May 19 2009
Tag Archive 'Crate Training'
Mar 12 2009
Housetraining Your New Puppy
No training is more basic for pet owners than that first important lesson: Do it outside!
Teaching your puppy to eliminate outside the home, not in it, often starts between six and eight weeks of age. Dogs as young as four weeks can be house broken, but at that age few have the muscular control to succeed.
With any dog training plan, trainer patience is as important as the dog’s temperament. ‘Sit’, ’stay’ and other behaviors can often be learned in a few days. House training typically takes weeks - often as short as two, sometimes a month or more.
As with other learned behaviors, it helps to watch for signs of the desired elimination and enforce and direct them with a voice command followed by praise. In this case that technique works even more to the trainer’s advantage, since all dogs will naturally eliminate. The tactic is to get them to do it when and where you want!
Watch for circling or squatting, then scoop up the pup, say ‘potty’ and quickly dash outside. The puppy may circle some more, but will often squat soon after. As it begins, say ‘Go potty’ (or some other unique phrase) in a clear, firm (but not angry) voice. Wait until she is finished and then her praise lavishly.
You won’t always be able to catch the puppy about to begin, but don’t become angry or impatient when the dog has an accident indoors. It takes due diligence for the dog to learn to tell you it’s time to ‘go outside’. It also takes time for the muscles needed to control bladder and bowels to develop.
On average, puppies need to eliminate every 2-3 hours. If you haven’t spotted pre-elimination behavior within that time, take the dog outside anyway. Issue the command ‘Go potty’ and wait. At first, usually, the dog will have no clue what you want.
Again, even when outside, it helps to wait and watch for the desired behavior then issue the proper command. That helps the dog associate the command with the behavior. If tyour puppy hasn’t gone after a few minutes and a couple of ‘Go potty’ commands, take it back inside for an hour. Of course, if you notice the pre-elimination behavior in less time, go outside again immediately.
Young puppies have an astonishinly ability to quickly learn what their ‘alpha’ (the leader of the pack) wants. This is almost always accomplished by associating a verbal command with behavior, followed by praise. Punishment is usually counter-productive, and nowhere more so than in waste elimination training. Never rub a dog’s nose in the mess.
Paper and/or crate training is preferred by some. A puppy can be trained to go on a newspaper, or on one of the chemically treated pads designed for the purpose. Some small breeds that live all day in the home may not need to go outside at all.
The technique has a couple of downsides however. Unlike cats, dogs will rarely use in a scented litter box. Newspapers (even with the top layer removed after the dog goes) will eventually create an unpleasant smell in the house.
Also, long before the odor becomes repulsive to humans, the aroma is a heavenly scent for dogs. Dogs don’t find the smell unattractive - quite the opposite. And that’s the problem.
Paper trained dogs will prefer to eliminate indoors. Sometimes they’ll miss the paper by only an inch, creating a smelly mess to clean up.
Once the accident is in the carpet, the dog will often seek that spot out as its proper ‘place to go’. This makes training the dog to eliminate outside even more difficult. Best to suffer a few accidents than to create a hard-to-overcome habit.
Lots of patience, praise and consistency are the keys to any dog training. Elimination training is the first challenge for you and your dog.
Get more tips and advice on housetraining or dog training at Luvurdog.com/dogtraining
