1.    How do you think your training philosophy differs from other dog trainers?

I’m not sure this differs much, but I believe dogs are different from each other. You have to get on the wavelength of the particular dog you’re dealing with. You have to understand the dog, know the dog, and let the dog know you. There aren’t going to be any that are exactly alike so that’s going to affect how you train them.

Always praise what you like first, and try to interrupt what you don’t like with the least amount of correction and no correction if possible – just change him to something else. Watch and get to know him. If you’re going to correct the dog for something, do it just once, not more than once a session. The correction needs to be a surprise. Never cause pain or fear when giving a correction. One good way to surprise a dog is for you to change direction while you’re walking the dog on a leash; you walk fast and turn around and the dog has to follow you. Without a warning, it’s less of a correction. Get to know the dog and evaluate and determine how much warning to give. Maybe you just need to say come on and go and give the verbal intervention, and the dog can avoid the correction by listening to you and responding quickly.

2.    What are the most typical problems you see in housetraining?

Not taking the dog out often enough, not clearing the scent of an accident, and giving punishment. Start out housetraining for a dog of any age by taking the dog outside at least once per hour when you’re home and awake, plus any time you see dog looking for a spot. Then as you get to know the dog and see how often dog needs to go, you may be able to decrease the frequency. But if you’re gone for hours, the dog’s body will have to catch up and he’ll need to go out more often when you’re home.

The only thing that I know of that you can be sure to eliminate odor of accident is a bacterial enzyme odor eliminator product, and you have to use it long enough. If you catch an indoor accident while it‘s still wet, using profuse amounts of undiluted clear vinegar will work, although you will smell vinegar for a couple of days. Punishment does not work and it creates complications; it creates submissive urination, it causes the dog to hide from you when he needs to go. He then won’t show you that he has to go. Dogs don’t understand what they’re being punished for when they go inside. If a dog starts to go inside, hustle him outside, but don’t punish him. If you can get him to finish outside and then praise him, you have victory! Praise is what can get the message across.

3. Adult dogs usually live at the shelter in kennels with cement floors on which they are supposed to do their business. What housetraining issues do these adult dogs tend to have?

The first thing to do with an adult shelter dog is to start with the dog outside before you even set foot in the house for the first time, or right after. Get the dog outside and encourage her to relieve and praise her for it. Do it often, more often than once an hour. Her scent will be out there, and you will reinforce her with praise. Try to rush her outside, and then praise, praise, praise. I think it’s true that some dogs have spent their whole lives outdoors and that may ruin them for housetraining, although it may be more genetic than just the experience. That’s especially true for an adult dog who had a home before going to the shelter. They may already have housetraining that just needs to be refreshed.

4. How do you get puppies off on the right foot for housetraining when they’re first brought home?
There are windows of opportunity to develop good housetraining habits in a puppy. If you fail to housetrain the puppy starting the minute the puppy arrives, it puts the puppy at a disadvantage that will continue to grow. Most dogs are not capable of adequate bowel and bladder control until they are about 4 months old. Complete housetraining is rarely accomplished in a weekend. The first and most important element is a good routine, a regular schedule. Commit to taking your puppy outside at regularly scheduled times so the puppy can count on those opportunities. Don’t let a puppy go without a potty break during the day for longer than the number of hours equaling the pup’s age in months plus one. An 8-week old puppy needs to go at least every three hours. Most people work for a full day, which can make housetraining difficult. Also, keep puppies in small areas, and don’t give them run of the whole house. Do this for any puppy or dog. A dog will use corners of the less frequently used rooms, so close off those areas

5. Toy breeds are notorious for having difficulty housetraining. How can you set them up for success?

If you don’t neuter a tiny male toy breed, you may never be able to housetrain him. You may never be able to leave some dogs alone in the whole house.  It’s ideal to neuter by one year of age. Some small dogs, particularly males, can be more difficult to housetrain because their concept of space is smaller. For a really small dog, the denning area, which they prefer not to soil, is large; for toy breeds even a small area is big enough and considered okay to go outside that area. They don’t feel the need to go far away to potty. A dog will happily use corners of less frequently used rooms, so close off those areas. Get the young puppy outside often, even more than once an hour, and encourage him to relieve and then praise him to the skies for it. Keep the puppy really close to you physically, in a positive way. This is your support to form good relationship with your dog. Housetraining is one of the first things you’ll do together, and you want to be really positive. Some people feel that they have to punish a dog for indoor accidents, but that doesn’t work; you have to teach the dog the right thing to do.
Kathy Diamond Davis is author of the Canine Behavior Series at www.veterinarypartner.com, the client education website of the Veterinary Information Network.

I have an 8 month old yellow Lab. I had him neutered a month ago but he is still marking in house and all over the yard. How do I keep him from peeing in the house? I have tried everything my vet suggested but I am starting to get frustrated by all this peeing inside

ANSWER:

Your pup has two things going on – the residual hormones can take up to three months to leave the body entirely and learned behavior.

In time, the hormone issue will take care of itself so not much can be done there.

Since he was neutered a little late, he hit puberty enough to learn to lift his leg and to mark his territory. Early neutering is effective in negating these behaviors and it is perfectly safe. In fact, early spay and neutering is actually safer in many ways – lowered risk of prostrate cancer, slows growth allowing bones and joints to develop correctly and the dogs actually grow bigger in comparison to their unaltered litter mates. Most vets are still old school and want to wait until the dog has reached puberty before they are ‘fixed’. However, the practice has successfully been used for over twenty years now in progressive pet adoption centers to control the animal over-population and in that time no negative side effects have been reported.

Too late for your pup but hopefully others read this message and talk to their vet about the benefits of the early spay and neuter program.

Okay, off my soapbox.

Learned behavior is a little more difficult as you need to actively train him to un-learn the behavior. There are a couple of methodologies you can use – both negative and positive reinforcement. Negative is the idea of teaching him that his actions are bad – easy stuff. You do have to catch him in the act so when you cannot monitor his behavior, keep him in a crate or a contained area. When you are able to monitor his behavior, carry a spray bottle with you and every time he goes to cock his leg on the furniture, give him a good sharp spray with a stern ’no!’. If the spray bottle has no effect on him, then keep him on a leash and give a sharp correction with the same stern ‘no!’. When out for a walk, keep him on lead and teach him what is appropriate to pee on and what is not. A tree – fine, a bush – fine, a fire hydrant – fine, a fence – not fine, a walkway – not fine, someone’s tire – definitely not fine. Give him a correction and the same sharp ‘no!’. He will learn soon enough.

Positive reinforcement is just as important as negative to keep things balanced and his spirits up. Whenever he pees in an appropriate place, give him the same enthusiastic ‘good boy’ you would have when he was a pup and learning not to pee in the house. Lot’s of praise and excited ‘good boys’! You are lucky that he is a Lab as he wants to please you so he will pick up on the new rules very quickly.

Have fun with him though as anytime you use negative reinforcement it is important to give equal or more praise as dogs can actually get overwhelmed when they are told ‘no’ all the time. Keep it happy and fun!

Enjoy your boy and next time try neutering your pup at four or five months so this problem is never an issue!

Hi I would like to know what is the best way to go about house training by dog.

ANSWER:

Hi Cynthia,

Housetraining – every puppy owner’s favorite past time! And if you believe that, I have a bridge for sale…

Some dogs are easy to housetrain while others seem to take forever and a handful never truly get it quite fully figured out. These are strictly generalizations but small dogs are harder to train, males take longer then females and there are certain breeds that tend to be ‘dirtier’ then others.

The key to housetraining is consistency – make sure your pup’s schedule does not change from day to day and that everyone in the house that has any housetraining duties is performing them exactly the same way.

Puppies have a simple and consistent elimination system:

• They wake up, they have to pee and, if they have been asleep for a while, poop
• They eat, within 15 minutes they will need to poop
• They drink, they will need to go pee within about 5 minutes
• They play, they forget about everything and pee when the action slows down for a second

With this information in mind, and an eagle eye for the signs of them looking for a place to eliminate, you can usually stop an accident before it happens and housetraining becomes easier.

The first trick is to buy a dog crate or kennel and crate the pup at night. Crate training is the dog owner’s salvation – the ability to put your pup some place safe and out of the way when you cannot keep an eye on them makes puppy rearing much more relaxing. We can’t always be 100% attentive to our pups. All it takes is our attention to be diverted for a few minutes and the pup finds something they shouldn’t eat, has had an accident or has wandered off into another room. Crates keep pups safe at night, when we are at work or at times when you are not able to give them the attention they need and it is easiest to crate them for the five minutes you need to complete your task.

For more information on crate training, click here.

With the pup in the crate at night, while you are at work or those odd times where you need a moment to yourself, housetraining will become much easier. As soon as you take them out of the crate, take them immediately outside and I mean immediately! If it is a little or young puppy, pick them up and carry them out – if they have to go badly, they will not wait to get outside before peeing. Once they start to pee, calmly say ‘good puppy, good pee’ or ‘good puppy, good poop’ in a soft voice. You do not want to distract them but it is the beginning of teaching them the word ‘pee’ which they will learn to do on command as they age (let me know if you, or anyone else, would like more information on this).

As soon as they finish eliminating, give them a huge ‘good puppy’ and let them know they are wonderful!

The same goes for after a meal or a big drink of water. Within five minutes of them finishing, get them outside and plan on staying out there until they have done their business – guaranteed it will not be long.

Play sessions are hard to monitor and a busy puppy is like a busy kid – they ignore the initial warnings signs until it is too late and they have to go now! A pup will stop for two seconds and squat just about anywhere before you even have a second to react. So what is the best course of action? Every fifteen to twenty minutes stop the play session and take them outside for a break. This usually works best if you do not take the other pup or kids your pup was playing with as the distraction will make it harder for the pup to do their business. Keep it simple – quick outside and as soon as they finish, big congratulations and back inside for more playing.

The remainder of the time, the pup will give signals that nature is calling – shuffling off on their own, sniffing around and possibly pacing. If you see any these actions, whip them outside and give the usual ‘good puppy!’ when they relieve themselves.

Now you just have to get the kids and husband on board with this plan and you will have a housetrained pup in a matter of weeks versus the more usual months!

The hardest part is not scolding them if they do eliminate inside. Our natural response is to scold them when they have an accident and, if you catch them mid-pee, a stern look and a sharp ‘no’ is fine. However, puppies have a short attention span and unless you catch them in the act, they are not going to know what you are talking about so the correction is useless. And the old training method of showing the pup their mess and scolding them really does not work.

When housetraining pups, it is easier and more productive to praise the positive, not allowing accidents to happen by being diligent and using the crate when you are unable to monitor their behavior. This system works – I have had huge success with this training method with fully housetrained pups within a couple of weeks.