Your Puppy At Home: Housetraining

If your pup is a breed that remains small for life, you might consider using a litter box for her as an indoor potty spot. This can be either a temporary or a permanent arrangement, depending on your needs. When choosing a litter box, get one with sides low enough that your pup can easily hop in and out and large enough that wastes will end up inside the box and not on the floor next to it. Litter that's made of extruded pellets usually works better for dogs than the sand or gravel type made for cats, because it doesn't stick to paws and get tracked out of the box.

One special piece of equipment that can make housetraining easier for both you and your dog is a bell on a cord. Hang this bell at dog nose level from the handle of the door you use for taking your pup out to her potty area. Each time you take your dog outside to eliminate, ring the just before you open the door. The sound of the bell soon becomes linked in the dog's mind with the opening of that door. Before long, she'll try ringing the bell herself, hoping to make the door open.


When you hear that bell ring, come a-running! Praise your dog and open the door. If your dog rings and you don't arrive to open the door, she may give up and potty right there.
A potty bell can be a single bell on a string or a several attached to a strip of cloth or leather, like sleigh bells. Be sure your bell is loud enough to hear a room or two away. Ringing a potty bell to go outside is one of the handiest tricks a dog can know.

To housetrain a puppy, you'll need some way to confine her when you're unable to supervise. With one or more baby gates, a folding exercise pen, and a dog crate, you'll be able to socialize your pup and teach her good habits while keeping her out of trouble.

Be sure the baby gates you use are safe. The old-fashioned expanding lattice type of gate has seriously injured many children by collapsing and trapping their legs, arms, fingers, and necks, and that type of gate can be just as dangerous for puppies. These gates have been officially recalled by manufacturers, but they're still around-in attics and basements, flea markets and garage sales. If you own this type of gate, don't trust it! Get one of the safer grid-style or vertical-slat baby gates instead.