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Will Puppy Paper Training Resolve Housetraining Problems?
Puppy paper training is one of the most popular methods dog owners use to housebreak their puppies.
A lot of dog owners swear by this technique, and I used to be one of them. In fact, I used it with the first three puppies that I raised.
Then, after exchanging experiences with other dog owners, I realized that those who did not use it housebroke their puppies in a much shorter period of time.
First, let's take a look at what's behind this training method. And since there must be something positive about it (or why would so many people waste their time, right?), I will show when it may be appropriate to use it.
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What Is Puppy Paper Training?
When you must leave your puppy alone for more than three or four hours at a time, confine him to a designated area of the house - a kitchen with a door, a basement, or any room that he can't escape.
Choose an area that's large enough to provide enough room for playing, sleeping and a toilet area but avoid any room with carpeted or wooden floors.
Cover the whole area with old newspapers. Use several layers.
When you leave the house, confine your puppy to the chosen area. For the next couple of days, remember where he prefers to eliminate. You can even reinforce his preference by taking some papers on which he urinated and placing them in that particular spot. Most likely, he will recognize the smell and eliminate where you placed those papers.
Every day, remove some newspapers, but don't remove too many and too fast. If one day he eliminates on the floor where there are no newspapers, you probably removed too much. Increase the area covered by newspapers.
Eventually, the area covered by newspapers will shrink to the size of a single newspaper.
The following video illustrates the above puppy paper training technique...
Learn more about How to House Train your Puppy
Paper training is covered in more detail in this housetraining guide.
Training pads provide a much better alternative to newspapers. They are...
- More absorbent and provide better protection than newspapers
- Made of leak-proof materials
- Provide odor protection
Pooch Pads Reusable Housebreaking Pads absorb up to four times their weight without leaking.
They are also washable (you can wash them up to 300 times without losing effectiveness).
So far, so good... You may even say to yourself "I don't see anything negative about puppy paper training, what is he talking about?" So, without any delays...
Why I Discourage Paper Training
Paper training teaches your puppy that it's OK to eliminate inside the house. It takes time to train your puppy to eliminate on newspapers. It will take you even longer to untrain him. Visit crate training to learn how to housebreak your puppy in the shortest time possible.
Even when his bladder is strong enough to wait until someone can take him outside, he will still eliminate indoors, because... that's what you taught him to do!
It's a lot more difficult to untrain your puppy from an old behavior than to teach him some new one. So, if eventually you will teach him that it's not acceptable to eliminate on newspapers, why teach it to him in the first place? You will save yourself a lot of time and aggravation later on if you skip puppy paper training altogether.
When to Consider Puppy Paper Training
If you can take your puppy outside every two hours, there is no need for you to even consider dog paper training. There will still be accidents, but that's part of raising a puppy!
But if you are like me, you work and don't have time to take your puppy outside every two hours. What can you do then? You may ask for help from your friends, relatives or neighbors. If you live in a city, you can hire a dog walker or a pet sitter.
But, none of the above solutions are very practical. No one will take your puppy outside three, four or five times per day until you come home from work. And it's not going to be cheap to hire a professional dog walker.
So, if nobody is home for extended periods of time, the most practical solution may be puppy paper training. Even if it will take longer to housebreak your puppy, you have no choice. And just because it will take longer, it doesn't mean it can't be done.
Actually, there is another solution - you can teach your puppy to eliminate in a dog litter box, but that's a whole new subject!
Whether you are paper training your puppy or he is already housebroken, accidents will happen.
To minimize the chance of your puppy eliminating in the same spot in the future, you will need a good dog urine remover.
I experimented with several products until I tried GET SERiOUS! Pet Stain, Odor and Pheromone Extractor.
While there are a lot of other good urine removers, feature by feature, nothing comes even close.
Sure, GET SERiOUS! will remove the stain and the odor, but while doing that, it will not discolor your carpet or upholstery. It's also biodegradable and safe to use around children and pets. And it can even remove stains left after other urine removers.
Visit dog urine cleaner page to find out what to look for in a dog urine remover and what types of products to avoid.
If you feel your pet can benefit from puppy paper training, I strongly recommend this guide to housetraining. In addition to step-by-step instructions on how to paper train your puppy the right way, you'll learn about other housetraining methods, including crate training.
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