Housebreaking Your Puppy
Housebreaking does not have to be heartbreaking. Dogs are den
animals and
creatures of habit. They have a natural desire to keep the area
where they eat and
sleep clean. You want to use this to your advantage.
Begin by not leaving the puppy alone in a room with papers for him to soil.
Particularly if it's an isolated area of the house, the laundry room
or the
basement, that's not regularly cleaned up. Otherwise, the message your
dog receives
is that it's okay to soil in the house. If it weren't, why would
you leave the mess
there?
The best thing you can do for your puppy and yourself is to clean up quickly.
Wash the area, every time, with vinegar and water or a good spot
cleaner such as Outright Simple Solution.
If the accident is on your rug, clean the spot with white vinegar.
The solution
or the vinegar will neutralize the odor that causes your dog to keep
returning to the
the same spot. Cleanliness is one of the ways you'll get through
to your dog
without yelling or hitting.
Housebreaking With A Crate
Crating your pup is the easiest and fastest solution to deal with puppy
housebreaking.
Knowing your puppy would prefer to stay in a clean, dry area; he
wants to
keep his "little den" (or crate) clean. Housebreaking a puppy (or
a grown dog)
with the use of a wire crate simply means taking the above information
and developing a housebreaking routine. Once he catches on,
he'll need a
little bit of time until this habit is established. He'll
get progressively longer and
longer periods of freedom before he is again confined in the crate. Eventually
he
will be reliable enough to have run of the house.
For housebreaking purposes, the crate should be the size of the puppy.
If it is larger
than his reclining body, he can go to one end and eliminate and go to
the other end and lie
down. Since one end is pretty close to the other, he'll end up walking
and sleeping in
urine and feces...the exact opposite of what we want.
You can buy a crate that will fit your dog's adult size, but for housebreaking,
make it
smaller with a piece of wood or a wire rack. Only put balls or
chew toys in the crate with
the puppy. No food or water. Avoid large towels, blankets
or paper which
can soak up urine. Many dogs prefer the cold metal surface of the
crate's bottom anyway.
It is a mistake, in an attempt to be kind, to leave food in the crate
for long periods
of time or all day. All other factors aside, this is a very poor
way to housebreak a dog.
Constant eating means constant elimination. Puppies should be fed
on a schedule.
Food should be left down for no more than fifteen minutes.
Unless the weather is hot and you have no air conditioning, you will
not have
to leave water in the crate. If you did, it would create the need
to urinate, possibly
off schedule, since the puppy is young. If you are worried about
leaving no water
in the crate while you are out, leave a couple of ice cubes to melt in
a dish. In this
way your puppy can drink without ingesting huge amounts of liquid.
However, the puppy should have as much water as he likes when he is out
of the crate.
Once he is housebroken, he should always have an ample supply of fresh
water.
Housebreaking Routine
You first need to have the right expectations. A general guideline
is a puppy can wait
one hour for every month they are old. Using that guide a three
month old puppy
can wait three hours. Your young dog can wait no more than a maximum
of eight
hours before going out. If you last let your dog outside at 10:00
PM, your puppy must
be up and out of doors by 6:00 AM.
When you take your puppy outside, you must watch and encourage your puppy
to go.
Praise him when he does, making sure he knows he's a very good dog.
A mistake made
by many is to assume the dog will go when outside. Dogs are easily
distracted by the great outdoors and forget to go. Unfortunately, they
remember to go when they get back inside.
When you're outside with your dog this is a good time to teach him where
he should
go, and also have him learn a command which tells him it's time for him
to
go. He will remember this throughout his adult life. Take
him to the same
location each time you go outside. The remaining smells from his
previous visits quickly
gives him the message of what to do. While at the "spot", gently
repeat a word (such as "potty")
and turn it into a praise once the dog has completed his assignment.
Having
a dog go "potty" on command is very handy.
Allow for some play time outside after he has gone "potty". You don't
want to have him associate going "potty" with immediately going back inside.
Any time your dog is outside and goes "potty" praise him!
If the puppy didn't go "potty" outside, put him right back in the crate
until his next outing.
Returning inside from a successful outing, allow fifteen or twenty
minutes of play in the kitchen (not on the rugs). That is what
the average puppy can
do before needing another outing. But here common sense and watchful
eye is required.
Only you know your own puppy. Puppies will sniff and turn circles
as a signal
they're looking for a spot. Take them outside and have him go "potty".
Put the puppy
back in the crate until his next outing.
When the puppy soils your kitchen,. he's been out of the crate too long,
or not watched closely.
Scold him (BAD DOG!), take him outside, praise him if he goes, return
him
to his crate.
When he does have an accident in the crate, tell him he shouldn't 'potty"
in his crate, take him outside, praise him if he goes outside and return
him to his cleaned up crate. Remember, we want him to hate being
dirty. So never intentionally leave the puppy in the soiled crate or
put him back in a dirty crate.
The puppy is adjusting his behavior when:
- He does indeed empty himself when outside.
- He has no accidents in his crate and the kitchen.
Now you can begin to expand the time he is out playing. Don't
rush. In the case of housebreaking, faster is often slower in the
long run. If he's fine for a week, give him twenty minutes of play
after his walk the next week and maybe thirty minutes at a time the week
after that. After a few months, let him begin to play in the kitchen
for an hour or two at a time. Now you can begin to leave him alone
in the kitchen. You can also start to experiment with short periods
of freedom in other rooms. Prior to this time, he was never in the
position to have an accident unnoticed. Now you can take him exploring
in the rest of the house and begin to give him freedom. Five or ten
minutes of it at a time, in rooms other than the kitchen, both monitored
by you and alone.
If he backslides, even once, he goes back to being confined to fifteen
to twenty minutes
of play in the kitchen for a full week. Then you'll move slowly
toward giving him
the run of the house. One small step at a time. Expect him
to backslide a few times.
Dogs learn a lot from their mistakes if owners help them develop good habits.
