A puppy in the house is of course great fun, you have a pet to cuddle and play with. In addition, children are always crazy about puppies. There are only a few disadvantages to having a puppy, one of which is the fact that the dog is not yet house-trained in the beginning. This is not very nice to have, nobody really wants to find poop and pee everywhere in the house.
Now this can be unlearned, you just have to put in some effort. Another disadvantage is that having a puppy is not that cheap, but here too there is a solution. This is the puppy insurance. What are the methods and ways to house-train a puppy? And why should I take out insurance for my puppy? Read on quickly to find out!
How do I house train my puppy?
Puppies can’t wait that long to pee and poop. If they have to, they’ll do it right away. So make sure you take your dog out on time . A good crate can help, especially to help your puppy become house-trained. Your dog will try harder to hold his pee and poop when he has found a place in the crate. This is very similar in size to a nest, a puppy will never soil his nest.
How often should I walk a puppy?
It is not always easy to know exactly how often you should walk a dog. Most people have no idea what the best number is when we look at the puppy. To make it a bit easier for you, we have made an overview of all the times you should walk a puppy.
Puppy age | Hold your pee | How often outside in 24 hours |
8 weeks | 2 hours | 12 times |
12 weeks | 3-4 hours | 6-8 times |
16 weeks | 4-5 hours | 5-6 times |
20 weeks | 5-6 hours | 4-5 times |
6 months | 6-8 hours | 3-4 times |
7 months | 12 hours | 3 times |
Not too long in the crate
Just don’t leave your dog in the crate for too long. Use the crate when you can’t watch your dog for a while or when you go to bed. Do you still want to use a crate? The crate shouldn’t be too big. The nesting idea will then diminish. If you bought the crate and your dog is still small, just make the crate a bit smaller. Of course, don’t use things that the dog can gnaw on or hurt itself. But the best thing is still to go outside with the dog, also known as walking it.
I don’t have a backyard, what now?
Okay, you don’t have a backyard. This doesn’t mean you can’t walk your dog. You always have a dog field nearby, where you can easily walk him. If you combine this with a good bench, you will actually have the same result, although you will have to start walking the dog at some point. You just have to start at some point, so don’t wait too long!
Because if you wait too long to let the puppy out and make it house-trained, it will only become more difficult to do this in the future. It is therefore important that you go to a dog park or a walk around the block every now and then in the first years of the puppy’s life. So go out and take your puppy with you, that way he will learn very quickly!
How do I reward my puppy for good behavior?
Of course you can reward your puppy when he has done something good or when he has made steps towards his house training. For example, you can give him something tasty, this always works. Although you have to make sure that you do not do this too often, you really have to save it for a special reward. Otherwise the dog will think that he always gets something when he does it, this of course does not work in the long term.
So give him a biscuit once a day if he has done well, this way you keep stimulating the dog to show good behavior. It is not so handy to give him other types of rewards such as sausage, because you never know if your puppy can handle this.
Buy special puppy biscuits or chunks, these are not so big. This way the puppy will have no trouble eating them, really the best way to reward him.
Peeing at night
At night it is a bit more difficult for people with a puppy. The puppy can not really hold his pee in the beginning, so it is a good choice to get up a bit earlier now and then to go outside with him. This way the dog can learn that he is not allowed to pee outside but that he has to wait until his owner is there.
That way accidents will be much less likely to happen, which is nice if you want to keep the house a bit clean. You can choose to put the dog in the bedroom at first, he is used to your scent here and will be less likely to wet the bed at night.
Prevent accidents by lifting him up
You can’t always prevent a dog from pooping or peeing in the house, an accident can always happen. If a dog does this, you have to pick him up as quickly as possible. If you pick up a puppy, he will no longer be able to pee. This has to do with the fact that the bladder will be pinched in this way.
The dog can continue peeing outside. If you do this a few times, he will realize that inside is simply not an option, so he will hold it until you take him outside. In the long run, the accidents will occur less and less often, before you know it, the dog will be truly house-trained. You will then have a dog that will no longer do his business in the house, this takes away a lot of stress.
Clean the place
If the dog has peed inside, it is important to clean the spot. Make sure you don’t smell anything anymore, because it is possible that the puppy will see it as a kind of exhaust spot. Of course, you want to prevent this. So cleaning it thoroughly is definitely a necessity.
Don’t punish the dog
It is important not to punish the dog if he has peed inside. If you punish a dog, he will have a bad experience with peeing, which can even make him afraid to pee or poop.
When this happens, you are even further from home. So don’t get angry, but clean up the place and leave it behind you. The puppy is just an animal that can’t handle all that stress very well, you don’t want him to poop behind the couch out of fear. You can’t get to it and the whole house will stink because of it. By doing nothing sometimes, you can unlearn the dog’s bad behavior.
How long does it take for my puppy to be house trained?
The time it takes for a dog to become house-trained will of course be different for every dog. This has to do with the fact that the dog needs time to gain control over his stomach and bladder, if he can’t do this he will let everything go.
There are certain puppies that can be housebroken after a few days, but it is not something that happens very often. We usually see that the dog is completely housebroken after about 7 months, in the meantime it can still happen that he does it inside.
If you stimulate the dog yourself to learn it, it will only go faster, so it really pays to start with it in time with the dog by following all the above tips. If your dog just won’t become house-trained, it is an option to go to the vet, who can then see if there is something strange going on with the dog
Insuring my puppy
Another disadvantage of having a puppy is that it can cost quite a bit of money. You will have to pay for all the costs. For example, you will have to pay for the castration, which is still quite a lot. Also, chipping the dog is not free.
And then we haven’t even mentioned the various treatments and other vaccinations that the dog will have to get. The total costs can therefore be quite high, one way to counter this is to have your puppy insured. In this way you ensure that you can declare many cost items. That is also a handy way to save costs, especially with dog breeds that are known to have to go to the vet more often.
Do you want to take out puppy insurance now but don’t know where to start? Then click here to find the cheapest puppy insurance right away, so you never pay too much. Choose a little extra convenience and save a lot of money, so easy.