No matter how adorable that puppy is, we all hate to clean up dog poop. If you have a six-week-old puppy in the house, you’ve got a creature who has no idea about picking a place to “go.” Regardless, dogs really want to be house trained, too, because they don’t like to have their waste in their living space. Here are three ways to use clicker training to make the house training process smoother and easier.

First, take your puppy to his potty place immediately after waking and after meals. These are the times when the puppy is most likely to have to go. Stay with your puppy and reward him when he goes where you want him to. If you’re using clicker training, click when he squats and reward when he’s done.

If he’s not ready to go just yet, give him some more time. But always watch for signs — walking in circles, a certain kind of sniffing around — that it’s time. You’ll know the warning signs as you get to know your dog’s personality. And then always click when he does a behavior you want him to repeat and use a reward of a happy voice and perhaps a treat.

Next, designate a place for the dog to urinate and defecate. If your dog will use the back yard, you might want to teach it to use one confined area. You’ll want to pick up the waste often, because they don’t like to walk through their waste, but it’s one way to narrow the area that needs to be cleaned.

For indoor puppy training, tape an oven liner or pet training pad to an easily cleaned section of floor. As the puppy gets older, he is better able to control his bladder and bowel. Then you can move the potty place outside. You can stop clicking when your dog has mastered a behavior and go back to the training when it’s time for your dog to learn something new.

Finally, don’t punish the dog for getting it wrong. Just help them get it right. Once upon a time, dog owners were advised to “train” their dogs by rubbing their noses in their own excrement. This is cruel and pointless. By the time he is finished with his bowel movement, he has no clue why you’re doing this to him.

If you just help them get it right, they will succeed much sooner. Dogs are creatures of habit, and if you can get them to succeed — and reward their success — they’ll be more than happy to get it right in the future. With clicker training, the dog understands exactly what he’s being rewarded for, so there’s less guesswork for him to do it again.

Dogs want to have a designated area for their waste away from their living area, an instinctive desire they share with wolves in the wild. They are really on your side in this effort. The dog also wants to please you. You can use clicker training to help make your dog a welcome companion around your house.

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