13 Housetraining
Description
This article is from the Your New Puppy FAQ, by Cindy Tittle Moore with numerous contributions by others.
13 Housetraining
If the dog makes a mess in the house - slap YOURSELF. You didn't do
your job, and that's in no way the dog's fault. You let him down.
If you can't keep supervise him without help, tether him to you.
That way he can't "wander off".
--Mary Healy
The idea is to take advantage of a rule of dog behavior: a dog will
not generally eliminate where it sleeps. Exceptions to this rule are:
* Dogs that are in crates that are too large (so the dog can
eliminate at one end and sleep at the other end).
* Dogs that have lived in small cages in pet stores during critical
phases of development and have had to learn to eliminate in the
cage.
* Dogs that have blankets or other soft, absorbent items in the
crate with them.
* Dogs that are left for too long in the crate and cannot hold it
any longer.
If the crate is too big (because you got an adult size one), you can
partition the crate off with pegboard wired to the sides to make the
crate the correct size, and move it back as your puppy grows. RC
Steele also sells crate dividers.
To house train a dog using a crate, establish a schedule where the dog
is either outside or in its crate when it feels the need to eliminate.
Using a mild correction (saying "No" in a firm, even tone) when the
dog eliminates inside and exuberant, wild praise when the dog
eliminates outside will eventually teach the dog that it is better to
go outside than in. Some owners correct more severely inside, but this
is extremely detrimental to the character of puppies. To make the dog
notice the difference between eliminating inside and outside, you must
praise more outside rather than correcting more inside.
The crate is crucial because the dog will "hold it" while in the
crate, so it is likely to have to eliminate when it is taken out.
Since you know when your dog has to eliminate, you take it out and it
eliminates immediately, and is praised immediately. Doing this
consistently is ideal reinforcement for the behavior of going out to
eliminate. In addition, the dog is always supervised in the house, so
the dog is always corrected for eliminating indoors. This strengthens
the inhibition against eliminating inside.
In general, consistency is MUCH more important than severe corrections
when training a dog. Before a dog understands what you want, severe
corrections are not useful and can be quite DETRIMENTAL. Crating
allows the owner to have total control over the dog in order to
achieve consistency. Hopefully, this will prevent the need (and the
desire) to use more severe corrections.
Housetraining is relatively simple with puppies. The most important
thing to understand is that it takes time. Young puppies cannot wait
to go to the bathroom. When they have to go, they have to go NOW.
Therefore, until they are about four or five months old, you can only
encourage good behavior and try to prevent bad behavior. This is
accomplished by the following regime.
* First rule of housetraining: puppies have to go to the bathroom
immediately upon waking up.
* Second rule of housetraining: puppies have to go to the bathroom
immediately after eating.
With these two rules goes the indisputable fact that until a puppy is
housetrained, you MUST confine them or watch them to prevent
accidents.
This means that the puppy should have a place to sleep where it cannot
get out. Understand that a puppy cannot go all night without
eliminating, so when it cries in the night, you must get up and take
it out and wait until it goes. Then enthusiastically praise it and put
it back to bed. In the morning, take it out again and let it do its
stuff and praise it. After it is fed and after it wakes up at any
point, take it out to eliminate.
Make it aware that this is not play time, but understand that puppies
get pretty excited about things like grass and snails and leaves and
forget what they came outside to do! Use the same spot each time if
you can, the smell will help the puppy remember what it is to do,
especially after 12 weeks of age.
To make life easier for you later on, use a key phrase just when the
puppy starts to eliminate. Try "hurry up," "do it," or some similar
phrase (pick one and use it). The puppy will begin to eliminate on
command, and this can be especially useful later, such as making sure
the dog eliminates before a car ride or a walk in the park.
Don't let the puppy loose in the house unless it has just gone
outside, and/or you are watching it extremely closely for signs that
it has to go. The key to housetraining is preventing accidents. If no
accidents occur (ha!), then the dog never learns it has an option
other than going outside. When you are at home, rather than leave the
pup in the crate, you can "tether" the puppy to you -- use a six foot
long leash and tie it to your belt. That way he can't get out of your
site in the house and go in the wrong place.
For an idea of what this can involve, here is a hypothetical
situation, assuming that you work and it takes you about 1/2 hour to
get home from work:
* 03:00 Let dog out, go to bathroom, return to crate
* 07:00 Let dog out, go to bathroom
* 07:15 Feed dog in crate, leave dog in crate
* 08:00 Let dog out, go to bathroom, return to crate
* 08:15 Owner goes to work
* 11:30 Owner returns, lets dog out
* 11:45 return dog to crate, owner returns to work
* 17:00 Owner returns, lets dog out, go to bathroom, play (use
tether if necessary)
* 19:00 Feed dog in crate, leave in crate
* 19:45 Let dog out, go to bathroom, play
* 23:00 Let dog out, put dog in crate, go to bed.
For a comprehensive discussion on housetraining dogs, see
Evans, Job Michael. The Evan's Guide for Housetraining Your Dog. ISBN:
0-87605-542-0.
Evans was a monk at New Skete for some years. He discusses all
aspects of housetraining puppies and dogs, giving many constructive
solutions for all kinds of specific problems.
Benjamin's Mother Knows Best discusses paper training in more detail
than is covered here.
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