You have decided you will be bringing a new family member home—a puppy. This little canine is going to be a household member like everyone else, so your first plan of action will be to train them to go outside when they have to go. This can be one of the harder parts of training a puppy. Take a look at some of the dos and don'ts of housebreaking a puppy. 

Do: Get started with training as early as possible. 

Puppies, much like children, go through the majority of their brain growth and development in the first year or so of life. If you wait to train your puppy, it can be harder to break bad habits that they've already learned. Therefore, housebreaking your puppy is something that should be done as early on as possible. Even though your puppy may not fully get it until they are a little older, they will learn basic concepts at an age when that training is more likely to stick. 

Don't: Be too harsh or menacing when your pup has an accident. 

Puppies will have accidents through the training process; it is something to be expected. If you scold them too harshly or come off in a menacing tone that frightens the dog, it can be confusing to them and make them fearful of you, not necessarily make them fearful of going in the house. 

Do: Reward your puppy when they do go outside. 

One of the best things you can do when you are training a new puppy is to make sure you show them how good it is when they go outside. It is far more effective to reward good behaviors so those behaviors will be repeated than it is to punish a puppy for bad behavior because they simply don't understand what they are doing wrong. 

Don't: Expect too much out of a young puppy. 

When a puppy is really young, they have little control over the bowels or bladder. When they feel the urge to go, they must go immediately and can't really hold it back. Therefore, it is best to anticipate that your puppy will need to go, get them outside where they can in time, and then reward their actions. As they do gain more control over their bodily functions, they will also grow to know going outside is good, so they will hold themselves until they get out there. 

To learn more, reach out to a company that provides dog training services.