It’s a serious business having a puppy or a dog. Sure it’s fun but expect there to be work involved as well. And one of the first jobs you’ll need to tackle when you have a new puppy or dog in the house is to house break your puppy. It can be less than fun to house break puppies.

That’s not to say it’s necessarily all that hard, just that it can be if you don’t know what you’re doing.And if you get it wrong the results can be disastrous for your puppy, for you and for your family. House training a puppy correctly is a must.And it may not even be a puppy you’re house breaking. Not everyone starts with a puppy, some for various reasons end up with an adult dog. Not that it’s impossible to house train an adult dog, but like a puppy you need to know what you’re doing.Now I’m not going to tell you all the steps to house breaking puppies here, I don’t have the space or time, and I reserve that for my website. But I will offer a few tips here where I have space.Firstly remember that you rule the house. In your dog or puppy’s eyes you are the boss dog, you need to remember that. It is you who sets the rules and you who enforces them. This certainly doesn’t mean that you punish your dog for breaking the rules of potty training, punishment isn’t effective, but it does mean that you should learn exactly what you need to do to potty train your puppy, then follow through consistently.But you do need to be firm and consistent setting the rules.Instead of punishing your dog for a breach of the rules you need to use positive reinforcement. In the past it the accepted wisdom was to show him the rules, for example where his potty place was, then punish him for every breach till he got it right. This can take a long time and subject you both to a lot of stress.And be prepared to do whatever it takes to successfully train your puppy or dog. Every puppy is different, just like kids are different. Some will get the message quite fast and if you use the correct methods to train him will be successfully trained in no time. Others will take quite a while. Understand that it’s a process that you and your puppy need to go through that, even if you are doing everything right, will take as long as it takes.Expect it to take a while, be happy if it doesn’t rather than the other way round.House breaking a puppy is a process that both of you need to go through to the end. You need to learn exactly what to do, do it consistently for as long as it takes and you will succeed.It’s as much about you as him. You must know exactly what you are doing before starting, and stick at it. Find out much more on my website.