One more thing about house training. Even if you do everything right, its possible that your dog will have an accident or two at some point. You may not see it doing the sniff looking for a place to potty, or you may come home and discover a nice pile in the corner.

Its important when this happens that you avoid any and all emotional response, no angry “what did you do”, no rubbing his nose in it. Just clean it up and continue to show the dog where to go and those accidents will reduce to nothing in time.

The issue is that dogs have associative memory, but not connective memory. When you come home and get mad at that pile in the corner and take it out on the dog, ALL the dog knows is that when you come home you are likely to be irrational and angry. The dog has no concept that the reason you are mad is because of him going potty where he’s not supposed to. By using any negative reinforcement well after the fact, the dog is unable to make the connection between you punishing him and what he did to cause it. All he can do is know that you appear to be angry for reasons unknown. It can lead to the dog becoming afraid or unsure about you, which can lead to any form of other behavior problems.

Its critical, as others have pointed out, that any corrective actions or reinforcement be made at the instant the dog is performing the unwanted act. Even a few seconds later and the connection between the act and the correction can be lost. Minutes or hours later and its assuredly lost. Positive reinforcement is the same way… right in the act of doing the proper behavior is the time to praise, not 10 seconds later when you fish the treat out of your pocket.

Good luck with the puppy… little bundles of joy 🙂