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Crate
Training
copyright 1995 - 2002 Bohnenkamp, Perfect Paws
The key to housetraining is to establish a routine that increases the chances that your dog will eliminate in the right place in your presence, so that she can be praised and rewarded; and decreases the chances that your dog will eliminate in the wrong place so that she will not develop bad habits.
It is important that you make provisions for your dog when you are not home. Until your dog is housetrained, she should not be allowed free run of your house. Otherwise, she will develop a habit of leaving piles and puddles anywhere and everywhere. Confine her to a small area such as a kitchen, bathroom or utility room that has water/stain resistant floors. Confinement is NOT crate training.
What
is Crate Training?
Crate training is one of the most efficient and effective ways to
housetrain a dog. Dogs do not like to soil their resting/sleeping quarters if
given adequate opportunity to eliminate elsewhere. Temporarily confining your
dog to a small area strongly inhibits the tendency to urinate and defecate.
However, there is still a far more important aspect of crate training.
If your dog does not eliminate while she is confined, then she will need to eliminate when she is released, i.e., she eliminates when you are present to reward and praise her.
Be sure to understand the difference between temporarily confining your dog to a crate and long term confinement when you are not home. The major purpose of confinement when your are not home is to restrict mistakes to a small protected area. The purpose of crate training is quite the opposite. Short term confinement to a crate is intended to inhibit your dog from eliminating when confined, so that she will want to eliminate when released from confinement and taken to an appropriate area. Crate training also helps teach your dog to have bladder and bowel control. Instead of going whenever she feels like it, she learns to hold it and go at convenient scheduled times.
Crate training should not be abused, otherwise the problem will get drastically worse. The crate is not intended as a place to lock up the dog and forget her for extended periods of time. If your dog soils her crate because you left her there too long, the housetraining process will be set back several weeks, if not months.
Your dog should only be confined to a crate when you are at home. Except at night, give your dog an opportunity to relieve herself every hour. Each time you let her out, put her on leash and immediately take her outside. Once outside, give her about three to five minutes to produce. If she does not eliminate within the allotted time period, simply return her to her crate. If she does perform, then immediately reward her with praise, food treats, affection, play, an extended walk and permission to run around and play in your house for a couple of hours. For young pups, after 45 minutes to an hour, take her to her toilet area again. Never give your dog free run of your home unless you know without a doubt that her bowels and bladder are empty.
During this crate training procedure, keep a diary of when your dog eliminates. If you have her on a regular feeding schedule, she should soon adopt a corresponding elimination schedule. Once you know what time of day she usually needs to eliminate, you can begin taking her out only at those times instead of every hour. After she has eliminated, she can have free, but supervised, run of your house. About one hour before she needs to eliminate (as calculated by your diary) put her in her crate. This will prevent her from going earlier than you had planned. With your consistency and abundance of rewards and praise for eliminating outside, she will become more reliable about holding it until you take her out. Then the amount of time you confine her before her scheduled outing can be reduced and eliminated.
Mistakes
and Accidents
If you ever find an accident in the house, just clean it up. Do not
punish your dog. All this means is that you have given her unsupervised access
to your house too soon. Until she can be trusted, don't give her unsupervised
free run of your house. If mistakes and accidents occur, it is best to go back
to the crate training. You need to more accurately predict when your dog needs
to eliminate and she needs more time to develop bladder and bowel control.
Housetraining
Your Young Puppy
copyright 1995 - 2002 Bohnenkamp, Perfect Paws
What
To Expect
Unless you can monitor your puppy 24 hours a day, don't expect your puppy
to be completely housetrained until he is at least 6 months old. It's normal for
young pups to be little 'input-output' machines. Since they are growing and
developing rapidly at this stage, they eat more food, burn up more energy and
seem to need to eliminate constantly! They also have not yet developed bowel and
bladder control, so they can't 'hold it' as long as adult dogs.
When
You Are Not Home
Confine your puppy to a small, 'puppy-proofed' room and paper the entire
floor. Put his bed, toys and food/water bowls there. At first there will be no
rhyme or reason to where your pup eliminates. He will go every where and any
where. He will also probably play with the papers, chew on them, and drag them
around his little den. Most puppies do this and you just have to live with it.
Don't get upset, just accept it as life with a young puppy. The important thing
is that when you get home, clean up the mess and lay down fresh papers.
Passive
Training
While your puppy is confined, he is developing a habit of eliminating on
paper because no matter where he goes, it will be on paper. As time goes on, he
will start to show a preferred place to do his business. When this place is well
established and the rest of the papers remain clean all day, then gradually
reduce the area that is papered. Start removing the paper that is furthest away
from his chosen location. Eventually you will only need to leave a few sheets
down in that area only. If he ever misses the paper, then you've reduced the
area too soon. Go back to papering a larger area or even the entire room. Once
your pup is reliably going only on the papers you've left, then you can slowly
and gradually move his papers to a location of your choice. Move the papers only
an inch a day. If he misses the paper again, then you're moving too fast. Go
back a few steps and start over. Don't be discouraged if your puppy seems to be
making remarkable progress and then suddenly you have to return to papering the
entire room. This is normal. There will always be minor set-backs. If you stick
with this procedure, your puppy will be paper-trained.
When
You Are Home
When you are home but can't attend to your puppy, follow the same
procedures described above. But the more time you spend with your pup, the
quicker he will be housetrained. Your objective is to take your puppy to his
toilet area every time he needs to eliminate. This should be about once every 45
minutes; just after a play session; just after eating or drinking; and just upon
waking. When he does eliminate in his toilet area, praise and reward him
profusely and enthusiastically! Don't use any type of reprimand or punishment
for mistakes or accidents. Your puppy is too young to understand and it can set
the housetraining process back drastically. Don't allow your puppy freedom
outside of his room unless you know absolutely for sure that his bladder and
bowels are completely empty. When you do let him out, don't let him out of your
sight. It is a good idea to have him on leash when he is exploring your home. He
can't get into trouble if you are attached to the other end of the leash. Every
30 minutes return your pup to his toilet area. As your puppy becomes more
reliable about using his toilet area and his bowel and bladder control develops,
he can begin to spend more time outside his room with you in the rest of your
home. Begin by giving him access to one room at a time. Let him eat, sleep and
play in this room but only when he can be supervised. When you cannot supervise
him, put him back in his room.
Active
Training
The most important thing you can do to make housetraining happen as
quickly as possible is to reward and praise your puppy every time he goes in the
right place. The more times he is rewarded, the quicker he will learn. Therefore
it's important that you spend as much time as possible with your pup and give
him regular and frequent access to his toilet area.
Key
to Success
Consistency and Patience. Never scold or punish your puppy for mistakes
and accidents. The older your pup gets, the more he will be able to control his
bladder and bowels. Eventually your pup will have enough control that he will be
able to "hold it" for longer and longer periods of time. Let your
puppy do this on his own time. When training is rushed, problems usually develop.
Don't forget, most puppies are not reliably housetrained until they are 6 months
old.
Housetraining
Tips for Your New Puppy
by Gwen Bohnenkamp, copyright 1995-2002
Establishing good habits early on in housetraining your puppy is critical. If
you allow your puppy to eliminate everywhere and anywhere he wants in your home,
you will end up with an adult dog who will always have a tendency to want to
eliminate in your home. You will have to live with it forever, or go through
some time-consuming, tedious retraining later on. A dog is either housetrained
or it isn't. There is no such thing as weekly 'accidents.' A truly housetrained
dog will NEVER eliminate in your house unless forced to do so or because of
illness. Don't expect your puppy to be reliably housetrained until it is at
least 6 months old. Your puppy's early toilet habits are critical.
DO
-Provide constant access to the toilet area. If you are home, take your puppy there every 45 minutes.
If you are not home or cannot tend to the puppy, then you must make sure he cannot make a mistake. It's actually not really a mistake because he doesn't know any better. With young puppies, when the urge comes, they go - it usually doesn't matter where they are or what they are doing. If we didn't put diapers on human babies, they too would be soiling our carpets and floors. Confine your puppy to a dog-proofed area and line the entire floor with papers. If the weather is nice, the area safe, etc, you can confine the pup to a small pen outside. Don't leave your pup out in the sun, wind, heat or cold. Be sure to provide shelter and water in the confinement area. It's ideal if the pen is set up on dirt, grass, gravel or concrete. The idea is that no matter where the puppy eliminates while confined, it is on something that resembles his toilet area. Your goal is to never allow your puppy to eliminate on carpet, tile, hardwood, or anything that resembles the flooring in your home. Once a habit is established, it is difficult to break, therefore, do not let your pup form bad habits in the first place.
-Praise and reward your puppy each and every time possible for eliminating in his toilet area. -Feed your puppy at regular times. What goes in on schedule will come out on schedule. -Use a crate to help your puppy develop self control. Confine him for gradually increasing periods of time when you are home to monitor him. -Be patient. It can take until the dog is 6 months old for him to be housetrained.
DON'T
-Do not reprimand your puppy for mistakes. Reprimand has no place in housetraining. -Do not leave food and water out all day and night for your puppy to eat and drink at whim. Use some common sense here. Obviously if the weather is hot, it is appropriate to give the pup access to water, but if this is the case, then you need to be more alert to the possibility of the pup needing to urinate more frequently. -Do not allow your pup to eliminate anywhere other than his toilet area. -Do not give your puppy free unattended run of your house.
Jumping
Up
copyright 1995 - 2002 Bohnenkamp, Perfect Paws
DO
-Gently and repetitively place puppy's feet back on the floor and reward him there. -Be consistent. -Get down to his level to give affection and attention.
DON'T
-Do not allow the pup to jump up. Do not pet, talk, cuddle or reward him for jumping. -Do not give in! Do not allow other people to let him jump on them. -Do not give up!
Puppy
Chewing
copyright 1995 - 2002 Bohnenkamp, Perfect Paws
DO
-Provide several of a variety of toys for your puppy. Teach your puppy to play with these toys. -Praise puppy every time you see him chewing or playing with his toys on his own. -Teach your puppy to get a toy to greet you. Each time your pup runs up to greet you or anyone else, encourage him to find and get a toy. All humans, especially the owners should always be greeted by a dog with toy in mouth. -Any area that the pup has access to must be kept clear and clean. Put out of puppy's reach anything you don't want him to chew or destroy, such as trash, shoes, hazards, etc. Your dog does not know what is valuable or dangerous and what is not. -If you find your puppy with your best shoe in mouth, distract him away from it and replace the shoe with one of his toys. Praise him for chewing his toy. Do not reprimand him for chewing your shoe. Reprimand yourself for leaving it out where he could find it. -Booby traps items and articles to show your puppy that these things are no fun to chew, in fact, they are an annoyance even to touch.
DON'T
-Do not allow unsupervised access to 'unchewables.' -Do not chase the puppy in an attempt to take something away. -Do not reprimand excessively. A verbal warning should be enough. A loud startling noise is even better. It gets the puppy's attention without the puppy associating it with you. As soon as the puppy is distracted, show him what to chew and praise him for chewing it.
Important
Socialization and Puppy Training
Pointers for New Puppy Owners
By Gwen Bohnenkamp, copyright 1995-2002
Do's and Don'ts
Socialization and puppy training is of utmost importance since puppy hood is the most important and critical time for your dog's development. What you do and do not do right now will affect your dog's behavior forever.
Socialization
A properly socialized dog is well adjusted and makes a good companion. It is neither frightened by nor aggressive towards anyone or anything it would normally meet in day to day living. An unsocialzed dog is untrustworthy and an unwanted liability. They often become fear-biters. Often they like to fight with other dogs. They are difficult to train and are generally unpleasant to be around. Unsocialzed dogs cannot adapt to new situations and a simple routine visit to the vet is a nightmare not only for the dog itself, but for everyone involved. Don't let this happen to you and your dog. Start socializing your new puppy NOW! The Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine agrees that the socialization period lasts up to about 12 weeks (3 months) of age. However, at 12 weeks, the puppy must continue socialization to refine its social skills. Socialization most easily occurs before the puppy is 3 months old. Any later than that and it becomes an excruciatingly difficult and time-consuming process that very few owners have the time, energy, money or patience to cope with.
DO
Make sure that each of the following events are pleasant and non-threatening. If your puppy's first experience with something is painful and frightening, you will be defeating your purpose. In fact, you will be creating a phobia that will often last a lifetime. It's better to go too slow and assure your puppy is not frightened or injured than to rush and force your pup to meet new things and people. -Invite friends over to meet your pup. Include men, women, youngsters, oldsters, different ethnic origins, etc. -Invite friendly, healthy, vaccinated dogs, puppies and even cats to your home to meet and play with your new puppy. Take your puppy to the homes of these pets. This usually is preferable with dog-friendly cats. -Carry your pup to shopping centers, parks, school playgrounds, etc; places where there are crowds of people and plenty of activity. Take your puppy for short, frequent rides in the car. Stop the car and let your puppy watch the world go by through the window. -Introduce your puppy to umbrellas, bags, boxes, the vacuum cleaner, etc. Encourage your puppy to explore and investigate his environment. -Get your puppy accustomed to seeing different and unfamiliar objects by creating your own. Set a chair upside down. Lay the trash can (empty) on its side, set up the ironing board right-side up one day and upside down the next day. -Introduce your puppy to new and various sounds. Loud, obnoxious sounds should be introduced from a distance and gradually brought closer. -Accustom your puppy to being brushed, bathed, inspected, having its nails clipped, teeth and ears cleaned and all the routines of grooming and physical examination. Introduce your puppy to stairs, his own collar and leash. Introduce anything and everything you want your puppy to be comfortable with and around.
DON'T
-Do not put your puppy on the ground where unknown animals have access. This is where your puppy can pick up diseases. Wait until your puppy's shots are completed. Do not let your pup socialize with dogs that you don't know, that may not be vaccinated or who appear sick. -Do not reward fearful behavior. In a well meaning attempt to sooth, encourage or calm the puppy when it appears frightened, we often unintentionally reward the behavior. It's normal for the puppy to show some signs of apprehension when confronting anything new and different. -Do not allow the experience to be harmful, painful or excessively frightening. This can cause lifetime phobias in your dog. -Do not force or rush your puppy. Let your puppy take things at his own pace. Your job is to provide the opportunity. -Do not do too much at one time. Young puppies need a lot of sleep and tire quickly. It is much more productive to have frequent and very brief exposures than occasional prolonged exposures. -DO NOT WAIT!! Every day that goes by is an opportunity of a lifetime that is lost forever. You can never get these days back. If socialization does not happen now, it never will.
Pulling
On Leash
copyright 1995 - 2002 Bohnenkamp, Perfect Paws
Train your puppy right now not to pull on leash as this habit is difficult to break in adolescent and adult dogs.
DO
-Use a body harness and teach your puppy to accept it the same way you teach puppy to accept a collar. Check here if your pup is frightened or leary of the collar/harness or leash.
-Use lures and praise to keep her at your side.
-Keep the leash loose at all times. If you see your puppy starting to forge ahead, give a sharp tug on the leash with lightening speed to bring the pup back to your side. Don't wait until the puppy is clear at the other end of the leash, pulling ahead before you take action. The leash should always remain loose except for that one split second it takes to bring the dog back into place. Do not drag your puppy back to your side. Use a quick tug, then immediately release so the leash is slack again. If it doesn't all happen in 3/10ths of a second, it's taking too long and your puppy will not learn to walk nicely on leash. Put another way: Instead of correcting your dog after he is already pulling, do not give him the opportunity to pull. If he never pulls, he will never learn to pull. You must correct him BEFORE he pulls!
-Practice now before your pup learns to pull. Since your pup is unable to walk the streets yet, begin teaching him to walk around your house and yard. He should be taught not to pull before hitting the streets.
DON'T
-Do not let your puppy pull you around.
-If you cannot correct the puppy in time, do not reward his pulling by letting him continue on his way. Just turn around and go the other way, or stop in your tracks and say, "We are not going one inch further until you stop pulling." Then wait, it may take 30 seconds; it may take 20 minutes. Do not move until your puppy is in control. Now you can start over and give the correction before he starts pulling again. If again you are too late in your correction, start again.
-Do not yank and pull on your puppy's throat and neck. Use a soft, adjustable, non- restrictive harness. As soon as your pup learns leash manners, you can switch to a regular collar for walking. Do not leave the harness on your dog unattended. Use it only while you are practicing.
-Never use a
choke collar on a puppy.
Winning
Your Puppy's Trust, Respect and Confidence
by Gwen Bohnenkamp, copyright 1995-2002
Many people try to win their new puppy's love by letting the puppy always have
its way. The pup is showered with affection and attention because he is so cute
and cuddly. Buckets of affection is a wonderful thing for most puppies, but it
must be tempered with respect. If you give in to your puppy's every whim, your
pup will never learn self control and self discipline. Your puppy will never
learn to respect you. If your puppy does not respect you, it will have no reason
to do anything for you. Your relationship will be like two 5 year olds bossing
each other around. Just as a child needs a caring parent; an athletic team needs
a coach; your puppy needs a leader. If you do not take up the role of leader,
your dog will; and you will end up with an unruly, disobedient, out of control,
often aggressive monster of a dog. Most of these dogs end up living a life of
isolation in the back yard because no one can deal with it; or they end up dead
- euthanized at the local animal shelter. They end up at the shelter because
either the owner can't live with the dog anymore, or a member of the public has
filed a complaint against the dog and government officials have taken the dog
away from the owner. DON'T LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU AND YOUR DOG!
Other people have an equally erroneous misconception of this issue. Instead of showering the dog with love and affection, they think that to earn the dog's respect they must bully and terrorize the dog into submission. A dog treated this way will eventually bite their owner. This is not respect. Respect is not something that is forced. It is won. A dog will not respect someone it does not trust.
Submissive
Urination
copyright 1995 - 2002 Bohnenkamp, Perfect Paws
It's normal for dogs to urinate when they want to demonstrate submission. Even a dog that is otherwise housetrained may leave dribbles and puddles of urine at your feet and on the floor when greeting you. Submissive urination is the ultimate show of respect and deference for higher rank. It occurs frequently with young puppies who have not yet learned and perfected other social skills and means of showing respect. Adult dogs that urinate submissively are insecure, often unsocialzed, abused or simply have not been shown that there are more acceptable ways to show respect, such as paw raising (shake hands) or hand licking (give a kiss). Overly sensitive or mistreated dogs submissively urinate because they feel the need to constantly apologize. This state is often caused by excessive or delayed punishment which frightens and confuses the dog without teaching him how to make amends. The dog resorts to the only way he knows to show respect and fear, by urinating.
When your dog urinates in this manner, it is best to just ignore him. If you try to reassure him, he will think you are praising him for urinating and will urinate even more. If you scold him, he will feel an even greater need to apologize by urinating.
Treatment must be directed towards building your dog's confidence and showing him other ways to demonstrate respect. The quickest way to accomplish this is by teaching your dog a few basic obedience exercises. A dog that can earn praise by obeying a simple routine of "Come here, sit, shake hands," will soon develop self esteem and confidence. A confident dog who can say, "Hello, Boss" by sitting and shaking hands does not feel the need to urinate at his owner's feet.
Excitement
Urination
copyright 1995 - 2002 Bohnenkamp, Perfect Paws
Excitement urination usually occurs in puppies and is caused by lack of bladder control. The dog is not aware that he is urinating, and any punishment will only confuse him. Since he does not know why you are angry, the excitement urination will quickly become submissive urination in an attempt to appease you. As your puppy matures and develops bladder control, the problem will usually disappear. However, in the mean time, it is probably a good idea to do something to help keep your puppy dry.
The best treatment for excitement urination is to prevent your dog from becoming overly excited in the first place. You can do this by exposing your dog to the stimulus that excites him, over and over until it no longer excites him. Most likely, your dog gets excited and wets when you return home. If so, simply ignore him for about 10 minutes. Don't even look at him.
Then leave
again for a few minutes, return and ignore, leave, return and ignore. Keep doing
this until you can see that your dog is not only unexcited, but is actually
getting bored with the whole thing. If your dog gets overly excited when
visitors arrive, have them do this too. When your dog has calmed down and is no
longer excited when you come in, then very quietly and gently say hello. If any
signs of excitement appear, quickly exit and repeat the coming-and-going
routine. A rapid sequence of heel-sits will capture your dog's attention and
channel his excitement to the game of heeling and sitting. Remember to ignore
all excitement urination and never scold or get angry at your dog when it
occurs.