Tips & Tricks (Potty Training)

It is not a good idea to put newspaper in the crate, or sleeping area of your Papillon.
Many breeders use  newspapers for  litters, and the association to eliminate on newspaper remain strong in young dogs.
If you want to train your Papillon  to go on papers indoors, put the news paper, or pad, in a designated area to relief himself.

The instinct of all dogs is that they move away from their potty area, but if you force your Papillon puppy to not be able to move away from the soiled area, there is a good chance, that you train him to accept to be soiled himself and he will not mind to be dirty.....for good!!

That also is a case -scenario if you get a puppy from a mom who failed to teach the little one to clean up after him!! Or he was taken away too early. Or had no mom, was fed by the bottle, and the person did not take over the good moms behavior: in cleaning up the little babe.

Again, make sure you know the background story of your future Papillon.

Papillon Potty Training II (continue)

Like all puppies, your Papillon puppy will have to go potty right after eat, sleep and play, and then some.

• First you have to go with him to  bring him to a designated spot, which you will return every time he has to go.
•  Reward him with pets, or even with a tiny treat when business is done. Speak while you pet him, say for example "good potty". Say that phrase every time you go out with him to do his business. He will learn that phrase just as good as his name, and you can use it eventual as a command!!
• Think about the surface a little, if your pap is a female. She squats, and tall grass, or tall mounts of mud is not a very inviting place for her to go.
• Confine him to a small place (crate) when he sleeps, so, in case you are not right there when he wakes up, he does not have the run of the house. Pick him up ,when he is very young, and carry him 'till you get to the outside near  the spot. When he gets a little older and better, you walk with him to the outside spot. Take a lead!!

This applies especially if you have to travel a set of stairs. Do not carry him too long, or he will expect you doing this all the time.(He has got you trained!!) Let him walk as much as possible, and make him walk most of that distance from where he is to the potty spot (with the lead) .

•  Feed him in that same small area (crate) all times and right after a relaxed meal, and a little bit of rest,   take him out just like if he had slept in it.
• Play time is different, but don't give him the whole house.Give him a room, or a section of a room. Take him with you from room to room, but section it off , unless it's already a very small room.
• Watch for signals he gives when he has to go out. He will kind of restlessly run around sniffing the ground.
• Never punish your Papillon for the mistake he makes. Just bring him out.

I spray diluted vinegar (50-50%) on the cleaned surface where he did his mistake. It cleans, and the smell of vinegar is not liked by your puppy. (With hope, he will not return to that mistake- spot!)

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  Give your Papillon 3 meals per day, but emphasize his main meals early morning and lunch.Go light and little at night, so his belly is not burdened by all that food. He will sleep better without having to go to potty !!

Will continue.

Papillon Potty Training

So, here it is: House Training.
The number one problem why a new Papillon owner would get frustrated.
All Toy dogs are somewhat hard to house train; Papillons are no different than all the other small dogs.
While some Papillons learn the concept of  doing their thing outside quickly, others can be more difficult in this matter.
So, here we have first to understand the "why", and look and think from such a small dogs perspective.
First, the genes of a small dogs are most likely different, their instinct to go outside is much lesser than from a big dog. 500 years plus, they have gotten away to piddle in the corners, and do their mini poops in another corner, and people had "put up" with it, and lived with it. If it would have been a Bull mastiff, or a Great Dane, the owners of the castles, and residences would have given up the dog, there would have been no breeding of these dogs. People bred only dogs who understood that concept very quickly.
Little dogs accidents where so much easier to live with, so small dogs where reproduced for generations with their little accidents, hence, today, small dogs do not have that instinct much in mind, as their big relatives have.

Second, we have to look at the much smaller system a Papillons has, along with all the other Toys .Papillon puppies can take quite some time before their system mature. You can still see a 6-8 months old young Papillon having to urinate and defecate right after sleep, meals and exercise. Just like a 6 week old puppy.

Third are the dimensions. From those little dogs eye level,  any room, small for us, is rather large.

When Papi goes all the way in one corner of that room, he may be even proud of the fact, that he went so far away to his thing!!

In the next post I will give you some advise in the actual potty training.