Puppy Toilet Training and More

The topic of housebreaking your new puppy has been repeated many times. Still, many people do not know how to accomplish this. Read on to discover ways to lessen, and eventually stop, the “little presents” your new puppy leaves.

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Bathroom behavior

The way dogs/puppies stand differ between male and female puppies as young as 2 months of age.

Male puppies tend to stand and lean forward during urination, and female puppies squat. Male puppies usually do not begin leg lifting until they are 4 to 6 months old. Females usually continue to use a squatting posture into adulthood.

Puppies start gaining control of their bathroom functions at around several weeks of age. About this time “bathroom visits” will become more regular. However, due to a small bladder puppies will still need to go to the bathroom about 6 times per day. By the time the puppy has reached 8 weeks of age they will have much greater control of when they go. This is also the age that a young puppy will be developing preferences on where they will go. Now is when you should start house training. Read more…

As puppies show signs of progress, they can be taught to signal to go outside. For example, a dog can be taught to nudge a bell hung on a doorknob, sometimes call a “bathroom bell” or “doggie doorbell” with its nose or paw when it needs to go outside. To do this, you should encourage the dog to touch the doorbell and should reward the dog for this accomplishment by opening the door. Repeated encouragement and reward should teach the pet to use the doorbell when it wishes to go outside. Another way to teach a puppy to signal its need to go outside is to question the dog with a key phrase (e.g. “Need to go out?”); the pet’s reaction will indicate whether it needs to or not. And some dogs can be taught to bark to signal the need to go outdoors.

Humans and dogs are social creatures. Both are types of pack animals. Dogs are extremely social creatures with a genuine need to socialize and interact. Because humans have domesticated dogs to what the are now, socialization with other dogs is not sufficient..YOU ARE THE CENTER OF YOUR DOG’S WORLD. She wants and need to spend time with you. Unfortunately, few people can be with their dog 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Life can be busy, some days more so than others. Its often hard to find genuine pleasure preforming basic care-taking of our four-legged friends. The more time becomes shortened, the more responsibility seems like a burden. Added responsibilities and increased demands on our time even start to take away from the joy and quality of what time we do get to spend with our dogs. When things are weighing heavy on your mind, simple everyday joys change from pleasure to headache. A short walk through the park can become another chore, rather than a chance to unwind and spend some time together having fun. Regardless if you like it or not, our lifestyle choices (to a degree) affect our dogs as well as ourselves. A sensitive dog can be so impacted by their owners mindset that they actually become depressed and anxious themselves. More well-adjusted dogs still suffer through isolation also. When time is short and stress is high, it becomes all too easy to overlook something like a walk down the street or a game of fetch. Sadly, we can’t always make as much time for our dogs as we would like to. It doesn’t need a huge amount of energy, or more hours in the day, to spend more time with our dogs. Read on for ways to include our dogs in our lives without spending minutes and hours that we don’t have.

Try bringing her with you.

If you have errands to run, like getting the mail or going to the store for bread, your dog would love to come along for the ride. Even if she has to stay in the car, she will enjoy the change in scenery and smells. Its also a good time to spend some time together, just being in the same place at the same time can help more than you think. If you need to take the kids someplace, or visit a friend, bring your dog along. Then she can spend time with several people as a group.

(NOTE: if you need to leave her in the car for much more than a half-hour alone, it would be better to leave her at home where she has access to water and bathroom)

Allow her in the bedroom with you.

She doesn’t have to be on the bed, a dog bed in the corner or foot of the bed will make her happy. Spending this “down time” together is both undemanding (your going to sleep either way, right?) and helps to increase the bond you share. In the wild, dogs would sleep huddled together with he rest of the pack. Now the wild has become your home and the pack has become you. Dogs are hardwired to be more comfortable when close to others at a vulnerable time such as sleeping. It calms the nerves and promotes togetherness and safety. When you allow your dog into your bed room at night, you are helping to calm your dog and make her feel safe. You really can’t get much easier than that.

Find something you both enjoy, then do it together.

Taking the dog for a walk can quickly become a chore if its boring, the more interested you are the more time you will find for it. Don’t always walk down the same street at the same time everytime, explore a little, have an adventure. Dogs do enjoy revisiting the same places, but also enjoy new ones. Instead of the same old walk down the street everytime, try going to the river, or a park, or a different park, or how about a hiking trail..even just a different street can help.

Learn to multi-task.

Anytime I’m cooking or reading or writing, Max will plop himself down right beside me and stare with wrinkled forehead and slanted eyebrows (the classic puppy dog eyes, you know the look) This used to make me feel horrible. I could almost hear him saying “Why aren’t you playing with me?” “Why does that get your attention and not me?” So now I multi-task to include him. When cooking, I’ll have him practice “Sit” and “Lay” When reading or watching TV, we cuddle. I get to relax and Max gets his tummy rubbed.

Don’t do it all by yourself.

If other people live in the house, it can make things easier on everyone to share the responsibilities. It is also better for your dog, the more interaction with the pack (people she lives with) the better. You can take turns with things such as walking, playtime, feeding. Basically, the more interaction the happier your dog will be. As for children, you will need to decide on a case-by-case basis what interactions they have and don’t have with the dog. As a general rule of thumb, before allowing a child out of doors and unsupervised with a dog, make sure you’re OK with how the dog and the child interact. The dog should know that the child is higher ranking than she is and obey the child’s commands. The child should be comfortable and confident with the dog.

These tips aren’t meant to replace the quality and quantity of time you share with your dog. Think of them more as a supplement to help your dog deal with your “bad days”. Your dog will still need to spend active time with you like playing, training, and general cuddling. But with a little forethought and effort, you can go a long way towards ensuring her emotional and psychological welfare without adding too much to your own workload.

Even though training a puppy can be a challenging process, its ok to step back once in a while and have some fun.  I hope you like the video I found.

I didn’t create this video, only found and posted it.  If this video belongs to you and you would like credit or to have it removed, please email me.

Playfully chewing, biting, and mouthing of you and your clothing is to be expected from puppies, but older dogs that haven’t learned proper bite inhibition may do so as well. It is not only natural, but also instinctual for puppies to chew and nip. To a dog, exploring with their mouth is just as important and normal as your eyes and hands are to you. Please do keep in mind that this is a form of interaction, communication, learning, and play, NOT aggression. I will be going over true aggression, in more detail, in another article. From the time puppies are born, their mouth allows them to explore everything around them. Once they are a few weeks old, puppies begin using their mouth to play. This takes the form of biting and nipping their siblings. Sometimes an adult dog will continue this behavior when playing or during emotional duress. This usually occurs when the dogs owner encourages playing rough, or if the dog was removed from the litter at too young an age. When puppies play with each other, they learn something called “bite inhibition”.

Even after a pup has learned the basic bite inhibition from littermates, they will need further conditioning when interacting with people. This is because the human body is more easily damaged by play bites than dogs. If a dog has no idea about bite inhibition, they can be annoying at best or down right dangerous at worst. A simple, harmless playtime could result in serious pain or even injury. Although a puppy has very sharp teeth, their jaws muscles are too weak to much damage (a rather strong puppy can only bring a few drops of blood). An adult dog however, can inflict much more than a scratch by accident. Now think about it for a second, does it really matter if the dog didn’t mean to it when you are bleeding?

Here is how to help your puppy learn good bite inhibition. (NOTE: this will still work with adult dogs, however you can expect it to take longer.)

To start, you will need to decide how much is acceptable and when it becomes too much. Some people are comfortable with a dog touching their hands with teeth if no pressure is placed on it. Other people prefer no tooth contact at all (this is important with large, strong jawed breeds). Next, as soon as your puppy has “gone too far” let out a loud yelp and turn your entire body away. Walk away a few steps, keeping your face and eyes away from the puppy. Do not speak to him or touch him. You may feel silly doing this, however, the purpose is to socially isolate him for about 15-30 seconds. This is long enough for him to notice, but not long enough for him to forget what he did right before you yelped. If other people will be around, you need to make sure they do the same as you. If they start playing with or giving attention to your puppy during this time it will be for nothing.

Most dogs seem to have a compulsive need to chew on something, and doesn’t really matter what! To keep him from finding out what a nice chew toy your fingers are, provide him with something more appropriate. Rawhide chewies, squeezy rubber toys, and similar are all fine.

If your puppy should start snapping at your face or hands while playing, say “NO!!” in a loud, quick, sharp manner. This will startle him and he should stop. As soon as he stops, give him praise (don’t be confused, your puppy will associate snapping with getting yelled at and not snapping with praise) and redirect his attention to something more appropriate such as a chew to. When he takes the toy, praise him again and give him a quick petting.

Never correct or punish your puppy for chewing or nipping with physical force. In cases such as this, hitting your puppy will only encourage the behavior. (He will think you are playing.) Simply turning away, as above, is highly effective and a humane way of expressing displeasure. Your puppy wants you to be happy, he wants to please you but doesn’t know how yet. Puppies learn much faster from a cold-shoulder then they do from a rolled newspaper.

If for some reason your puppy is all wound up and trying to nip, even with a cold-shoulder, he may need a bit more social isolation. Think of it as a “time out”. To give your puppy a “time out”, all you need to do is take him to a crate or small room by himself for about five minutes. When the time is up, bring him out and start playing again. It would be a good idea to play a little calmer until you find out how excitable he is going to be. Some dogs (especially high energy, herding breeds) become overexcited very easily. For dogs such as this, choose non-contact play such as frisbee, or fetch. You can even play tug-o-war if your dog knows “drop it”. Refrain from slap-boxing and wrestling, these games encourage instincts such as nipping and aggression. Keeps games more low-key instead.

Click Here to learn more about puppy biting and other behavior problems.

Training a puppy can be a challenging mess, but it doesn’t need to be.  I will be giving you tips and advice I have found over the years to help you train your puppy (or adult dog) easily.

I’ll try to go over some key points such as:

-puppy toilet training

-puppy nipping

-clicker training

-and much more

Check back here as often as you like because new things are being added all the time.