Potty Training Tips

1. Go Outside
Whether you will be home all day to let out your Schnoodle frequently or you work a full time job leaving your Schnoodle to "hold it" for 8 or more hours, a Schnoodle puppy is easy to housebreak.

There are going to be days when you can stay home with your puppy all day. This is when you need to pay attention to the signs and signals your puppy shows when he/she is about to "do its business".

The most common signals are constant sniffing, crouching down and the most difficult to notice...finding a "hiding" place so he/she won't get in trouble. The first two you will notice right away. The last one your puppy will start to do once you have scolded it a few times for going in the house. Regardless, as soon as you notice one of these activities, immediately grab up your puppy and put him/her outside.

2. Start a Routine
On top of knowing your Schnoodle puppy's "signals", you will need to begin to establish a routine as part of your puppy potty training.

Pick certain times throughout the day to always let your puppy outside. The BARE minimum should include 1) when you first wake up in the morning, 2) the minute you return home from work, and 3) before you go to bed. By always letting your puppy out at these times, he/she will begin to realize they don't have to go to bathroom in the house because their loving owner will let them out periodically throughout the day.

Remember though, your puppy will need to be let out more frequently for a while until they start to control themselves...until they grow up. This is the same thing a child goes through when getting off of diapers.

With that last thing said, expect accidents. Other good times to let him/her outside would be before you leave for work and after dinner. Puppy potty training is a process, not a one-time task.

Be patient. The next thing you know, your floors will be as dry as before your puppy came home.

3. Block off An Area
If you are training your puppy to "hold it" all day while you are at work, you may want to close off an area or crate train your puppy. I did not crate train either of my puppies, but I heard it works.

All I did was block off the kitchen for my puppy, "Rudy". The kitchen seems to be the best since it usually is the room that does not have carpeting. I made sure he had something soft to lie on. I also put down Puppy Pads in a few places around the kitchen. You could use newspaper, but the Puppy Pads are much more absorbent and cover up some of the smell. After a couple of weeks, Rudy began to go to bathroom less and less during the day.
You see, dogs don't like to make messes in the area they live in. Rudy eventually learned to "hold it" until I got home from work.

On the weekends, we started to let him have more and more free reign of the house by letting him roam around the whole first floor and then the entire house. We did this in steps to make sure he wouldn't start going in the house again.

4. Stain Remover
When your puppy does go on the carpet, the best product you could own to clean it up is Nature's Miracle. It is the best carpet cleaner I have ever had. There has not been a stain I could not get up yet.

The best part is it has some kind of chemical in it that kills the smell so the dog will never know it went to the bathroom there. Dogs will urinate in the same area over and over again if they smell it there and dogs have 10 times better smelling abilities than us humans.

I have used this product on other stains too, and it has taken those up just as well. It is great stuff!!

Preventing Injury

 A small dog has very delicate legs especially when they are puppies and their bones are still developing.  Please be careful not to allow your puppy to jump off of the furniture or other high objects.  In addition to leg injury, the small dog may develop what is known as an "acquired" umbilical hernia.  These usually go away by the time a puppy is 6 months old, but it truly is an injury that could be prevented by not allowing your puppy to jump or fall from the furniture.

Please be extra cautious of young children with small puppies.  It is so easy for them to drop a puppy or accidentally step on one.  Children must be monitored with dogs at all times.  If you are unable to supervise the children and or puppy, please put the puppy in his crate, or in a safe room.

Grooming Your puppy

Grooming a Mini Schnauzer involves the bathing of his fur, the pulling of fur from his ear canals, the clipping of his toe nails, and the clipping of his fur.  We have already started grooming your puppy in some of these areas.  We don't like to over-bath the puppies, but they do not clean themselves and a litter can get pretty dirty rolling all over the ground as they play and running through their messes.

Bathing the Puppy
Today I woke up to some pretty smelly puppies.  One of them must have stepped in poop.  I absolutely had to bath them.  I used baby shampoo rather than adult pet shampoo, because I wanted it to be extra mild.  I was careful to have the temperature as comfortable as I would for any baby.  I scrubbed each one well and rinsed their fur thouroughly being careful not to get any water in their ears or eyes.  Then I dried them as thoroughly as I could with towels and used a blow dryer on a warm setting to blow warm air around them.  I was careful not to get too close or to scare them since I wanted bath time to be a pleasant experience.

Clipping the fur on the Pads of their feet
It is important to clip the fur around the pads of the puppies feet.  Long fur collects dirt and germs, plus it is prone to getting matted which can be rather uncomfortable.  I gave the puppies their first foot fur trimming today.

Clipping Toe Nails
After clipping the fur, I was able to see the toe nails quite visibly.  I used specially designed dog toe clippers to trim each toe nail on the front and back paws.  When you take your puppy in for his first hair cut, you might want to ask him to show you how to clip the nails.  Their are also a lot of good instruction on line. You have to be very careful not to clip the wick or you will cause the dog to bleed.  today, I waited until the puppies were rather exhausted so they could dose in my lap as I clipped their nails, and they did not mind being held tight.

Trimming the Fur around the eyes
It is important for your puppy to be able to see, and we also don't want excessive fur to be a breeding ground of bacteria around your puppies eyes.  Today I trimmed the fur that was at the corners of their eyes and cleaned away any goop that had accumulated.  Using round nose scissors, especially for cutting fur, I trimmed the fur away from the corners of the eyes.  It is important to do this every now and then so the puppies grow up use to the scissors near their eyes.  Invest in a good pair of round nose scissors, you certainly do not want to risk injuring your dogs eyes.

This was all that was necessary for this stage of the pups life....but as he grows the fur will get longer and thicker and the routine will be more involved.  It is important to start preparing your puppy for a routine that will be a regular part of his life.  I would encourage you to begin your grooming practices with your pup as soon as you bring him home.

Grooming an 8 week puppy
Grooming a young pup begins by getting him use to being handled in all the ways that a groomer will need to handle him.  Touch his ears and look inside.  Take hold of his feet...do his claws need clipping?  Hold his paws one by one in your hand and get him use to the fact that having his feet worked on.  Take a brush and run it over his fur.  Take a blow dryer and blow it around and over him.  If you have a hair clipper, or something with that type of motor sound, turn it on every now and then and move it around him so that he is not startled by the clipper when he gets his first clipping.

Below is a list of supplies that you will probably want to acquire if you want to keep your pup clean and neat in between regular haircuts.  If you plan to take your pup to the professional groomer, you needn't purchase a Pet clipper...but there may be times when you would rather shave him yourself.  Just always be particularly careful when clipping the ears, as the edges are easily cut.  And when trimming eyebrows be sure to use round nose scissors...this will avoid eye injury, should your dog shake his head abruptly.  You won't need all these things immediately but they will be helpful later on.  I keep a dog grooming box full of all these supplies.

Round nosed scissors for trimming beard and eyebrows  9.99

Oster 78129-600 Gentle paws nail trimmer 19.99  ---or use a manual hatchet like variety

Styptic powder-  If you accidently clip the wick, this powder stops the bleeding

Slicker brush  6.49

Grooming comb 14.99

Electric Pet clipper  (prices vary)

 For white dogs:  The beards are stained by saliva.  These products are very effective

Angel Eyes beard stain eliminator 120 grams (for white dogs) $37.00 (smaller bottles available).  A small puppy can begin with only 1/4 teaspoon/day and after a few months will require it less and less....a little goes a long way.

Synergy's groomers blend ultra white shampoo- not for puppies....only for adult white dogs

Synergy's groomers blend oatmeal protein conditioner