How Do I House Train My Dog?

BJ in Texas

June 3, 20100 found this helpful

We house-trained a difficult adult dog by taking her out every two hours when we were home. If we could not be home for a while, we put her in a restricted area or outside. When she went inside, we never punished her...just cleaned it up quickly and took her outdoors. When she went in the appropriate place, we praised her enthusiastically. And we always learned to watch her behavior late in the day, when she seemed to be "hunting" for a place to go. We immediately took her outdoors if we noticed this. Finally, the light bulb went off. It's been more than a year since she has had an indoor accident. It helped when a friend told us that she had trained several dogs and that while some of hers quickly learned, some took longer. But eventually all of them got it.