By Dr. Mayra Alfonso
Humans are taught by their relatives in the home. Parents or guardians teach us the basic behavior to conform. In the same way, owners of responsible dogs should be the ones to train their pets, starting from the moment they arrive at home. Like children, puppies demand a lot of attention from their owners. They are all cute in the beginning and they require a hell of a lot of supervision. That means your time, total devotion, and patience. As pups, they still have to learn to control their behavior in the context of your life together as owner and pet. It is going to be your job to teach your pup everything from not chewing the house furniture, to not chewing the neighbor's roses, to not peeing and pooping all over your house.
As with young children, the first thing to introduce the idea of control is through a routine. One such routine is to leash your pup. He'll get used to the leash in time. He'll whine and cry and try to claw it but he'll soon give up. The more important routine is to let him potty after eating, after some play time, or after he wakes up form his nap. You call also instill a potty routine when you bring him outside the house when you walk him.
Instill this potty behavior using the same spot inside or outside the house. Outside, choose a tree or bush and tug him there: this is where the leash comes in handy. You have to make sure you bring your dog to the same spot when he poops and pees so he will associate this behavior with a certain event like or time of day. This spot should not be too far from your house that he has an accident on the pavement.
Every time your puppy goes potty, pat him on the head, say "Good doggie," in a nice way and see him wag his tail. He will associate these rewarding moments with his behavior of making potty on his spot. Or you can give him some food. The point is to establish a reward system so he'll look forward to being rewarded after pooping or peeing on his spot, and not in other spots, like inside your house, or on your neighbor's driveway. A pup is still young and this kind of associative training is what will teach him toilet behavior. You can also establish some verbal commands. You will notice when he arches his back and walk in circles, these are signs he will potty. Tell him to go outside, or to go potty, and open the door. This way he'll associate your commands and the door's opening with his need to potty. Feeding him periodically will also teach him when to potty and allow the both of you to instill a potty time.
Some people place paper towels on the floor inside their house to mark the puppy's potty spot. This doesn't work very well. The dog tends to get confused, as the paper towel can be moved around. His learning to potty is therefore just delayed. The most effective way of training is to just observe the puppy for potty behavior, like arching and walking around in circles, and letting him out or bringing him to his potty area. In time, you can even teach your pup to hold it in.
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Source:www.isnare.com |
