House Training Your Dog or Puppy
You’ve brought a new dog into your home—congratulations! Now
comes your first dog-training challenge: house training.
House training is not an exact science—there’s no sure-fire
formula or timetable that will work for every dog. The important thing is to
make it a positive experience. Here are a few tips to help you through it.
Do: Supervise your dog. Limit the dog’s run of the house to the one or
two rooms where you are able to see her at all times. Dogs usually show
“pre-pottying” behavior such as sniffing, circling and walking with stiff back
legs; all signs that you should get her to the potty area ASAP! As the training
begins to take hold, you can slowly enlarge her territory.
Don’t: Yell at a dog for a mess she made
earlier. If you
catch her in the act, it’s okay to startle her by clapping or making a noise
(hopefully this will stop her long enough for you to whisk her outside). But a
dog will not learn anything by being scolded for a past accident, even one a
few minutes old. Just clean it up and soldier on.
Do: Offer big praise when she gets it right. Whether your goal is for your dog to eliminate
on pee pads indoors or to do it outside, you have to really throw a party for
her when she succeeds. Lavish her with praise, affection and some yummy treats!
Don’t: Rub her face in it. In addition to this action making your dog
fear you, she’s incapable of making the connection that it’s the act of soiling
indoors you object to—to her, you just really hate pee and poop. If she thinks
that the waste itself is what you dislike, she’ll only get sneakier about
hiding it from you.
Do you have any fool-proof house training tips? Share them in
the comments!
P.S.
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