How to House Train an Adult Dog

It is not very difficult to potty train an adult dog. In fact, there is no real difference in training an adult dog or a puppy.

Things You'll Need

• Patience

Instructions

1. The first thing to know when potty training a dog is to understand that dogs are only doing what comes naturally to them. They do not intentionally try to wreck the carpet, therefore it is crucial to be patient until you have achieved the desired results.

2. The easiest and most trusted way of getting a dog to do anything is SHOWING it what to do firsthand. Yelling, hitting, screaming, etc. do not do anything but confuse the animal. By now you would think people would understand this, but you would be surprised at how many people think yelling at a dog will get any desirable behavior. The dog must be treated with respect and it must trust you or it will not learn anything. To start off, when you see the dog attempting to relieve itself in the home, quickly grab it by its collar and calmly walk the animal as fast as possible outdoors. Get it used to being walked outside when it needs to go to the bathroom. It can be difficult to watch the dog every minute, but do your best in catching it before it happens. Repeating this simple step will almost always work.

3. Another way to get your dog to use the outside as a bathroom is praising or rewarding it when it uses the grass outside on its own. When a dog relieves itself in your yard, or whatever desired location, praise it with a few strokes on the head and back and a cheerful voice letting the animal know it did something good. It doesn't hurt to even give it a treat on occasion after the desired behavior. The trick with both of these methods is repetition. Dogs are very smart animals at any age and will quickly learn behaviors such as this.

Tips & Warnings

• Repetition is the key!

• A household effort where everyone is involved makes it easier!

• Patience is a virtue, dogs will learn if you keep your cool.

• Pee pads are useful... you can get them at local pet stores (dogs like the scent on the pad and will use the pad to urinate on, these can be placed anywhere)