How to Potty Train your New Puppy!

Bringing a new puppy home is exciting. Cuddling, walking in the park, socializing, and training are all fun things to do with your new friend. But what happens when flumpkins has to potty? Approximately one year ago, my fiance and I decided to purchase a puppy. She was extremely young (five weeks old) when we received her so we figured we were in for a ship-load of problems. She turned out to be a healthy, playful, and very loving companion. After a week of fun and games, we both descended from the clouds and realized she needed to be potty trained. She was six weeks old at the time, but we figured we'd give it a shot. An old Christmas bell, a bag of her favorite treats, a crate, lots of praise, and 7 days is all it took!

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Tasty treats
• Medium-sized bell
• Crate
• Hands and Mouth

1. Crate your pup whenever you're away from home, but not longer than two hours (they have tiny bladders and they experience incontinence if left unattended for long amounts of time).
   Crate your pup when you're home. Every 2 hours, release pup from crate and let her/him out for an hour to play, eat, and potty.
2. Tie a string to a bell and wrap it around the knob of the door you'll use to let flumpkins in and out to potty. Make sure the bell is hanging low enough for pup to reach.
3. Each time you let pup out to potty (which should be every two hours), touch her/his nose to the bell and say "outside potty" or whatever term/phrase you want to train your pup to listen for. Grab and treat from the bag and get ready.
4. Open the door and carry pup to the grass and say "outside potty" repeatedly. Once she/he pottys, clap your hands like your best friend has just won a grammy and say all kind of good things like "good girl/boy"-"wow, you're so smart"-and IMMEDIATELY give a treat...all the while praising.
5. Let pup follow you back inside. Stroke her/his back and give lots of loving. Repeat this daily for 1 week and your pup will be a potty superstar!

Tips & Warnings

• This can become tiresome, but it pays off. One week is all it takes and your puppy will ring the bell whenever the urge to potty is felt. I trained my pup at six weeks and at seven weeks, she was good to go! I work three nights per week on the midnight shift so I have a lot of time and had a lot of time to invest in training her. It may not come as easy for some because of work/class schedules, but whenever you're home and have the free time, exercise the steps above and I guarantee you that it will pay off rather quickly.