For a person who loves dogs, there is nothing more satisfying than owning a puppy and watching it grow up. There are many things that you and the puppy will discover about each other en route to establishing a long and trusting relationship. One thing that must be accomplished first if you are planning on having the puppy stay indoors for any amount of time is housebreaking, or house training. Puppies have the capability to learn this right away. This is why it is so important to establish the correct house training routine while the puppy is at a young age. The house training routine that a puppy acquires can be difficult to break once it is established, so it is important to get it right the first time.

Watching the puppy during the initial house training phase is one of the most important things you can do. Observe your puppy while at the same time keeping an eye on the time. If your puppy is very active, and the weather is nice outside, it is nothing wrong with taking him outside more than once an hour. A puppy's metabolism is so fast, that he must consume more water than he would if he were fully grown. Also, to feed this high metabolism, he must eat a lot more often. With all of this food and water going in, it is easy to understand that he has to "go" more often.

A method of house training that has the puppy using the bathroom on newspapers is called the paper method. Teaching your puppy to relieve himself indoors, then expecting him to make the transition to relieve himself outdoors will tend to confuse your young puppy. It will take longer and be more difficult to house train your puppy using this method, studies have shown. By teaching your puppy to "go" outside, he will learn that it is not acceptable to "go" in the house. Relieving himself near the newspaper instead of on the newspaper is a habit the puppy could get in, also. Just keep things consistent by having your puppy relieve himself only outside.

Another system, known as the "crate" system, has been shown to have very good results. The puppy is kept in a crate for roughly an hour before he is taken outdoors to relieve himself. The crate system trains the puppy to "hold it" until he is given the chance to relieve himself in an area chosen by you. The logic behind this system is that a puppy doesn't want to mess up its living area if it doesn't have to. If your puppy does relieve himself in the crate, it was because he could no longer hold it and because you kept him in the crate too long. If this happens, it can compromise this training technique.

Establishing good house training habits is an important first step in training a puppy. The most important thing to remember with house training a puppy is to be consistent and offer him a tremendous amount of praise. It is okay if the puppy has an accident during this training, because the process is not an overnight thing. By carrying the puppy outside more often, this should put an end to these accidents. Don't punish the puppy if he has an accident later on after training has ended. Merely return back to the training process temporarily and you'll be back on track in no time.