Puppy Training 100

7/31/2019 Puppy Training 100

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Housebreaking your Puppy

Using a Crate for House Training

your Puppy Cruel or Humane?

Puppy Socialization andDesensitization Training

Puppy Biting and Mouthing

Puppy Obedience Training


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The quickest way to house train a pup-py is to set the puppy up for successby preventing accidents from happen-ing. By taking control of the puppysstructure and schedule we can shape

the dogs preference to go potty whereand when we want them to. There arefour training aids that will help you es-tablish the proper structure for a pup-py. A crate, an exercise pen, a leash,and a 10 foot tether.

Dogs instinctually want to keep theirdens clean and would prefer to elimi-nate away from where they sleepand eat. This is why a crateis such a valuable trainingtool for housebreaking yourpuppy.

Because of this strongmotivating drive we canuse the crate to pre-vent accidents fromhappening and use itto shape the puppyselimination preferences.

A Dog Exercise Pen is a great way tocontain your puppy while allowing himsome freedom outside the crate. Dogexercise pens for containing your petindoors or out are available in a variety

consist of interlocking panels allowingfor easy adjustment of size and con-possible to purchase two and put themtogether to make an even larger pen.than 3 to 4 hours then the exercisepen is a better option than leaving the

too young we do not want to leave thepuppy in the crate for a longer periodthe exercise pen you can put the dogscrate or a bed, his toys and water ifyou need to leave for an extended pe-riod of time.

Expect that you might have acci-dents in the exercise pen area sodo not put the pen on carpet ornot scold the puppy for eliminat-ing in the pen area.

Housebreaking your Puppy

The keys to successfully house training a puppy are structure,

schedule and vigilance with a dash of patience

The Guiding Principle

Thats it in a nutshell. If you prevent accidents from happening

you are 90% on the road to success.


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Puppies should always be on a leashand always in sight of the owner(s).The biggest mistake owners make is

letting their puppy run freely aroundthe house inviting accidents to happenwhen out of their sight. Prevention isthe most important factor in successfulhousebreaking. When the puppy cantbe supervised then it should be in itscrate or exercise pen. Also, puppiesshould not be left unattended outside inthe yard. There are too many things the

puppy can get into and you do not wantto come home to dug up plants, a de-stroyed sprinkling system and chewedup lawn furniture.

want your puppy to eliminate in youcan use a 10 tether to keep your dog

in that area while it is supposed to doits business. Take your puppy out to thedesignated potty area on a leash thenattach him to the tether. Let the puppysniff around and explore the area.puppys urine or feces. You can bringout a soiled newspaper or one of hisdroppings to help him get the idea that

this is where he should go. You shouldgive your puppy at least 15 minutes tohabit early you will have trained your

will more than likely continue to go inthis area even without the tether.

While at the potty area start giving yourpuppy a command such as Go Potty, whatever command you want to use.This will come in handy later when you

need to get your puppy to go on com-mand. When the puppy is eliminatingrepeat the command and then givethe dog a treat and lots of praise. Youshould give your puppy at least 15 min-the puppy does not go then return thedog to the crate with the door closedand come back in about 10 to 15 min-

utes. Then try again. Repeat this pro-cess until the puppy eliminates.

A schedule includes times for feed-ing, potty, play and exercise, rest, andbed time. The schedule should start as

potty area immediately. Let the puppysniff around for awhile. Usually the on this will be the spot we always take

and consistently stick to this area thenthe puppy will most likely continue tochoose this spot over your patio or rosebushes.


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An eight week old puppy is going to haveto urinate every 1 to 2 hours so you willneed to be diligent. As the puppy getsolder you can start stretching this sched-

ule out every 2 to 3 hours, then 4 hoursand so on even up to 8 hours or more.A puppy that is less than 12 weeks oldmay not be able to go through a full nightwithout a potty break but by the age of 3to 4 months most puppies can sleep foreight hours without needing to eliminate.Puppies will generally have 3 to 4 bowelmovements per day depending on their

puppys elimination schedule it is best tofeed the puppy 2 or 3 times a day at a you to control when the puppy eats there-breeds require more frequent feedingsso you should consult with your veteri-

when to feed your puppy.

Puppies also need a lot of water but hav-ing total free access to water can cause general you should give the puppy freeaccess to water outside, near its elimina-tion area. Most of the time when a puppydrinks it will immediately urinate. Monitor

how much the puppy drinks during theday and pick up the water a couple ofhours before bedtime so you dont causethe puppy to have an accident during puppies get enough water so do not limitwater just to prevent accidents. You canprevent accidents by taking the puppyout, and watching for the signs that he

needs to go.

A TYPICAL SCHEDULEFOR AN

8 WEEK OLD PUPPYIS AS FOLLOWS:

30 minutes, crate or exercise pen.







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have to leave the puppy for more thanleaving the puppy in the exercise pen

with the crate door open. Rememberdo not punish the puppy if she has ac-cidents in the exercise pen.

What do we do if the puppy has ac-cidents outside the exercise pen inour house? Most trainers today agreethat punishing the dog after the fact is

not effective. Excessive punishmentshould be avoided. Punishment caus-fear could cause it to overly generalizethe event thereby not only inhibitingelimination in the house but reducingthe puppys willingness to eliminateoutdoors in the owners presence.

Dog trainers have varying views onhow to correct the puppy when it hasaccidents and it can be confusing to thedog owner. We dont think that there isa black and white answer to this. Youneed to use what works for your puppy.live in the here-and-now and can onlyconnect punishment to what they are

currently doing and not to the past.

The only time we can effectively pun-act of eliminating because then the dogimmediately associates the correction

nose in it is not a humane or effectiveapproach. Disrupter type of stimulation

is more effective and appropriate, suchstarts to eliminate in front of you sayNo loudly and then scoop him up andimmediately take the puppy to his elim-ination area. At this point be neutraland calm and do not scold the puppy business then lavish him with praise by

or whatever positive word you chooseto use.

What if you live in an apartment andyour dog does not have access to ayou might have to use Puppy Pads,newspapers or a litter box. Each one

of these options has their draw backsbecause a puppy that uses these forpotty may never be fully housebroken.Dogs that have been trained on news-paper or pads never seem to grasp theidea that it is not okay to eliminate inthe house.

box train your dog:

http://kturby.com/litter/litter.htm

when your puppy has an accident es-pecially if the puppy has an accident in

its crate. The puppy will be attracted tothe smell and may continue to revisitthe same spot(s) if the smell remains.Use an enzyme cleaner such as Na-tures Miracle to clean up accidents.


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biggest mistakes

owners make when

house training

their puppy.

1. Not using a crate

2. Allowing free roaming

3. Inconsistent eliminationand feeding schedule

4. Punishing the puppy after thefact and too harshly.

As a general rule you can give your

puppy more freedom in the housewhen your puppy is a least 6 to 8months of age and has had no acci-dents in the house for at least a month go slow and give freedom when it isearned and always back up a step ortwo if you have an accident.

Dont Rush the Process

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Using a Crate for House Training your PuppyCruel or Humane?

When potty training a puppy a crate isan essential tool. Today most profes-sional dog trainers and veterinarians

recommend a crate for housebreakinga puppy. The crate is the most effec-tive and humane training tool availablefor potty training a puppy. We as hu-mans value our freedom and tend toproject our human feelings onto ourpets which results in the unfortunateconclusion by some that crate training

dogs look favorably upon a crate, es-pecially when it is properly introducedand judiciously used.

The puppy sees the kennel in a totallydifferent way and will instinctually seekout a den for comfort and safety. Thedog crate may be a cage to us but to-

serve puppies in the home they will trygoing under tables, desks or even un-der beds to seek comfort and safety.Their ancestors, the wolf, live in under

ground dens that protect them from theelements and predators. Dogs havethis same natural denning instinct.

Today more people are aware of thetraining a puppy or even an older dog.The premise is that a dog or puppy willuse of the crate, follow a consistentfeeding routine and potty schedule wecan teach the puppy where and when

it should eliminate making the processof housebreaking happen quickly andpainlessly.

-ing your puppy at an early age. Thecrate can also be used to teach a pup-py to be calm in the owners absence.

starts barking or crying when youleave, you can use the crate to teachhim to be calm while you are at home.Once theres a pattern of calm behav-ior when you are at home you can startleaving for short periods of time. Thenextend the time as your puppy learnshow to handle your absence. Eventu-ally the goal would be to wean your

puppy away from the kennel when thedog has demonstrated that he or shecan be trusted. This might take up toa year depending on your dog. Re-member that the crate is not a puppy


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prison and should not be used as pun-is not advisable to leave your puppy inthe crate all day.

A good dog trainer can coach youthrough this process and also help yourecognize any early signs of anxietyor serious canine behavior problems a puppy training program and puppysafe environment in the right way cango a long way to preventing future dog

behavior problems.

Kennels can also be used as a man-agement tool for training dogs suffer-ing from separation anxiety or otherbehavior problems. (This is the termfor dogs that engage in destructivebehavior when their owners are away.)Rather than letting the dog destroy his

home or yard we can teach the dog to

are away. The crate, if proper trainingis used with it, can have a calming ef-fect on the dog, keeping him from act-ing out because of the anxiety associ-ated with the owners absence.

A crate is an excellent dog and puppytraining tool, but it should not be overused or become a substitute for gooddog training. Over use can damageyour dog or puppy psychologically.Putting the dog into the kennel whenyou are frustrated or angry may solve

the immediate problem, but in thelong run you need to also teach yourpuppy some self control and manners.Along with exercise, training, play andaffection the crate should be part ofyourself using the crate too much youmay need help from a professional dogtrainer to help you better manage your

puppys bad behavior.


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There are many dog trainers and dogbooks that stress the importance of-tion is a broad term that applies to arange of puppy training methods andobedience techniques that have little she has most likely been properly so-cialized through the interactions with not more socialization, but rather ex-posure to a variety of real world situ-

ations such as introducing your puppyto adults, kids, the car, the vet, appli-ances such as a vacuum, shapes,sounds, and different environments.This process is commonly referred toas Puppy Desensitization.

-ciety of Animal Behavior) believes pup-

pies should start puppy socialization

classes as early as 7 to 8 weeks, evenbefore they are fully vaccinated. Theirposition paper can be downloaded at

http://www.avsabonline.org/avsabon-

line/images/stories/Position_State-ments/puppy%20socialization.pdf

phase between 3 weeks and 12 weeksthat a puppy goes through when theyplay with their litter mates. Duringthis phase the puppy learns proper

body language and social hierarchiesthat are an important part of being athe dogs interactions with its own lit-ter mates and does not accustom thepuppy to the real world such as people,loud noises and how to behave politelyaround strange dogs. Pack behavioris one of most basic things the puppy

learns during this crucial socializa- learns early to dominate his or her littermates may continue exhibit dominantbehavior around strange dogs, this be-havior may seem inappropriate, but iscompletely in line with what the puppylearned early on.

-not be downplayed. When getting yourpuppy has interacted with other dogsnot to get your puppy too early. Pup-

Puppy Socialization andDesensitization Training


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pies that are homedbefore 8 weeks do notget proper socializationwith their litter mates

and may develop be-havior problems laterin life as a result ofthis. The distinction -tization is an important one becauseDesensitization demands that you asan owner take an active role in control-ling your puppys experience in new

situations and environments.

Exposing your puppy to the world certain situations and what you ex-pect them to do. Desensitization takesplace when we introduce the puppy toa variety of people, places, and ani-mals and teach them how they should

behave.

During this period of desensitizationtake your puppy to a variety of plac-es to meet as many people as pos-sible and to meet other animals suchas dogs, cats, horses and cows; andcontinue to do this over the lifetime ofyour dog. Repetition and continuing

introducing your puppy to these newthings and places it is very important toavoid frightening experiences. Whenintroducing your dog to a strange dog,make sure that the dog is friendly be-fore exposing your dog to a potentialattack which could traumatize yourpuppy and develop into dog aggres-

sion later in the dogs life. When intro-ducing your dog to children you shouldcarefully instruct the children on howto behave and how to meet the dog.Do not simply throw your puppy into agroup of screaming, jumping, or fastplaying children. This might terrify your

is frightened then theexperience may formnegative associations

and reactions in yourpuppys mind.

You should desensitizeyour puppy slowly in gradual steps.you begin is helpful so that you havesome ability to control your puppys fo-cus and reactions to stress and distrac-

tions. Begin in a safe and controlledenvironment so that if something goeswrong or if the puppy displays fear orother inappropriate responses you cantake charge and calm the puppy. Ba-sic obedience will help your puppy feelfocus on you and a command and notthe environmental stressor. The puppy

will feel less anxious and will defer toyou as its leader.


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Your puppy is very sensitive to howyou respond to situations and will pickup on your anxiety, fear and emotional

example, if you become tense and ner-vous when introducing your puppy toa strange dog your puppy might thinkthat you are afraid of the new dog. become aggressive or fearful thinkingit should protect you. On the otherhand, if you praise and coddle your

puppy every time it runs and hides infear of something, you may uninten-tionally encourage its fearful behavior.Codling your puppy with praise and re-assurance may inadvertently reinforcethe unwanted behavior, setting up apattern that may continue in the futurewith every similar situation.

The key to successful puppy trainingand desensitization is to be aware ofyour own feelings and behavior andknow exactly what actions you desireof your puppy and how to reinforce -courage your puppy to be calm aroundother non-aggressive dogs teach yourdog a sit command while another dog

-sive or inappropriately let your dogknow that this is unacceptable behav-ior with a light leash correction and asharp No or Leave-it. Teach yourpuppy to focus on you when distractedby other dogs or animals.

Here are some

suggestions

on what to exposeyour puppy to:

Make sure that the childrenare instructed to be gentle and friend-ly in order to make the experience apleasant one for your puppy and thechildren. Remember that puppies

between 6 to 10 weeks of age fear im-print so we do not want to make this afrightening or bad experience for eitheryour dog or the children.

in order to make surethat the puppy does not associate badendings to car trips such as going tothe vet or the groomer, drive him to the

pet store, to a fun place, to visit his fa-vorite playmate, etc.

andhealthy friendly dogs: You want yourpuppy to associate with a variety ofdogs. Choose friends who may havevaried dogs such as big ones, small

ones, older ones etc. Join a puppy so-cial class.

The staff will give-eral times without having any proce-will never hate going to the Vet.

Go to all your local petstores and take advantage of meetingpeople and other dogs and even otheranimals. Pet stores welcome yourpuppy and even encourage it.


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Puppy mouthing is the most commonpuppy problem and concern that we understanding and dealing with this

very normal puppy behavior. Puppy-ral and a necessary part of a puppysdevelopmental process.

Teaching a puppy to inhibit the forceof his biting is something we need todo before the puppy develops strong

jaws and the ability to bite with damag-ing force. A puppys bite though painfulseldom causes major damage. Be-cause we want the puppy to learn howto inhibit his biting we do not want toforbid all play-biting. The puppy needs then the interaction with us will stop.The puppy can learn to restrain its bitein order to keep our attention and com-panionship.

Why does a puppy want to use ourhands as pin cushions? Puppy mouth-ing and biting are natural self reward-ing behaviors, in that they relieve somediscomfort associated with the puppysteething. And because your puppydoesnt have hands he explores hisworld with his mouth. This is why pup-

pies put everything they can into theirmouths. They are exploring and dis-covering what their world is made of,whats good to eat, whats fun to chew,etc. Biting or mouthing can be stimu-lating and fun for your puppy. Owners

often have a tendency to make it evenmore fun through ineffective efforts as pushing the puppy away, yelling,spanking or swatting him. These ac-

tions by the owner may not be viewedas punishment by the puppy and canactually be more rewarding making thedogs behavior even worse.

Lets explore the game of reinforcingunwanted dog and puppy behaviors-py comes to me and starts to chew onmy hands or feet my natural responsewould be to take my hands away fromthe dog. The quick movement causesthe puppy to lunge at them making iteven more fun than when he was justchewing on them. This is where theyour hands away and you dont want toget chewed on, what do you do?

There are many things that puppy own-ers do that inadvertently reinforce baddog behavior. The owners of course do-selves reacting out of frustration to the

Puppy Biting and Mouthing


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puppy in ways that are ineffectual andcounter productive to the puppys nat-ural development.

As an example when the puppy startsto bite us we may try to pacify him bypetting. The puppy quickly realizes thatby biting us he or she can get us to pethim. Petting unintentionally becomespositive reinforcement for more biting.

One solution here is to teach thepuppy bite inhibition by using a com-

mand word to get him to stop bitingus. The command word can be, No,Off or Leave it, but they all mean theto understand these commands de-pends on the dogs temperament andhow much the puppy wants or needsto chew.

-ing methods for teaching bite inhibitionare: using a squirt bottle or somethingto spray in the puppys mouth like Bit-ter Apple (which is sold in pet stores),loud noise for the purpose of startlingthe puppy, holding the puppys muzzlewhile saying No Bite. While these

techniques may stop the biting for a

short while they are often times onlytime.

There is a downside to using someof these methods, for example loudnoises can make a dog afraid of anysudden and unexpected noise whichcan be more harmful to the puppysnormal development. Using a squirtbottle may make a puppy afraid of wa-ter or jumpy when she sees someonepick up something similar to a squirt

too negative they can make the puppyfearful of its owners and other people.We would rather see a puppy comingto its owner without hesitation and not time a puppy came to its owner he orshe was sprayed with water or had bit-

the dog may want to avoid the owneraltogether.

There is a more gentle physical re-straining technique that calmly getsthe puppy to stop biting, while still look-ing to its owner as the leader he or shewants to follow. The following trainingtechnique is best used with puppies

from 8 to 16 weeks of age. When usingthis training method it is a good idea tohave a leash on your puppy. The leashwill give you better control of your pup-py so that if he tries to run away or playyou can immediately get control. Theleash should not be used to correct thepuppys behavior it is only used as agentle restraint.

When the puppy starts biting you Turn the puppy away from you and po-sition him between your knees so hecannot squeeze out from the rear or


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dogs suffer from poorperformance becausethey are looking for

the treat before doingthe command.

When this process isdone a few times eachday your dog will soonlearn to sit without you her rear end down. After a few days

your dog will have a more solid un-derstanding of the command and willcomply more readily. When your doghas mastered this command in thehouse and in the yard you can thenstart practicing in more distracting ar-eas like in your neighborhood and atthe local park. With the right amountof practice your dog will soon be sitting

on command regardless of location ordistraction.

When training your dog to do a Downcommand, be aware that not all dogsare eager to comply and some can

placed into a down can be a very vul- be patient, stay positive and upbeatduring the training process.

when you give it a Down commandyou will start the process by showinghim what you want by physically plac-

ing him into a down position. Kneelsteady pressure downward on thedogs leash and collar. While doing thisgive the command Down repeatedly

at this time then praise Good Down or Good

that easy, so you mayneed to work somemore on getting yourpooch down. While stillkeeping pressure onthe collar place yourother hand on the topof your dogs shoulder

blades. While pulling the leash down-

ward put steady and slow pressureon the dogs shoulders until your doggoes down. Praise and pet your puppy our dog is encouraged to remain onsincere and calm at the same time. You

dont want to get your dog too excitedwith over the top enthusiastic praise.With repeated practice sessions yourdog will soon be able to do the Downwithout your physical assistance.

and dog to stay is a real challenge.When teaching any command or trickto your dog break it down into smallsteps and build it slowly.

command since it can be implied with-

-do so but we feel it is clearer and eas-ier for the dog to understand one com-


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-

of communicating what you want yourdog to do.

are four essential building blocks thatare necessary to accomplish the de-sired result.

This is the time your dog canstay in the desired Command Position.

This is the distanceyou can move away from your dogwhile the dog stays in a Command Po-sition.

This is the addi-tion of distractions such as other dogs,squirrels, cats, balls, toys, noises, etc.

With that being said, the overall learn-ing process is to put your dog on aleash at your heel side; give the de- then pivot in front, fac-ing your dog just a few and count silently to 5,then move back to heelposition and praise yourdog. Move your dog intoa heel then stop and sit

your dog and repeat theexercise. Add a few sec-onds each time. Repeatthis until you can reach 2or more minutes withoutyour dog moving from

the desired Command Position . Whenyou have achieved 2 minutes thenstart adding Distance a foot at a time.As you add Distance you may have to

get to the end of your leash you mayhave to cut your Time to 30 secondsor less. Cut the Time as you add Dis-tance and once you can get to the endof your leash then start adding Timeagain. When you can get 2 or moreminutes at the end of a 6 foot leashthen you can start adding Distractions.

you might have to cut both Time andDistance and then start the processof rebuilding. At any point during thisprocess if your dog has problems withstaying in the Command Position, thenback up one step or two and start re- to go all the way back to the begin-

ning but the rebuilding process usuallytakes only a few repeats to get back towhere you were.

The process in a nutshell is as follows:Teach the desired Command Posi- - appropriate. As you add one variable

decrease the other until you can do all


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On or whatever you want to use. Letthe puppy move further out each time

turns and comes to you without hesita-tion then you do not need to lock and come then Lock, Pull and Release to you.

You do not want to create slack in the

line. This can cause injury to you andremove the line from the dogs collar.Then, while holding the clip that at-taches to the collar, let the line reel inslowly.

the puppy every time the dog Comesto you, even when you have to force the second week treat every 2nd or3rd time. During the third week starttreating intermittently. As the puppystarts to respond to the Come com-mand more reliably start doing theseexercises with higher distractions andin environments that compete for the

dogs attention.

-ercise is to randomly put your handinto the puppys collar when the puppycomes to you. While giving the treat

hold the puppys collar so that youcondition the puppy to let you control

learn to come to their owners, take thetreat and run. By conditioning the dog -ting your hand into his collar you canprevent this from becoming an issue orgame later on

Puppy training is different in tone than

formal obedience training. A youngpuppy may not be mature enough tohandle the stress brought on by overbearing or compulsory obediencetraining. Dont make the mistake of be-ing overly dominate or heavy-handedwith a puppy otherwise you might cre-ate a pup that is passively submissive, Most puppies need a more patient ap-proach, one stressing encouragementand praise.

-cerned about precise responses tocommands but in building and nur-turing character traits such as: atten-tiveness, playfulness, curiosity, con-

pack leaders. By keeping your focuson making the training sessions pleas-ant and fun for you and your puppy youwill be laying a solid foundation thatwill prepare your puppy for formal andadvanced obedience.

Puppies Need Encouragement and Praise


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Author, Steve Bettcherdog at the age of four and his dream,animal trainer. As a college student -

search.

dog training experience in both obedi-ence and agility. Two of his own dogswon three National Agility Champion-ships and earned NADAC Agility Trial -

ing with adoptions and training of - Good Citizen Evaluator.

Steve and his 1st dog, Penny

Steve with dogs from hisWalnut Creek class


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Puppy Training 100