No training is more basic for pet owners than that first important lesson: Do it outside!
Teaching your new puppy to eliminate outside the home, not in it, usually starts between six and eight weeks of age. Dogs as young as four weeks have been started on the program, but at that age they may not have the muscular control to succeed.
With any dog training program, trainer patience is as important as the dog’s temperament. ‘Sit’, ’stay’ and other behaviors can often be learned in a few days. ‘Potty’ training usually takes weeks - sometimes as short as two, often a month or more.
As with other learned behaviors, it helps to watch for signs of the desired potty behavior 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 secret is to get your puppy to do it when and where you want!
Watch for circling or squatting, then pick up the pup, say ‘outside’ and take him outside. The puppy might circle some more, but will often squat immediately. When he starts, say ‘Go potty’ ( or some other unique phrase) in a clear, firm (but not angry) voice. Wait until it’s finished and 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 potties indoors. It takes lots of repetition for your puppy to learn to tell you it’s time to ‘go potty’. It also takes time for the muscles needed to control bladder and bowels to mature.
Puppies need to eliminate every 2-3 hours, on average. 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 obseve for the desired behavior then issue the command. That helps the dog associate the command with the behavior. If the dog hasn’t gone after a few minutes and a few ‘Go potty’ commands, take it back inside for an hour. Of course, if you spot the pre-elimination behavior in less time, get back outside fast.
Dogs have a unique 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 your puppy’s nose in the mess.
Paper and/or crate training is preferred by some. A pup can be trained to go on a newspaper, a litter box for puppies,or on one of the chemically treated pads designed for the purpose. Some small breeds that live all day in the apartment may not need to go outside at all.
The technique has a couple of downsides however. Unlike cats, dogs will seldom go in a scented litter box. Elimination on newspapers often leaves lingering odors in your house.
Also, long before the odor becomes perceptible to humans, dogs can smell their own distinctive odor. Dogs don’t find it unattractive - quite the opposite. So that spot continues to be the problem.
Paper trained dogs will prefer to eliminate indoors. Sometimes your puppy may miss the paper by just a little bit, resulting in a mess to clean up.
Once the odor is in the carpet, the dog will often seek that area 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 quest for you and your dog.
Get more tips and advice on housetraining or dog training at Luvurdog.com/dogtraining
Posted under Dog Articles, Dog Tips, Dogs General
This post was written by admin on March 6, 2009
