Do you have a puppy and wonder when it is proper to begin with the potty training? The answer to that question is that is it never to early to begin puppy training. Honestly, you should watch your dog and as the dog sniffs and finds that chosen place, that is where you begin training. It will take your roughly between two and three months of persistence to get your dog potty trained. Each person trains his or her puppy differently. Some people use the technique with the newspaper and others feel this is too harsh and use something else.

The Potty Training Technique

1- Gather newspaper and cover the floor completely in whichever room your puppy will be going potty. (The best way is to find where you can get newspaper and flyers for free so it keeps down costs.)

2- Watch as the dog investigates the paper and watch for the puppy to begin sniffing the floor very intently. This is normally the first sign your puppy will need to potty. You will not know at first whether your puppy will be peeing or pooping until your dog gets a bit older and you can watch for the pooping by its tail straightening out.

3- Throughout the following few days you will notice that your puppy prefers to potty in a certain area. Once you recognize this, you can remove the newspaper from the floor except the area your puppy has deemed his "toilet." If for some reason your puppy begins missing the paper, you may wish to place the paper over the complete floor again. Eventually you should find that your puppy has two or three favorite places.

4- After a while, you will be able to move the puppy outside for potty time. When you see your puppy sniffing intently you can grab the newspaper outdoors. Then you call your puppy and once it goes potty then give it lots of love and praise. Once the puppy correlates the potty with praise, it will continue to do this. If you are persistent the puppy will learn.

5- Then a few weeks after this incident, you will learn the habits of your dog's potty time. You can remove all the newspaper but watch for the dog to sniff the floor intently again and as soon as you do you get your dog's attention and get it outside. The other thing that works is training your dog to learn the word toilet. Once it associates toilet with potty time and then treat, it will begin to get the hang of potty time.

Each and every time your puppy gets potty time correct then you need to bring in the positive words and praise. You may even wish to give your puppy a tangible treat. As it grows older the puppy will begin to lengthen the time between potty times. So if you are prepared to spend quality time getting to know your dog's potty habits and are willing to give plenty of positive reinforcement, then it's time to potty train your puppy.

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Pet owners dread fleas and if presented with a flea infestation can be terribly confused. The biggest question these days is how to get rid of fleas naturally.

Pet supply stores will sell a number of flea collars. It's virtually impossible to know which to use and almost impossible to know all of the active chemicals in these collars. When I was young our pets regularly wore an off-white plastic flea collar. We had no idea what the active flea thwarting ingredients were! These days we wouldn't consider hanging a "chemical belt" around the necks of our beloved pets nor would we consider letting children near any such thing. Today the chemicals used in many of these major popular brands may be poisoning our pets, and marginalizing our own health at the same time. So what sort of home remedies for fleas are there?

More and more people are seeking natural or homeopathic alternatives to the issue of dog fleas. In many cases you can create household flea remedies with ingredients you already have at home. Some of the most commonly used natural dog flea remedies are listed below:

1. For the adult dogs, you could try an olive oil bath. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the fleas will drown in the olive oil. Start from the head and work your way back so the fleas don't move to the face where it's really hard to pluck them off. You then just shampoo the oil out and the dog fleas wash down the drain. It will take a few shampoos before your dog's coat feels oil free.
2. Other people say garlic works wonders to prevent dog fleas. Some users of this solution suggest using a garlic supplement while others use a fresh garlic clove and mix it into the food. Garlic is controversial so check with your vet.
3. Another solution is the use of household salt. Sprinkle it all over the house and let it sit for a week or more. Apparently fleas don't seem to like salt. Your dog will lie on the carpet and, in the process, salt will get on his coat. This seems to drive the fleas away as proponents claim that shortly thereafter the fleas will be gone.
4. Talcum powder has long been known as a natural remedy to treat dog fleas. Using baby powder for fleas is a simple process ... just cover your dog or cat with baby powder and this will smother the fleas. This remedy is often recommended for puppies or kittens that are too young to be treated with any flea chemical. A similar remedy uses baking soda. As before, start at the head so that the fleas will move towards the back of your pet and eventually off.

There are many natural alternatives to treating/preventing dog fleas. However, with all matters pertaining to the health of our dogs and cats, please check with your doctor about potential side effects.

This article was condensed from an article previously written by the author and can be found at : how to get rid of dog fleas naturally, where you can find more information on pet flea solutions as well as other pet health issues.

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