Dog Housetraining | Housetraining An Older Dog

When scolding your dog for doing the toilet on the carpet remember that we were once young and did not use the proper toilet either. Your dog needs to be house trained, and this can be done in a few easy steps, but over a long period of time.

Housetraining an older dog can actually be easier than many people think - its not always true that you can't teach an old dog new tricks. In the case of puppies it may be a few months before they are able to use their bladder muscles to hold it in so in most cases housetraining an older dog can be less work.

Dog housetraining may be one of the hardest training techniques as it is the one that requires the most attentiveness and work. You have to be able to read your dog’s body signals as he can’t tell you when he needs the toilet. Many people make the mistake of assuming that their dog will bark when he needs the loo, sometimes they are lucky to find a dog that will but believe me there are many out there who don’t and accidents are found all over the house!

Dog housetraining requires a few simple steps as I said but they are time consuming ones. Firstly I would recommend putting newspaper in front of the door, that way if you see him doing an accident in the house you can quickly lift him there and he will realise that if he needs to go and your not there to let him he has to do it on paper.

The next thing you need to know when dog housetraining is most dogs when they need the toilet will start to get restless and start sniffing around, this is when you pick them up and take them outside, when they are really young you should take him outside at least once every hour. When you take them outside you can say things “do the toilet” or “do your business” or whatever command you want to use for your doing going out to do the toilet. Once they have done the toilet you must give them lots of praise straight away (of course it’s best to wait until they are done) They will soon come to realise that outside is the place to "go" and will after some time and some training you will find them waiting or barking at the back door.

There are hundreds of books available on dog housetraining all of which use different techniques and routines. No dog is going to know straight away that outside is the place to do the toilet, they have to learn and you have to teach them (unless you don’t mind accidents all over the place) Oh and don’t forget to scoop!!

We would recommend the following resource on housetraining an older dog and for general dog housetraining.