Punish puppy for peeing in the house?

[Sky57]

What should I do when my puppy pees in the house?

Say 'NO' and take her outside?
Clean it up and don't say or do anything to the puppy?
Take her to it and smack her little white butt?
Only smack her butt if caught in the act?

Right now I am cleaning it up and not saying anything to her.

[Pembroke_Corgi]

Sky57,

I would definately not punish your puppy because they probably won't know why you are doing so. Unless you catch them in the act you shouldn't even say "no" because they won't know what you're talking about.
If your puppy has an accident that you catch, I would say something like "Let's go outside," and take the puppy to finish out there. Make sure you give your dog plenty of praise too when she does go potty in the correct spot so she can learn to go potty on command.

Pembroke_Corgi

[lv4dogs]

If you catch her in the act then yes, a loud & firm NO, & IMMEDIATELY take her outside, give her her potty command and praise when she goes outside.

If you don't catch her in the act than don't say anything, just take her outside right away, praise when she goes.

Do not let her see you clean up the mess.

[JenBKR]

Originally posted by lv4dogs
Do not let her see you clean up the mess.

I have never heard that before. Why would you not want her to see you clean it?

[lv4dogs]

Originally posted by JenBKR
I have never heard that before. Why would you not want her to see you clean it?

I was told that by a reputable trainer years ago. It sure makes sense & can't hurt to try. I've been listening to it for years & my dogs (fosters or not) have always seemed to of been housetrained pretty quickly.


If the dog sees you clean up a mess, the dog will be more likely to think that it is ok to mess in the house as the owner will just clean it up anyways.

[JenBKR]

Originally posted by lv4dogs
I was told that by a reputable trainer years ago. It sure makes sense & can't hurt to try. I've been listening to it for years & my dogs (fosters or not) have always seemed to of been housetrained pretty quickly.


If the dog sees you clean up a mess, the dog will be more likely to think that it is ok to mess in the house as the owner will just clean it up anyways.

I never thought of it that way, but that's a good thought. We have had several occasions with Roscoe peeing on the carpet recently, and he watched me clean it up two of the three times. I never thought anything of it, but I will put him outside next time. Thanks for the advice!

[sammy101]

I was going to say the same thing as Lv4dogs
Bur please dont smack him/her.

[beeniesmom]

Originally posted by lv4dogs
If you catch her in the act then yes, a loud & firm NO, & IMMEDIATELY take her outside, give her her potty command and praise when she goes outside.

If you don't catch her in the act than don't say anything, just take her outside right away, praise when she goes.

Do not let her see you clean up the mess.


I agree 100%.

That's what I did with Frankie. He only had 2 accidents in the house.

NEVER let them see you clean it. They think they are getting attention for doing a mess. I forgot where I read or heard it.

[Dixieland Dancer]

I have a little different take on things.....

First.... why does a dog who is not house trained have run in the house without someone watching it? A pup that is in house training mode in my house NEVER is left unattended. If you are crate training then the dog is immediately taken outside (pick it up if you have too) to potty. Once it potties outside then it is brought inside to play (supervised). If the pup is inside and I'm busy doing something else then it is tetherd to me with a rope or leash if the pup isn't ready to go back in the crate. That way, if a mistake happens, I'm there to witness it and make corrections immediately.

In making corrections and letting the pup know it did something wrong, you have about a 3 second window of opportunity (at most 5 seconds). If you don't catch the dog in action within that time frame, it is a useless confrontation to correct him. I personally don't think it matters if the dog sees you clean it up or not. The time for the consequence to sink in for unwanted behavior is past. Any frustration you have in cleaning it up with the dog watching or not watching is wasted energy. The dog may pick up on your frustration but still won't know it's something they did to cause it.

If you want the quickest potty training success, then set the dog up for success instead of failure by never letting it loose without supervision until potty training is learned.

[lv4dogs]

Originally posted by Dixieland Dancer
I have a little different take on things.....

First.... why does a dog who is not house trained have run in the house without someone watching it? A pup that is in house training mode in my house NEVER is left unattended. If you are crate training then the dog is immediately taken outside (pick it up if you have too) to potty. Once it potties outside then it is brought inside to play (supervised). If the pup is inside and I'm busy doing something else then it is tetherd to me with a rope or leash if the pup isn't ready to go back in the crate. That way, if a mistake happens, I'm there to witness it and make corrections immediately.

From what I gather from all of her posts I don't think she lets the pup have full run of the house. But sometimes all it takes is one blink of the eye.
I don't let Kaige have full run of the house when I'm not there to supervise, and do watch him closely but sometimes, like if the phone rings or some one knocks on the door, whatever, you may go a minute without looking at the pup.

Different people have different views and I won't tie Kaige to me. It's just a personal thing, I figure as good of an eye that I keep on him it doesn't really matter. Because even if I did tie him to me there would still be that second that I answer the phone or whatever and I look up instead of down at him & he goes potty. He doesn't do that but I'm just saying that its possible... knock on wood not one accident in 3 weeks!

[lv4dogs]

Originally posted by Dixieland Dancer
I have a little different take on things.....

I personally don't think it matters if the dog sees you clean it up or not. The time for the consequence to sink in for unwanted behavior is past. Any frustration you have in cleaning it up with the dog watching or not watching is wasted energy. The dog may pick up on your frustration but still won't know it's something they did to cause it.

Its good that people have diferent views. Because some tactics won't work on some dogs (or people) while others will. If everyone was the same this world would be a boring place and no one would elarn anything. lol

Don't get me wrong I believe in the 3 second rule. I don't ever punish my dogs unless I catch them in the act, which is less than 3 seconds.
But I also personally think that dogs are smarter than we think. You can see it in their eyes.

[JenBKR]

Originally posted by lv4dogs
But I also personally think that dogs are smarter than we think. You can see it in their eyes.

I completely agree. When I got home both times Roscoe peed on the carpet, he wouldn't even look at me. He KNEW he did something wrong :rolleyes: The worst part is, he practically invented the 'big brown puppy dog eyes' so I have a hard time punishing him even if I catch him doing something wrong ;)

[Sky57]

Originally posted by Dixieland Dancer
I have a little different take on things.....

First.... why does a dog who is not house trained have run in the house without someone watching it? A pup that is in house training mode in my house NEVER is left unattended. If you are crate training then the dog is immediately taken outside (pick it up if you have too) to potty. Once it potties outside then it is brought inside to play (supervised). If the pup is inside and I'm busy doing something else then it is tetherd to me with a rope or leash if the pup isn't ready to go back in the crate. That way, if a mistake happens, I'm there to witness it and make corrections immediately.

In making corrections and letting the pup know it did something wrong, you have about a 3 second window of opportunity (at most 5 seconds). If you don't catch the dog in action within that time frame, it is a useless confrontation to correct him. I personally don't think it matters if the dog sees you clean it up or not. The time for the consequence to sink in for unwanted behavior is past. Any frustration you have in cleaning it up with the dog watching or not watching is wasted energy. The dog may pick up on your frustration but still won't know it's something they did to cause it.

If you want the quickest potty training success, then set the dog up for success instead of failure by never letting it loose without supervision until potty training is learned.

You have made an assumption here, that a puppy that is not house trained has run in the house without someone watching it. This is certainly not true in any sense. But unless I am literally eyeballing her every second (which is not possible) then a pee is so very easy to miss as diligent as I am.

Thanks everyone for your replies. I am following your advice and things are goign really well. I don't think anything goes perfectly, and it seems all is well so far....and its huge thanks to your help and your assurances .

[Dixieland Dancer]

Originally posted by Sky57
You have made an assumption here, that a puppy that is not house trained has run in the house without someone watching it. This is certainly not true in any sense.

Unfortunately, that is the barrier of talking online and not face to face. Good luck in your house training endeavors. :)

[dab_20]

NEVER spank or hit your puppy for any reason. if you do- even once- she will try and hide when she goes potty in the house, and it makes it so much harder to train him/her. because then she/he thinks that you think it is very bad to go potty. if you catch him/her in the act say NO! and take the pup outside. when he/she goes, praise. clean the pee up right away with cleaner, so the puppy won't go in the same spot. i finally got my pup potty trained when she was 10 months old, and now she is a year. she occasionally makes mistakes, but is very good about it. anyways- Good Luck!

[K9soul]

This is just my personal opinion on the cleaning it up thing, as I've heard about the "never clean it in front of your dog" rule too. I personally don't think that a dog can reason like that and make a connection that you cleaning it up means he can go anywhere he wants and you will clean it up again (especially a young puppy). That would mean that they are seeing something happen once and making an assumption about it happening again in the future. While I feel dogs' minds are much more complex than many realize, I don't think they make these kinds of deductions. I think it's all really just a matter of forming the right habits and routines.

I do think that they might be able to pick up on emotions when you are cleaning it though. If you are annoyed (even if at yourself for not catching it) or if you are disgusted, I think the pup can pick up on this and there can be some confusion. So I certainly don't think it hurts to have the pup somewhere else when you clean it, but I also don't think that if he sees you cleaning it he will reason out that he can just go again.

[Sky57]

Originally posted by Dixieland Dancer
Unfortunately, that is the barrier of talking online and not face to face. Good luck in your house training endeavors. :)

Thanks :) Toilet Training is so hard. I just wish she could have run of the house - I feel like she is always restricted.

I heard vinegar is supposed to be good for cleaning away the smell of pee. What about for poos?