House training dogs made simple

October 1st, 2009 at 9:25pm

Many have come to think that housetraining a puppy is essentially bringing around a stack of old newspapers. But contrary to such a limited view, what is also known as housebreaking calls for tons of patience, vigilance, and loyalty likewise to your dog. Keep track of the advice below to reduce house-soiling accidents. Nevertheless, brace yourself for a few violations of your best laid plans. But this is hardly a surprise since it is all part of raising a puppy. In the meantime, the puppy will rely on you to be consistent in implementing basic housetraining procedures that teaches acceptable behavior. Smaller breeds take time to learn, but be assured of the benefits of the training.

Establish A Routine

1) Puppies, just like babies, learn lessons and dog house training in particular when they train according to a regular schedule. In this regard, you will need to take out your puppy often, such as every two hours, or whenever he wakes up, or finishes playing, eating or drinking.

2) Train the puppy to make use of a bathroom spot instead of soiling the house. One way to implement this goal is to choose a spot near the door, and let it be the dog’s bathroom spot. Then bring the soiled rags or paper towels from a recent accident to the bathroom spot. Dogs prefer to eliminate on a spot which contains a scent of their waste. So the smell will help label that spot for your puppy.

3) Lavish praise on your dog, or give a treat each time he eliminates outdoors. Some dog experts even advocate acting like crazy before the dog, so that it is impressed on him that he did well eliminating there. But this positive reinforcement needs to be performed the moment the dog is done eliminating. Giving the reward on time is vital, since by rewarding your dog for eliminating outdoors, he will realize that this is an appropriate behavior.

4) Try feeding the dog on a regular, scheduled basis. Puppies may need to eat around three to four times a day, but it still depends on their age. Feeding your dog on time each day will make it more possible for the dog to eliminate on time as well.

Whatever your housetraining preparations, brace yourself for the odd occasion that the dog commits an error in the house. But stay calm, since accidents beyond your utmost efforts are part of housetraining.

1) It will happen that you will catch the dog eliminating nowhere near the agreed upon spot. What’s to be done? Do something that will interrupt him, like a noise that is meant to startle, but not frighten. Then get the dog to go with you to the bathroom spot, where he will be praised and rewarded if he behaves as you command.

2) Whatever happens, your puppy does not deserve punishment for pooing or peeing in the house. More importantly, if you spot a dirty spot with the dog even just a meter away from it, it is fruitless to give a correction. Clean up the mess, and leave the dog alone. Examples of actions that will make the dog scared and tense of you, or afraid to eliminate in your presence, is to rub his nose in the dirt, take him to the spot and scold him (or any other punishment or discipline). However we insist, animals (and dogs for that matter) cannot understand punishment after the accident or error, even if it’s only seconds later. It is in this context that punishment actually is more of an obstacle than an advantage.

3) Lastly, cleaning the soild area will motivate the dog to stick to the agreed-upon bathroom spot, since he will actually want to eliminate in any spot that bears the scent of his feces or pee.

Take advantage of the supervision and confinement procedures of these housebreaking tips above to bring down accidents and errors at home. Using the procedures will speed up the housetraining process for the dog.