, make a loud noise to distract him and say no.  Immediately get the dog to the required area and if he finishes in the correct place again give him lots of praise.

6.  Don’t punish your dog for making a mistake. if you do not catch him in the act then it is likely to be your fault not his.  The old fashioned way of rubbing his nose in it will not work.  Your dog will realise it is not good for you to find his mess, so will hide it.

So a quick recap on how to housetrain a dog -  Choose your space, know your command, be consistent, give praise when he performs.  Do this and you will soon have a house trained dog.