Should You House Train Your Puppy Indoor or Outdoor?

There are two methods that you can use to house train your puppy – indoor training or outdoor training. Which one should you use? Which house training method works best for you and your puppy? It actually depends a lot on the breed of your dog and your own lifestyle.

If you work from home, or you’re a housewife or a retiree, and your house happens to have a backyard, then outdoor puppy house training is an excellent choice. You have the flexibility to put work aside and take your puppy out for his bathroom break.

If you’re living in a tall apartment, naturally taking your puppy for a outdoor potty break can be rather inconvenient. Or, if you are experiencing some health problems that you can’t leave the house or move around easily, then indoor house training method may be more suitable for you.

If your dog belongs to one of those small size breeds, they do better with indoor potties, so indoor house training is perfect for them. Indoor house training may have some disadvantages for bigger dogs, one of it being that their waste is bigger in size! If yours is a male pooch, then someday he will start raising his leg as he pees. He won’t be able to aim accurately at his toilet – be it the newspaper or a litter box. What you get will be a stinky puddle on the floor.

While you can always train an indoor house trained puppy to eliminate outdoor, and vice versa, your puppy shouldn’t use both types of potty places regularly. You’ll have to decide one and only potty place for your puppy.

For instance, if your final objective is to have your puppy eliminate outside the house, then you should focus on outdoor house training from the start. You can cover the indoor living area with papers to protect your floors from soiling accidents when you’re not at home to take your puppy out for a potty break. The last thing you want to do is to confuse your puppy about his bathroom protocol.