It’s hard! It’s like having a child. Your life just changed within days, it’s not only the puppy who is learning; you are also trying to fit in the new routine. Even if you already have trained a puppy before, still it’s hard because every breed and every puppy is different. You might lose your temper but staying patient with your puppy when you are potty training is important.
Yelling at animals is not something that’ll work, everyone knows it but still, it’s very natural to lose patience when things are going against your plans and predictions.
Why Yelling At Puppies Won’t Work?
Yelling at puppies, when they have accidents at home, is actually going to make things worse.
Dogs are so sensitive about their owner’s behavior. They give their best when they find their owners happy, calm and friendly towards them.
When they find their owners yelling at them, they become confused and frightened. So, it’s so important to keep up with patience. It’s an important step of potty training puppies. Staying patient with these animals will make the process shorter.
Reasons You Lose Patience With Your Puppy
The first step to finding a solution to a problem is to figure out the reason behind it.
You might lose patience with your puppy for several reasons:
- You are stressed or overwhelmed.
- Besides potty training your new puppy, you have many other things to do.
- You don’t have much information about your dog’s breed.
- You don’t have a strong bond with the buddy.
- Realistic expectations are being ignored.
- You are not easy on yourself.
11 Ways To Stay Patient With Your Puppy while You Are HouseTraining Him
We’ve gathered a few points to help you to stay sane while housetraining.
There are 3 key points you should work on
- Bonding with the puppy
- Understanding and setting realistic expectations
- Reducing your own stress and workload
Here are the points:
1- Understand The Breed
First thing first, acknowledges that every breed has different traits, some are easier and some are harder to potty train.
If your dog is of a breed that is stubborn or has a smaller or weaker bladder. The bad news is, he will take much more time and effort to be trained.
You must learn about the breed of your dog. Connect with other dog owners who own the same breed. Ask them how they have done it.
Learn as much as you can about your puppy and observe his own personal behavior.
When you will have enough understanding of your puppy’s breed and personal behavior, things will become easier for you.
It will help you to set realistic expectations and make a strategy specific to your own puppy.
2- Bond First
Review your bond and connection with your puppy.
It’s crucial because when your puppy will feel connected with you; he is more likely to be eager to please you and he will try his best to perform as you want.
Your bonding with your buddy is also going to help you stay patient with him. Think about parents who tolerate their own little mischievous kids all day long, but they lose temper with other kids so quickly.
This happens because of their connection with their own kids.
When your sweet little darling comes home, your very first priority should be to connect with them. (but don’t make the mistake of giving them the freedom to roam around the house, it will hinder the process).
3- Set Realistic Expectations
Setting realistic expectations will help you to stay patient.
Understand that he is an animal who doesn’t know what to do.
He is smart but his brain wiring is different from human beings. He doesn’t know why peeing and pooping in the house is wrong. Why you are yelling; he can’t understand.
Secondly, the process is going to take time, a long time. Know this! Don’t expect to finish training your puppy within days, it may take weeks or even months.
Read more about: How long does it take to potty train a puppy?
Knowing this will keep you on track, you will at least stop telling yourself that, “I’m trying to teach this little guy to potty on that spot for the last 6 days, I think he would never understand.”
4- Reduce Stress
You must reduce your stress if you are really looking forward to be more patient with your puppy.
Stress is the main factor that causes a person to lose temper more quickly.
To reduce that stress, there are certain ways. some of the most popular are
- Reduce stress triggers
- Eat healthy and exercise
- Deep breathing
- Give yourself some time-out
- Limit alcohol and caffeine
- Take warm water bath
- Listen to your favorite soothing music
- Try to be more positive
Reducing stress is definitely going to help. If you think that this factor is letting you down, work on it in the first place.
5- Be Prepared
Learn everything about housetraining and be prepared.
This includes having all the supplies in hand so you don’t have to run when it’s time.
(Here’s the list of all the supplies you need to potty train your doggy)
Take some days off from work, especially for the first week.
We recommend starting the training on Friday night and taking Monday, Tuesday off. So you have at least 4+ days in the beginning.
Prepare meals for some days and freeze them so you don’t have to worry about it.
Buy and set the groceries for at least a week, a month would be even better.
Make sure you don’t have so much work to do while you are training.
You should not be like, “Man! Please do it fast, I can’t wait, I’ve to finish the cooking.”
6- Take A Break/ Ask For Help
You are being overwhelmed? It’s ok. We understand that it is hard. Take a break. If you have other family members who have a connection with the puppy, ask them to help you out.
Beware, when multiple people will try to train the dog, it can do more harm than good. Make sure the other person is also using the same method, schedule, and same commands.
Asking for help from any person who is not aware of what you are already doing, would be a mistake.
7- Improved Stamina
People with better stamina tend to be more patient with the stuff around them.
The main reason why people lose their temper is the mess spread inside their brains and they are not capable enough to bear it.
You don’t need good stamina only for toilet training your puppy, but it will help you to stay sane while dealing with every life problem.
There are many ways to improve your stamina; like exercising, meditating, staying hydrated, and getting a good night’s sleep. It’s more like reducing the level of stress.
If you will have the stamina to bear emotional and physical stress (because you are going to stay active with your puppy all day long), you are more likely to stop yelling at your animal.
8- Supplementation
Supplement your brain with some extra power to improve your patience with the puppy.
Omega 3 fish oil is popular for improving brainpower. It can really help you to get your brain in your control and be more patient. (Get your Omega 3 fish oil supplement on Amazon)
(Disclaimer: This website provides information only, we disclaim any liability for your reliance on any opinions or advice contained on this website. We encourage you to consult a relevant specialist before starting to take any supplement, please read our full disclosure here.)
Chamomile tea is another great option. This tea is made from a flower called chamomile and it is known for its so many health benefits. One of the benefits, (for which we usually recommend it) is relaxing the brain.
It really works for improving a person’s mood and relaxing his brain.
(Get your Chamomile tea on Amazon.)
9- Reduce Screen Time
Screen time is one of the main culprits that cause a reduced level of patience. It’s not only bad for kids but it is proved that people who spend more time in front of the screen, tend to have more regressed behavior.
As per research done, “After 1 h/day of use, more hours of daily screen time resulted in lower psychological well-being, lower self-control, more distractibility, less emotional stability, being more difficult to care for, and inability to finish tasks.
You have a very important task to finish so reduce your time spent on screen as much as possible.
10- Setting Schedule
It has been said again and again to set a consistent schedule for your buddy if you want him to pick up the house training process, but what about you? Are you having a fixed schedule for your day?
You might have taken a few days off from work, so your routine might have become messed up.
Or maybe you are thinking, “Now when I have 3 days off, I should enjoy some extra time watching TV. Don’t make this mistake.
Set up a proper schedule for yourself too, considering your puppy’s routine so you could stay more organized and focused and behave well with the little fellow.
11- Stay Accountable & Reward Yourself
You have a stock of enough treats for your dog but what about you? Are you rewarding your own self?
Stay accountable, keep a journal and reward yourself when you do a great job.
The process is hard. When you wanted to yell but you didn’t, give yourself a treat. It can be anything from candy to a new T-shirt.
I read somewhere about a reward jar. Every time when your puppy has an accident and you wanted to yell but you didn’t, add a few dollars in your reward jar and when it becomes full (or you complete the housetraining successfully), give yourself a gift.
Follow these tips and we are sure that you will be able to improve your level of patience with the puppy and that will definitely going to help in shortening the period of potty training the puppy because dogs respond the best when you are friendly with them.
Read more:
How long does it take to potty train a puppy?
