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Housebreaking Puppies
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Published: October 3, 2006
Bringing a new puppy into your family is similar to bringing in a new baby in one respect: your life is no longer your own for the immediate future.
With one, you are getting up at all hours of the night for feedings. With the other, you are committing to the time and self-discipline needed for housebreaking puppies.
Sometimes, housebreaking puppies involves owners getting up out of bed at all hours of the night.
Many dog training experts feel housebreaking puppies is easiest if a crate is used for sleeping as well as to house the puppy during unsupervised time periods. Experts theorize dogs will refrain from soiling where they eat and sleep.
If a crate is not used, a small confined area of a room, such as the bathroom, can work when housebreaking puppies. Use a child gate to keep the puppy in the room rather than a closed door. Isolating the puppy behind a closed door – or in a room away from rest of the family – will increase its anxiety. If left isolated, housebreaking puppies becomes a more difficult task.
In either case, the confinement area should be small. Cover a portion of the area with newspapers so clean-up is easier if the puppy goes before you can get him outside.
Remember, the key to housebreaking puppies is that pups up to five months old do not have the muscle control needed to "hold it" once the urge to eliminate waste hits them. Therefore, the owner needs to get a puppy outside almost immediately after waking up, eating or drinking, and exercising or playing. This is the first step in housebreaking puppies. It allows the puppy to start associating "outside" with "business."
Vicki deGruy, who writes for the online magazine Dog Owner's Guide, suggests carrying the puppy out of the crate rather than letting it walk outside on its own. Remember, walking is exercise, exercise can trigger that elimination urge and, well, you can take it from there.
"You want the puppy to feel grass under his feet when he goes to the bathroom, not your carpeting!" deGruy writes in her article, "A Guide to Happy Housetraining."
Stay outside with your puppy until it has a bowel movement or urinates. Then praise it to high heaven for doing such a wonderful job! Treats certainly are appropriate for such an amazing achievement, too. Praise and its corresponding reward are the second key elements in housebreaking puppies. Praise reinforces the puppy’s inclination that it is good to eliminate outside.
However, anyone experienced with housebreaking puppies knows there is no such thing as a 100 percent success rate. The puppy's owner certainly has more to do than be on potty-patrol all day, and the puppy might go in his crate or area before he can be taken outside. What does the smart owner do when this happens?
For starters, smart owners do not push the puppy's nose into the mess, or hit it with a newspaper, or punish the puppy. This will only make the puppy associate a natural function with punishment, which defeats the entire purpose of housebreaking puppies. If the owner catches the puppy "in the act," he should shout a firm and loud "No!" and then get the puppy outside as quickly as possible in case there is more coming.
Some trainers theorize interrupting the puppy in mid-act might cause psychological problems. (After all, how would you feel if you kept being interrupted?) However, most seem to think, when housebreaking puppies, it is better to get the puppy to finish up outdoors, and then offer praise to reinforce the preferred behavior.
All an owner can do afterward is clean up the mess inside and make a point of checking on the puppy more often until the pup starts making the connection.
If an owner or someone else cannot be available all day for proper housebreaking, paper-training is the only logical alternative. The important thing is for the puppy to learn there is a certain place for him to go when he has to relieve himself, whether it is outside or in a papered area in the basement. It is cruel and frustrating for a puppy to be expected to "hold it" for up to 10 or 12 hours at a time. The puppy will wind up relieving himself out of desperation, which is the opposite of what you want when housebreaking puppies.
With repetition, consistent praise, proper scheduling and ample patience, housebreaking puppies can usually be accomplished in a matter of a few weeks. (Although, granted, it may seem like it is taking forever at the time!) The owner’s reward is what every puppy lover dreams of---a puppy free to explore and share the house with the family that will not leave its "calling card" in inappropriate places
With one, you are getting up at all hours of the night for feedings. With the other, you are committing to the time and self-discipline needed for housebreaking puppies.
Sometimes, housebreaking puppies involves owners getting up out of bed at all hours of the night.
Many dog training experts feel housebreaking puppies is easiest if a crate is used for sleeping as well as to house the puppy during unsupervised time periods. Experts theorize dogs will refrain from soiling where they eat and sleep.
If a crate is not used, a small confined area of a room, such as the bathroom, can work when housebreaking puppies. Use a child gate to keep the puppy in the room rather than a closed door. Isolating the puppy behind a closed door – or in a room away from rest of the family – will increase its anxiety. If left isolated, housebreaking puppies becomes a more difficult task.
In either case, the confinement area should be small. Cover a portion of the area with newspapers so clean-up is easier if the puppy goes before you can get him outside.
Remember, the key to housebreaking puppies is that pups up to five months old do not have the muscle control needed to "hold it" once the urge to eliminate waste hits them. Therefore, the owner needs to get a puppy outside almost immediately after waking up, eating or drinking, and exercising or playing. This is the first step in housebreaking puppies. It allows the puppy to start associating "outside" with "business."
Vicki deGruy, who writes for the online magazine Dog Owner's Guide, suggests carrying the puppy out of the crate rather than letting it walk outside on its own. Remember, walking is exercise, exercise can trigger that elimination urge and, well, you can take it from there.
"You want the puppy to feel grass under his feet when he goes to the bathroom, not your carpeting!" deGruy writes in her article, "A Guide to Happy Housetraining."
Stay outside with your puppy until it has a bowel movement or urinates. Then praise it to high heaven for doing such a wonderful job! Treats certainly are appropriate for such an amazing achievement, too. Praise and its corresponding reward are the second key elements in housebreaking puppies. Praise reinforces the puppy’s inclination that it is good to eliminate outside.
However, anyone experienced with housebreaking puppies knows there is no such thing as a 100 percent success rate. The puppy's owner certainly has more to do than be on potty-patrol all day, and the puppy might go in his crate or area before he can be taken outside. What does the smart owner do when this happens?
For starters, smart owners do not push the puppy's nose into the mess, or hit it with a newspaper, or punish the puppy. This will only make the puppy associate a natural function with punishment, which defeats the entire purpose of housebreaking puppies. If the owner catches the puppy "in the act," he should shout a firm and loud "No!" and then get the puppy outside as quickly as possible in case there is more coming.
Some trainers theorize interrupting the puppy in mid-act might cause psychological problems. (After all, how would you feel if you kept being interrupted?) However, most seem to think, when housebreaking puppies, it is better to get the puppy to finish up outdoors, and then offer praise to reinforce the preferred behavior.
All an owner can do afterward is clean up the mess inside and make a point of checking on the puppy more often until the pup starts making the connection.
If an owner or someone else cannot be available all day for proper housebreaking, paper-training is the only logical alternative. The important thing is for the puppy to learn there is a certain place for him to go when he has to relieve himself, whether it is outside or in a papered area in the basement. It is cruel and frustrating for a puppy to be expected to "hold it" for up to 10 or 12 hours at a time. The puppy will wind up relieving himself out of desperation, which is the opposite of what you want when housebreaking puppies.
With repetition, consistent praise, proper scheduling and ample patience, housebreaking puppies can usually be accomplished in a matter of a few weeks. (Although, granted, it may seem like it is taking forever at the time!) The owner’s reward is what every puppy lover dreams of---a puppy free to explore and share the house with the family that will not leave its "calling card" in inappropriate places
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