How to House Train a Puppy in an Apartment

Living in an apartment does limit the scope for regular outdoor pooping, and as a result, you need to house train a puppy in an apartment. Here are some widely used tips for this purpose.

The first step in training your puppy to do his business within the apartment is to pick a spot for him to do it. It is understandable that since it is an apartment, you do not have the luxury of hourly walks. And some puppies tend to pee and poop a lot. So, you need to first dedicate a place within your apartment for your little puppy's potty training.

Now, once this spot is picked, you need to spread either a training pad or (good old) newspaper on a wide area in the room. You can cordon off the area with a lot of newspapers, so that your puppy will have no option but to go on the paper.

When you see that your puppy seems a little excited, or uneasy in the middle of playtime, gently guide him towards the area covered in paper. When you take him there, he'll do his business and then you can clean up after him.

Also, after every meal, make it a point to take him near the covered area and ask him to relieve himself by using certain phrases that he will soon learn to associate with the act. Puppies generally also need to poop when they wake up after sleeping. So, when he wakes up, again take him towards the covered area to poop.

You'll need to be really patient and keep repeating this procedure for quite a while before your puppy gets the hang of it. Once he realizes that he's being guided towards the spot in a routine fashion, he will automatically go there when he needs to.

Constant communication is the key in any relationship. It's the same with you and your puppy. When you see that he defecates in the designated spot, be sure to applaud, cheer and praise him a lot. Be very loud and vocal about how he's such a good boy for doing it in the right place.

He'll sense your happiness and the big deal that you make about it and will understand that he needs to go there to make you happy. At the same time, you need to realize that he's a little puppy after all and there are bound to be some 'accidents' time and again. At such times, don't reprimand your puppy.

Simply ignore the incident but through your body language let him know that you're not happy. He'll gradually realize his mistake and make an effort to rectify it by going in his 'poop spot' the next time (or maybe the next).

Once your puppy has understood that the particular area has been marked off for his benefit, he'll begin to visit it even without your guidance. Make sure you praise him for this. Then, slowly, over a few days, you can bit by bit, start reducing the amount of paper that you use to cover the area.

Throw away the soiled paper, and replace it with fewer fresh paper. Slowly, slowly, you will see that there's just one particular area that he uses. So, by the end of the training schedule, you'll have to lay out very little paper in that area for him to do his business.

House training a puppy in the restricted confines of an apartment is slightly more complicated than in a separate house, but it is not impossible. All you need is a lot of patience, determination and of course, newspaper! So go on and train your little puppy and give him all the love and affection that he gives you!