Posts Tagged ‘crate training’
Potty Training Your New Puppy
No training is more basic for pet owners than that first important lesson: Do it outside!
Teaching your pet to eliminate outside the home, not in it, usually starts between six and eight weeks of age. Dogs as young as four weeks can start house training, but at that age few have the muscular control to succeed.
Like any dog training plan, trainer patience is as important as the dog’s temperament. ‘Sit’, ’stay’ and other behaviors can often be learned in a few days. ‘Potty’ training your puppy sometimes takes weeks – maybe as short as two, often a month or more.
As with other learned behaviors, it helps to notice signs of the desired actions and enforce and direct them with a voice command followed by praise. In this case that technique works even more to the trainer’s advantage, since all dogs will naturally eliminate. The goal is to get them to do it when and where you want!
Watch for circling or squatting, then scoop up the pup, say ‘potty’ and quickly dash outside. The puppy may circle some more, but will often squat quickly. As she starts, say ‘Go potty’ ( or some other unique phrase) in a clear, firm (but not angry) voice. Wait until it’s finished and praise lavishly.
You won’t always be able to catch the puppy about to go, but don’t become angry or impatient when the dog eliminates indoors. It takes some time for the dog to learn to tell you it’s time to ‘go outside’. It also takes time for the muscles needed to control bladder and bowels to develop control.
Usually, puppies will need to eliminate every 2-3 hours. If you haven’t spotted pre-elimination behavior within that time, take the dog outside anyway. Issue the command ‘Go potty’ and wait. At first, usually, the dog will have no clue what you want.
Especially, even when outside, it helps to wait and watch for the desired behavior then issue the command. That helps the dog associate the command with the behavior. If your puppy still has not relieved himself after a few minutes and a few ‘Go potty’ commands, take him back inside for an hour. Of course, if you catch the pre-elimination behavior in less time, go outside again immediately.
Puppies have a surprising capacity to quickly learn what their ‘alpha’ (the leader of the pack) wants. This is almost always accomplished by associating a verbal command with behavior, followed by praise. Punishment is usually counter-productive, and nowhere more so than in waste elimination training. Never rub your pup’s nose in the accident.
Paper and/or crate training is preferred by some. A pup can be trained to potty on a newspaper, or on one of the chemically treated pads designed for the purpose. Some small breeds that live all day in apartments may not need to go outside at all.
The technique has a couple of downsides however. Unlike cats, dogs will hardly go in a perfumed litter box. Newspapers (even with the top layer removed after the dog goes) will eventually create an unpleasant smell in the house.
Also, long before the odor becomes perciptible to humans, dogs can smell their own distinctive aroma. Dogs don’t find the odor unattractive – quite the opposite. So that spot continues to be the problem.
Paper trained dogs will prefer to eliminate indoors. Occasionally they’ll miss the paper by only an inch, creating a mess to clean up.
Once the smell is in the carpet, the dog will continue to seek that spot out as its proper ‘place to go’. This makes training the dog to eliminate outside even more difficult. Best to suffer a few accidents than to create a hard-to-overcome habit.
Patience, praise and consistency are the key elements for successful dog training. Elimination training is the first challenge for you and your dog.
Get more tips and advice on housetraining or dog training at Luvurdog.com/dogtraining
A Dog Trainer and His Duties
A dog trainer has to be a special person who can undertake training your dog so that he or she can be the pet of your dreams. But, cost sometimes comes in the way and so we must turn to an alternative: be a dog trainer for ourselves. No, this does not mean opening your own business or doing the pet training for your family. It means that you are going to be the one who will handle and train the dog in certain aspects. Luck may pay a part but it will be a firm base of knowledge and help that gets you through.
In order to be a dog trainer for your pet, you have to know some dog training tips. The first is having the proper knowledge on the dog breeding. Certain dogs are more laid back than others. Some dogs exhibit more aggression. As a dog trainer for your puppy, you must know its breeding. Once you have this knowledge ingrained then you will know what areas of difficulty you can expect as well as areas that will be easier.
Basic dog training starts off with teaching the pet how not to use the bathroom in your house. Dog books may recommend something called crate training to help with this aspect. Basically it begins with laying puppy pee pads out and into a crate designed to house your dog. There will be some rough times when the carpet gets more of the pee than the pad or crate does but as a dog trainer you must come to expect this. Eventually the dog will lean to use the bathroom correctly.
Crate training can also be used as a way to secure the dog at night when the rest of the family is asleep. You probably do not want to wake up and find your best shoes chewed up because Fido became irritated at you because you were not there for him or her when they wanted to play. Dogs are very smart. If you irritate them or abandon them, they will retaliate and the recipient is often a favored pair of shoes that become chew toys.
Crate training can help a dog trainer by providing the pet with a place to go when the owner is not immediately at home and values their favorite shoes. It can also be used as a time-out of sorts.
You, as a dog trainer, can expect to have a lot of questions and should expect to have some frustrations or set-backs. Do not take it personally. It takes time to learn all of the tricks of the trade. Eventually the initial training will be complete and then you can start on some of the fun things.