The Good Dog School's Way to Start Your New Puppy Toward Housebreaking
Posted February 2004
First, a little background. A decade in business with some 6300 registered students; An average of 500 phone calls a month (approximately 75,000 over 14 years); 400 emails and 100 faxes per month; coupled with a large dog library of the finest authors on animal behavior, we think we can speak with some level of experience. We presently have 3 dogs. (have had 7) All different ages (15, 5 and 1 year old) All, naturally, have different personalities. We have not had an accident in the house in all that time, even though they are all inside dogs. There are numerous ways to housebreak your dog and if it works (without invoking punishments) then it may be fine. In fact, THE GOOD DOG SCHOOL solicits any positive methods you have to add to this page. But the following is what we tell those that would ask our advice.
First and foremost, it is imperative that you do not allow your dog to establish a bathroom in the house. It is analogous to me coming to your home, where you have several bathrooms and telling you that you cannot use them. You would think I was crazy. Well, same way with the doggie. If the dog establishes a bathroom in the house, they will naturally go back to it. That is why I am so opposed to paper training. This gives the dog the opportunity to go somewhere in the house and in our opinion that is a no-no. Some will confine the puppy to a laundry room, or the kitchen, not realizing that once it is okay to go in the house, they will gravitate toward the carpet (which may seem more like grass as opposed to paper or tile which might seem like outside concrete). It also does no good to strike your animal or shove their nose in it. I always tell my students, that if I was teaching you the computer and you made a mistake and I smack you in the mouth, would that improve your computer skills? Would it ingratiate me to you? Would it make you like the computer? I think not, yet I cannot tell you how many start out that way. I hear weekly people spanking their dog, sometimes even viciously. Your hand should be used for love and never punishment. Otherwise, your dog may never trust you again, and when you go to pet them, they may never be sure if you are going to pet or hit. The first thing is if your dog has an accident, it is imperative to get the scent out of the house. You cannot wash it out, as a dog can smell one part urine in 10,000 parts water. So you will need to go to a pet store and get something that chemically changes the enzymes so it no longer smells like a bathroom. If I remember correctly there are products like 'OUT' or 'OUT-RITE'. Just read the label. If you cannot find the stains, you might try a blacklight, which seems to have the ability to differentiate and to identify the areas where the accidents have occurred. Next, we need to understand that a new puppy can normally hold it for how old they are. 2 months, two hours, three months, three hours, etc. To have a 3 month old puppy trying to hold it for 8 or 10 hours is just asking for hygiene problems. Especially if the pup ends up going to the bathroom where it lives. Something that most pups will try to avoid at all costs. That is why Pet Store Puppies are notoriously harder to housebreak then dogs from a quality breeder. Understanding that a puppy will go to the restroom at predicable times, such as after vigorous play, after eating, after drinking, when the puppy wakes up and/or when the puppy gets nervous. It is also advantageous, that when you plan on getting a new puppy, you allot a couple of weeks to concentrate on the puppy's housebreaking, rather then maintain a work schedule and hope the puppy can hold it. Christmas is the absolutely worse time to purchase a pup. Yet, that is when many, many pups are purchased. This gives rise to commotion, intrusions of family members, hectic schedules etc., with no real time to concentrate on a new life. (By the way, for confining a new pet in the house, we have had great success with a child's playpen. Filled with torn paper and equipped with a plastic bottom, it prevents urine from getting deposited anywhere in the house. Now for the training itself. We recommend that you accompany your dog outside and as your puppy is in the process of relieving itself, you put a word with it. Potty! Bathroom! or whatever. Do this each and everytime and soon your dog will respond to the word, and go on command. Thus avoiding waiting and waiting for your dog to determine to go. Pavlov's theory really does work. When your dog is finished, go bananas, like it is the best thing the dog has every done. By showing your dog how much you are pleased, it will encourage your dog to continue to please you. Additionally, we recommend that you go to a certain part of the yard, so that clean up will be easier. We recommend that you go as far as picking up the dog's 'tootsie rolls' for a short period of time and deposit them in a particular spot in the yard. This way, you or visitors to your home won't have to tight rope walk in your back yard in attempt to avoid feces. Finally, we need to teach our dog to notify us as to their need to go outside. We cannot stress enough, that if you have the availability of a place for a 'doggie-door', you install one. They alleviate a long training period of teaching your dog to notify you. The easiest way we have discovered for a dog to notify you, is to hang a small cow-bell by the exit door, about the level of the dog's nose or paw. Each and every time you go out, take the dog's nose or paw, and in a happy excited voice, say Outside! It shouldn't take longer then 2 weeks for the dog to get the idea. However, if the dog rings the bell and you don't want to be bothered or don't respond, you will soon kill that training. With dogs, it is so very important to be consistent and be on schedule. I hope the above, The Good Dog School Of Fort Worth's approach, helps. Below this line, we will place any helpful hints from others, and give them credit for their contribution. Thank you in Advance