House training HOW TO

[RedyreRotties]

Copyright 2005/2006 Rebekah L Pless. Free for use by anyone as long as author credit remains intact...


House Training

House training your dog is simple if you follow a few basic rules.

1) The puppy must have NO time unsupervised in your home. NONE.
If you are not directly watching the puppy, it should be in the
crate, or outside in a safe area. You MUST watch the puppy at ALL
times when loose in the house. Use baby gates, crates, or tie the
leash to your belt.

2) The puppy should sleep inside the crate by your bedside.
This way you can hear if the puppy should happen to need to go out
during the night.

3) You must go WITH the puppy outside for ALL trips for
elimination. You must have treats with you. When the puppy is
urinating, say "GO PEE PEE" in a nice praise tone of voice the entire
time. When she is finished, pop the treat into her mouth at once, and
praise praise praise. This should be something she gets at no other
time, like tiny pieces of string cheese or boiled chicken. Same for
defecation. Say "GO POOP" while she is going, and food reward and
praise afterwards. You must observe and reward ALL outdoor potty time.

4) Keep a schedule. Feed at the same time, and walk outside at
the same times. Your pup needs at least 4 trips outdoors each day,
and 5 is probably better. Pup needs to go out at wake up time, lunch
time, 4-5 PM, after dinner or any other meals, and before bed.

5) Use a key word each time you go out. I say "Let's go out!!"
in a happy tone of voice each time I'm opening the door to go out with the dog.

6) If you catch the puppy IN THE ACT of eliminating in your
house, CLAP YOUR HANDS, say AH AH, OUTSIDE!! And immediately rush her
outside. If she finishes there, do your usual food reward and praise.

The keys to getting your dog reliably housetrained are:

SUPERVISION: NO loose time in the house if you are not watching

REWARDS: ALL outdoor elimination MUST be observed
and rewarded. If you only do this ONE thing, your puppy will get housetrained.

PATIENCE: Anger and punishment have no place in dog
training. Elimination is a natural and pleasurable experience for
your dog. You can teach her to not soil your house, but punishment
will NOT help. It will only teach the dog to hide when she needs to eliminate.

If you have applied these techniques carefully for 4 weeks and you are still finding spots or piles after the fact, it's time for stronger measures. Roll up a newspaper and fasten both ends with a rubber band. Keep it handy. The very next time you find a spot of a pile that the dog has left behind, whip out that newspaper, and hit YOURSELF over the head firmly several times as you repeat "I FORGOT TO WATCH MY PUPPY".

Works every time.

[mruffruff]

Absolutely right! Best instructions I've seen.

Especially the newspaper

[IRescue452]

Too bad nobody actually follows the supervision at all times rule. The world would have less abandoned dogs. And its so easy to crate when you can't supervise, even if you aren't going anywhere and you just want a little time to watch tv without puppy. I never made Autumn sleep in her crate though, she slept on my bed from day 1. Never had an accident though because I'd wake up if she started to wiggle.

[RedyreRotties]

IRescue, it really is too bad people don't realize how important constant supervision is for a puppy growing up in your household.

I supervise EVERY MOMENT a puppy is loose in my house until they are at LEAST a year old.

Yep, you read that right.

A YEAR old.

In this way you gain ALL the opportunities to gently discourage unwanted behaviors, and strongly reward and encourage all desireable behaviors.

I teach puppies they are not allowed to look up at stovetops, countertops, table tops. I teach puppies to stay OUT of the bathroom. (nothing in there that's any of their business). They are not allowed in the kitchen unless I"m in there. I redirect to the toy box to teach good chewing habits.

By 18 months of age, every dog I've ever raised is completely reliable in the house whether we are home or not.

The ONLY way to get there is to supervise, and crate or otherwise safely confine the dog at ALL TIMES when you are not paying attention to them.

This avoids destructive chewing (which WILL snowball and build on itself), house soiling, counter surfing, etc etc etc etc.

Supervision is SO KEY, and people would avoid the vast majority of issues with their puppies if they would only carefully supervise, and get in puppy class EARLY!!!

[Love That Collie]

Too bad nobody actually follows the supervision at all times rule. The world would have less abandoned dogs. And its so easy to crate when you can't supervise, even if you aren't going anywhere and you just want a little time to watch tv without puppy. I never made Autumn sleep in her crate though, she slept on my bed from day 1. Never had an accident though because I'd wake up if she started to wiggle.

I agree wholeheartedly I have never (so far) had a problem housetraining.
I always have crate trained too, absolutely love them. Although Bailey doesn't sleep in one any longer, he did until he could be trusted. He only had 7 accidents in the house (pee only) and I did catch him every time because I never let him out of my sight (heck I think I spent a full 3 weeks sitting at the kitchen table) When I couldn't watch him, in the crate he'd go for rest time. I also feed at the same times of day and took up his water at a certain time in the evening and he never had to go out in the middle of the night. He was completely housetrained by 13 or 14 weeks. Now, Timmie was a different story all together, I think he was born housetrained, asked to go out from day one, but that might be one in a million lol! They are large breed dogs (Timmie passed away in Dec 2004 at age 12) so that might make a difference as opposed to small or toy dogs, I don't know, I've never owned a small or toy breed dog.

But watching a puppy at all times when out of the crate is a big key to successfull housetraining that has worked for me time and time again.

Very good instructions Redyre

[MajesticCollies]

Looks like all of you have pretty much summed it up. The only thing I can add is when you start out always confine the puppy to the room closest to the door you want them to use to go outside. After that room is mastered open up the next adjoining room and gate that off so he has two rooms to learn from, and so on. Oh, and a definate yes to the constant supervision!!!!

[IRescue452]

Ooo I forgot an extra tip. Bell training. You can tie a large jingle bell or cow bell on a string to the doorknob and have the puppy nose it or paw it when you take them outside. As soon as the bell makes an audible noise, praise the puppy and take it outside. Soon they will ring when they want to go out. You can also buy a doorbell with a stepping pad specially for dogs, or rig a button for the doorbell to be at paw level.