Paper Training

Some people prefer to have their puppies go outside right away when they begin the potty training process. Others find that they like the idea of paper training followed by training the puppy to go outside.

There are benefits to both. If you train your puppy to go outside right away, you do not have to deal with the messy papers and cleanup. However, if you paper train your puppy, he will have a place that he is allowed to go to the bathroom should he not be able to make it outside. Since puppies cannot hold their urine or stools for very long, this is a great way to potty train a puppy.

One way to do this is to select an area where the puppy will mostly be kept during the training period. This is typically the kitchen for many households as it has the hard floors that are easier to clean and less likely to ruin. You can use newspapers or puppy pee pads that you buy at the store.

If you are going to use the newspapers, you might want to lay a plastic sheet down under the paper in order to prevent a huge mess from spreading all over the place. You will want to make sure that the papers are away from the area that you have set up for the puppy to sleep and eat.

You will want to lay out many pieces of newspaper or pee pads in order to make sure that your puppy has enough room. After each meal or drink of water and then several times throughout the day, take your puppy and place him on the papers and tell him “potty” or “papers”. Pick one command and stick with it in order not to confuse him. When your puppy does eliminate on the papers, make sure that you are kindly praising the puppy. When you praise the puppy right away he will associate going on the papers with getting affection and approval from you.

As the puppy gains more and more control over his urine and stool and he is able to aim a little better, you can reduce the size and the number of pieces of newspapers that you have to have spread out all over the floor. As time moves on you can slowly move the papers towards the door until your puppy is going outside to do his business.

Remember that consistency is the key with potty training. Before you know it you will have your puppy fully potty trained. It might take two weeks or two months but as long as you keep at it, the time will come when your puppy is fully trained.