House training:
Key points
- The key to quick house training is to never to give the pup a chance to pee in undesired places.
- Rule of Thumb: The number of hours that a pup can physically go without peeing is her age in months, plus 1, so a 2-month-old pup can usually wait for 3 hours. Yes, that means that a small pup must pee during the night.
- Pups learn to pee on particular substrates (types of surfaces) and often refuse to pee elsewhere. Winter puppies that first learn on snow will initially hunt for snow when spring comes.
- Dogs will naturally avoid soiling where they sleep and where they eat. However, these prohibitions can be broken if a dog is given no alternative but to soil in those locations. This often happens with puppy store pups.
- A pup that is punished or yelled at when soiling learns to hide to pee/poop in the house. She may also be unwilling to pee/poop in front of you outside as well. A pup punished after the fact knows only that the human is upset and its submissive behaviors are not related to soiling.
- Dogs do NOT generalize well. "Do not pee in the living room" does not mean "do not pee in the bedroom." "Do not pee in your house does not mean do not pee in the neighbor's house."
- Dogs are denning animals who normally sleep a lot. Using crates as dens is cruel only if the dog is confined too much. Once a dog is house trained and past the puppy chewing stage, many owners no longer close the crate doors, but the dog continues to use her den to sleep or relax.. .
Confinement areas
- Crate with moveable divider
If a pup is being left unsupervised for less than its "Rule of Thumb" time, it should be in a crate with just enough room to turn around and to lay down. A wire crate with a moveable divider is perfect for this since the space can grow with the pup. If the pup pees on her bedding, remove all bedding for a while.
Get a good quality wire crate. Cheap ones can kill (impale or strangle) a pup who is trying to get out.
Look for crates that advertise the gauge of their wires (lower numbers mean stronger, heavier wires). Crates with 6-gauge wires need fewer wires because each wire is so strong. Crates with 9- & 12-gauge wires can deliver good strength by using more wires (and allow less room for paws to stick out of the crate). I like Kennel-Aire crates (cheaper on EBay).
- Area larger than the crate
If a pup is being left unsupervised for more than its "Rule of Thumb" time, her open crate should be placed in a larger puppy-proofed area with newspapers and/or scented puppy pads on the floor. Exercise pens are a good way to provide this large area, but some pups will require a top on the pen. If using a bathroom, remove all plastic that is at puppy level (use metal water suppy lines) and use a children's safety lock on the toilet seat.
Supervision
Puppies are not fully housetrained until they learn where to pee/poop and they develop full bladder control. The latter requires both physical and mental maturity. Like children some pups just don't think about peeing until it is too late to get to the proper location.
The new pup should be taken outside (or to one of your chosen pee spots) frequently, but especially after sleeping, eating, or playing. (You can speed up housetraining by also taking her out when she whimpers at night, rather than providing a pee area.) Go with her and, if she pees/poops, throw a party and give her a treat. Keep track of her pee times and if you think she needs to pee/poop, but she did not, then she goes in her crate. Try again in 10 minutes.
NOTE: Except in the middle of the night, do not immediately go back inside after she pees (unless she wants to), so that peeing doesn't mean she has to stop playing.
Initially while inside the home her feet should not touch the floor (especially carpet) outside of her confinement area(s) except for the first 30 minutes after she pees. Watch very carefully for the pup to start sniffing around for a pee spot. You might even want to leash the pup to your waist. If the pup starts to soil in an inappropriate location, scoop the pup up in a towel and take her to the right place. Move poop to the right place.
Once the pup is reliably using her puppy pads and/or waiting to go outside, gradually allow her access to more puppy-proofed areas of the house. Feed the pup there for a while and at least temporarily put a bed there.
Products
"Accidents" should be cleaned thoroughly with an enzymatic cleaner like Petastic Stain & Odor Remover to neutralize the urine and to avoid attracting the pup back to the spot. Don't let the pup watch you clean. Getting you on the floor becomes a game for some pups.
If a pup is house broken to using puppy pads, there are grass-scented puppy pads made by Nature's Miracle that can be used to help transition the pup to peeing/pooping outside.
There are several inside potty contraptions available. Examples:
http://www.wizdog.com
http://www.ugodog.net
http://www.petapotty.com
http://www.doglitter.com/GetPage.aspx?D=12132302&T=4133907
Book
McConnell, Patricia, Way To Go!, How to Housetrain a Dog of Any Age, 10/2003
http://tinyurl.com/5g8qa
CAUTION
Exuberant pups can cause exercise pens to slide around. Consider fastening the pen to a wall or placing the pen inside a large children's swimming pool. One could also buy a large, plastic tarp, fasten a wooden frame (2x4's) around the outer edge of the tarp (with bolts through the stake holes), and put the pen inside the frame.
In the diagram below, the green is a tarp (with stake holes), the yellow is the 2x4's, the red is the exercise pen, the gray is the crate, and the black circles represent the bolts. From the floor a bolt would go through a metal washer (to adjust for the size of the stake hole), through the stake hole, and through the 2x4 (secured by a nut). A right-angled brace would hold the corners together securely. [Bolts make things easier to take apart, but long screws could be used so that nothing protruded above the 2x4's.]
