honor their need to feel safe

t r a i n i n g Puppy House Training 101

Sally Bradbury discusses house training a puppy, highlighting the importance of clear and consistent messaging to set up pups for optimal success

House training is all about creating good habits. Young pups have house, it is because you haven’t house trained him yet and didn’t take very small bladders and very little bladder control, so they need him outside when he needed to go. When this happens, take a rolled up to be in the right place when nature calls. To house train success newspaper and hit yourself over the head while repeating the words, “I fully in as short a time as possible you must take your puppy outside as forgot to watch my puppy. I forgot to watch my puppy.” Just kidding! But follows: if your puppy laughs at you when you do this – praise him. • • When he wakes. After eating. Avoiding Errors • After taking a drink. Common mistakes made during house training include: • Before, during and after a period of activity. • Using newspaper or puppy training pads. While these may aid • When you arrive home. the clearing up process, it can be very confusing for the pup who • Before you go out. is taught or permitted to eliminate in the house to make the • Before bedtime. transition to going outside. This will often result in a pup that, • During breaks in TV shows. when playing in the yard, will simply hold on until he is back in• And every 20 to 30 minutes in between unless he is asleep. doors because that’s where the bathroom is. During periods of activity, change that to every 10 to 20 • Leaving the door open. This does minutes. nothing to teach the pup to eliminate outside only. Learning • Reprimands for eliminating in Once you’re outside, stay there with your pup. Don’t nag or the house risk the result of a dog distract him. Just mooch about and he who believes you disapprove of will do the same. Eventually he’ll what he did, not **where ** he did eliminate. Quiet praise is sufficient. it, and are damaging to your relationship

Once pup has with your pup. eliminated you • Giving treats for eliminating in the can either stay garden. Again, the dog is being reout and play or warded for what he did, not where he go back in did it. While this is not going to be as big a doors. If problem as any kind of reprimand, a smart you stay dog may learn to do lots of little pees and outside for never fully empty his bladder. a game, The insecure dog, meanthen he will often while, may urinate indoors need to go again be © Can Stock Photo / WitthayaP to appease you if you get fore you go back inside, cross about something else, so stop the game and stay out for a Creating good habits and sticking to them is essential in the successful house training of a puppy and this includes taking him outside when he has just woken up because he knows this is something he gets rewarded while longer to give for. Note: Using both repri‐him the chance to go again. mands and rewards is very confusing for your pup.

If puppy doesn't eliminate outside when you’ve been there for a • Expecting your pup to tell you when he needs to go out. Once a few minutes, take him back in and sit him on your lap or tuck him under pup understands that outside is where the bathroom is, he may your arm (small breeds only) as you go about your chores, then try start to let you know he needs to go out. However, if you are not again in five minutes. It’s imperative that you do this, especially if you there to ask or you fail to notice him asking, then the house have started off with newspaper or puppy pads on the floor, because training will break down. It is far better to have a dog go outside the puppy may prefer to urinate indoors and could simply be waiting to to the bathroom on your schedule once he is house trained. be taken back in. • Giving your pup an ensuite in his crate (if you use one). Do not

Give the puppy zero opportunity to go wrong. If he eliminates in the encourage your pup to eliminate in his crate by putting in puppy pads. If you have to leave puppy for a while and he is likely to Give the puppy zero opportunity to go wrong. If need to go to the bathroom, then, in my opinion, it’s best to have the crate inside a larger pen or blockedoff area and leave he eliminates in the house, it is because you the crate door open, so he can get away from his bed to elimihaven’t house trained him yet and didn’t take nate. him outside when he needed to go. General Note: Areas indoors where pup has had an accident are best cleaned with a dilute solution of biological washing powder. Avoid using

disinfectant as this contains ammonia (also contained in urine) and can encourage pup to urinate there again due to the smell.

No puppy is going to be reliably house trained under about 78 months old, in my experience. That doesn't mean you have to have accidents in the house. Rather that the pup is in training and, if there are accidents, it is human error.

Overnight

Young pups will need to go to the bathroom once or twice in the night for anything from a few days to a few weeks when in training.

If your pup is sleeping in a crate in the bedroom with you, he will wake up and most likely will let you know he needs the bathroom. Get up as quickly as you can, carry him outside to eliminate and take him straight back to bed again. A few nights of this and it will start taking you longer to find your slippers because of sleep deprivation! Consequently, pup is learning to hold on for longer and will soon be sleeping all night. If you choose to leave puppy in the kitchen or utility room to sleep, then do not shut him in a crate. Simply clean up in the morning without comment.

Mixed Messages

In case you have clients who wonder why punishment does not work for house training, here are the reasons.

Let’s take a typical morning in the life of an 8weekold pup:

What we think we are teaching the puppy is that it is good to urinate in the yard and wrong to urinate in the house. What the pup is actually learning, however, is that sometimes it is rewarding to urinate when his guardian is present and sometimes it is dangerous. And that it is always safe to urinate when the guardian is not present and that, so far, the safest place is under the dining room table.

Note: Never deny your dog water in the mistaken belief that this will aid house training. It won't. It will make the urine stronger. It may also impact on your dog's health, i.e. cause kidney problems or urinary tract infections if the dog drinks greedily and excessively when water is avail‐able, knowing it will be taken away. Dogs must have clean, fresh water available all of the time. n

Sally Bradbury has worked with dogs all her adult life, from RSPCA kennel maid in her teens to founding and running her own very successful dog training business for 20 years. She was also a founding member of the APDT (United Kingdom). Her passion is helping and supporting new puppy guardians raise their puppies to avoid the many pitfalls that result in so many youngsters being handed into rescues in their first year. She is now retired and living in Wales and has recently published the children’s book, Jack and Billy: Puppy

Tales, featuring two puppies who experience vastly different journeys in their new homes.