Puppy & Kitten TraininG **information is for resource only**

---

Housetraining Tips for your New Puppy

Establishing good habits early on in housetraining your puppy is critical. If you allow your puppy to eliminate every where and any where he wants in your home, you will end up with an adult dog who will always have a tendency to want to eliminate in your home. You will have to live with it forever, or go through some time-consuming, tedious retraining later on. A dog is either housetrained or not. There is no such thing as weekly 'accidents.' A truly housetrained dog will NEVER eliminate in your house unless forced to do so or because of illness or excessively long confinement. Don't expect your puppy to be reliably housetrained until it is at least 6 months old.

Puppy Housetraining Do's

-Provide constant access to the toilet area. If you are home, take your puppy there every 45 minutes or less. 

If you are not home or cannot tend to the puppy, then you must make sure he cannot make a mistake. It's actually not really a mistake because he doesn't know any better. With young puppies, when the urge comes, they go - it usually doesn't matter where they are or what they are doing. If we didn't put diapers on human babies, they too would soil our carpets and floors. Confine your puppy to a dog-proofed area and line the entire floor with papers. If the weather is nice, the area safe, etc, you can confine the pup to a small pen outside. Don't leave your pup out in the sun, wind, heat or cold. Be sure to provide shelter and water in the confinement area. It's ideal if the pen is set up on dirt, grass, gravel or concrete. The idea is that no matter where the puppy eliminates while confined, it is on something that resembles his toilet area. Your goal is to never allow your puppy to eliminate on carpet, tile, hardwood, or anything that resembles the flooring in your home. Once a habit is established, it is difficult to break, therefore, do not let your pup form bad habits in the first place. 

-Praise and reward your puppy each and every time possible for eliminating in his toilet area. 

-Feed your puppy at regular times. What goes in on schedule will come out on schedule. 

-Use a crate to help your puppy develop self control. Confine him for gradually increasing periods of time when you are home to monitor him. 

-Be patient. It can take until the dog is 6 months old for him to be housetrained. 

From perfectpaws.com

Start your kitten training early with these tips and you'll have a great companion for life. Contrary to what most people may say, cats are quite smart and can learn proper behavior. Thinking about how your cat might see things and bonding with him can help to gain his trust and make training a bit easier. I can’t guarantee that you’ll be able to teach your kitten beg or rollover, but you may be able to train him in a way that reduces or eliminates bad behavior.

Most kittens seem irresistibly cute and fun. There are a few more things to know before you bring home your kitten. You need to research healthy types of food. You should interview a vet. You should kitten proof your house. You should pick up your plants, hide your wires. One good idea you can do is go out and find something for your kitten to hide in. when they first get home they may get a bit scared and want to find a safe and secure place to go. This could either be a kitty condo or a kennel.

There are several problems that may occur when you bring your kitty home. Behavior problems are normal for most kittens. Most of the basic problems will include chewing on things, scratching on chairs, or defecating.

Scratching on different items can create a big problem, like scratching on your favorite chair. It’s a normal thing for a cat to scratch, but get things that are appropriate for them to scratch on. Place them around the house so that there is not just one scratching post. Make sure that you trim your kittens nails at least once a week. 

Sometimes kittens will chew on different things, such as strings from mini-blinds, curtains, pretty much anything that sways and could catch their attention. You should take your cords and place them out of reach or just unplug them. You can also get a special cover for the cords.

You will want to keep a close eye on your kitten. Make sure that your kitten is not snagging their claws on your curtains; if they do they have the chance of ripping one of their nails out. This same rune should apply for your carpet, and throw rugs. You want to make sure that your kitten is safe as possible.

The next thing that you should do is make sure that the kitten has enough chew toys. This can help with a lot of oral activity, this being very important for the development of the kitten’s gums and teeth. Another thing that you can do is grow your kitten some of their own grass. This will also help with their digestive system.

Kittens require a lot of attention, they have playful tendencies and if they do not get enough play time they may seem like they are attacking you. All they really want is an outlet for their destructive behavior.

Sometimes you can introduce another kitten to help with aggressive behavior issues. But that would be totally up to the owner. By bringing in another cat the kitten can take the aggressive behavior towards the other cat. And maybe the kitten is only trying to play; even if that is the case you do not want your feet attacked when your kitten decides that it wants to play. Kittens do need a lot of social interaction. Not just with the owner but with other animals too. If you bring a kitten into a house with a dog, you need to introduce your dog to the new kitten. This will be a big change for all of you. The cat and dog may not get along at first but they need to figure out between the two of them who has higher ranking in the house.

Remember when all of this is said and done you want to make sure that everyone is satisfied with the results. This will include your animals, children and yourself. Don’t get stressed out, just hug your cat. It will all be ok. All cats will ever try to do is please you. They are not intending on making you mad they just may not know better yet. It all takes time to teach and learn. Just remember a few basic things. Make sure you pet is happy and healthy. Make sure your doing everything possible for your cat. 

Information from Epet.com