This month, Dr. Ian Dunbar is subbing for Kelly Gorman Dunbar, who is at a dog training conference in Paris, France. – Ed.
I find it surprising, how many people have difficulty with housetraining, especially the smaller the dog. Training a dog to relieve herself in an appropriate toilet area (indoors or outdoors) is actually pretty simple, whether teaching a puppy or retraining a newly adopted adult dog.
First, absolutely prevent your puppy/dog from making any mistakes around the house. A single mistake often leads to a whole bunch more and then, before you know it, you have a full-blown house-soiling habit. Try to make housetraining errorless. When you’re home but cannot devote 100% of your attention to your puppy, confine her to her doggy den, such as a crate or small room (short-term confinement area). If you are away for more than an hour, confine her to a playpen (long-term confinement area) that has an appropriate dog toilet.
Never allow your puppy unsupervised run of the house. When she is housetrained, she may enjoy the full run of your house and luxurious use of its furniture (if you so decide) for life. If you allow your puppy to “make mistakes,” you’ll probably start restricting her freedom, and if you don’t manage to break the housesoiling habit (that you allowed her to develop), the odds are that she will not be welcome in your house for long.
Do not be duped by your puppy’s cuteness and her sweet and innocent look; always try and visualize your puppy as a grotesquely full and imminently voiding bladder and rectum deceptively camouflaged in an endearing furry outer layer. And so, I repeat, when you are away from home, always leave your puppy in her playpen and when you are home make sure that your puppy is confined to a crate.
Second, stack the deck, so that your puppy naturally wants to use her toilet area.
When you are away from home, house your puppy in a long-term confinement area, such as an ExPen, that is three times as long as it is wide, with a bed at one end and a toilet at the other. If you plan on leaving your puppy for more than an hour, then she must have access to an appropriate toilet area.
If you would like your pup to eliminate only outdoors as an adult, it’s a good idea, to locate the ExPen, so that the toilet is close to a door to the outside. If you would like your puppy to use an indoor toilet, it’s best to place the toilet in its permanent location from the outset.
Puppies will naturally start to use the toilet area of their own volition because they have strong natural preferences about where they like to eliminate. Puppies much prefer to eliminate far away from their sleeping area and in areas that smell of urine. Adult dogs prefer to eliminate on the same type of substrate that they used when growing up. So, use a square of turf for the toilet. Change the turf just once a week (to preserve the smell of urine) but clean up the feces frequently because dogs do not like to defecate close to days-old feces. Your puppy will quickly develop a strong preference for eliminating on turf and so, will naturally want to eliminate outdoors, especially if you handsomely reward her for doing so.
Third, use praise. When you are at home or on walks, praise your pup and give her three treats every time she pees and five treats every time she poops in an appropriate toilet area. If your puppy is confined indoors, take her to the toilet on an hourly basis. Keep your pup on leash so that she doesn’t wander off en route. Each reward will increase the likelihood that she will want to eliminate in the toilet area in the future and therefore, decrease the likelihood that she will eliminate elsewhere. (Also, there is only so much urine and feces to go round and so, if your pup urinates or defecates in her toilet, there is less urine and feces to deposit anywhere else.)
For additional information, Go to the Resources section at siriuspup.com and download (for free) my BEFORE You Get Your Puppy book and check out our new blog to learn how to teach your dog to “hold it,” to let you know when she wants to go and especially to eliminate on cue.
Fourth, stick to it. You’ll be glad you did.
Ian Dunbar is a veterinarian, canine behaviorist, and puppy training pioneer. He is the founder of SIRIUS® Puppy Training; Scientific Director for dogstardaily.com; and author of several best-selling books and videos. For more information, visit siriuspup.com.
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