In This Chapter
Housetraining a puppy or dog can be a real challenge. A
well-meaning but unprepared person can find plenty of opportunities to mess up
the job. Some of these mistakes result from owner misunderstanding, and others
occur due to owner impatience. However, any of these mistakes can make your
canine companion’s housetraining learning curve a lot steeper than it needs to
be.
In fact, just about all housetraining mistakes are avoidable
— if you know ahead of time what the possible pitfalls are. This chapter describes
ten common housetraining boo-boos, why they occur, and how you can avoid making
them.
Thinking the Crate Is Cruel
If your love for dogs began when you started watching TV
shows such as Lassie when you were a kid, the idea of putting your dog in a
crate probably takes a little getting used to. The image of Timmy and his
glorious Collie wandering over rolling hills of farmland just doesn’t square
with the idea of confining your Fido in a plastic or wire enclosure until he
masters his potty manners. In fact, you may feel that in doing so, you’re
putting Fido in a cage. “Dogs don’t belong in cages,” you may protest. “It’s
cruel.” But if Fido could speak for himself, he’d probably disagree with you.
Remember
Many dogs actually love their crates. To most canine companions, the crate is the safe, secure den they instinctively long for. The crate-den offers protection from hazards such as out-of-control children and big, noisy vacuum cleaners. It also makes a terrific home away from home for the traveling canine. For most dogs, then, the crate is not an object of cruelty but an object to be appreciated.
And for people who love those dogs, the crate can be a dandy
housetraining tool. Using a crate for housetraining just prompts a dog to do
what comes naturally. When you confine your canine-in-housetraining to a crate
during those times that you can’t watch her, you tap into her inborn desire to
refrain from eliminating in the den. She’ll hold her pee or poop until she can
leave, helping her develop bowel and bladder control. Meanwhile, she’s happy and
secure while lounging in her beloved den. It’s a classic win-win situation —
about as far from cruelty as one can get.
Some dogs do take a while to appreciate their crates. A very
gradual introduction can help such a pooch discover the joys of chilling out in
this makeshift den. See Chapter Training
to Love the Crate for tips on turning your crate-phobic pooch
into a crate-loving canine.
Warning!
Being in the crate can be cruel to a dog in one instance: When he’s left in there for too long. Don’t leave your dog in his crate all day while you’re at work. If you’re concerned about destructiveness, enclose him in a dog-proofed room, hire someone to come walk him during the day, or take him to doggie day care. (See Chapter Sorting Out Humans’ Housetraining Challenges for details on these solutions and some other options.)
Getting a Crate That’s Too Big
Getting an oversized crate is a common mistake among people who’ve
acquired young puppies and are hoping to economize on crate purchases. Such
individuals buy a crate that’s sized for an adult dog, not a canine youngster.
The idea is that the puppy will have plenty of room to grow into his crate and
the owner will have to shell out for a crate only once. Unfortunately, not only
does the puppy have plenty of room to grow, but he also has enough room to
sleep at one end of the crate and eliminate at the other. That defeats the
purpose of the crate, which is to help the puppy develop bowel and bladder
control.
A crate that’s too big is a little bit like a pair of shoes
that are too big. The wearer finds the shoes very comfortable, as long as he’s not
moving. But after he does start walking, it’s clear the shoes fail to fulfill
their intended purpose: to provide protection and support to the feet.
Similarly, a too-big crate is certainly comfortable for a puppy, but it doesn’t
represent the cozy den he needs to learn to control his pooping and peeing. The
solution to this problem is to buy the correct size of crate.
Remember
A crate is sized correctly when it’s just big enough for a dog to stand up, turn around, and lie down.
Tip
So does a new puppy owner have to run up his credit card balance by purchasing a new crate every time his puppy shows significant growth? Not at all! You can still get away with buying just one crate that fits little Fido’s expected adult size. Just buy a wire crate that comes with a divider. As your puppy grows, you can move the divider farther and farther toward the back of the crate. That way, the crate fulfills its purpose, but you have to buy one only once.
Failing to Stick to the Schedule
Remember
For the puppy or dog who’s still being housetrained, sticking to the schedule is crucial to success. That’s because as soon as you establish a schedule, your puppy expects to eat, drink, and eliminate at certain times. That expectation helps you anticipate when she needs to go and thus reduces the number of accidents she has. It also helps her develop enough bowel and bladder control to keep her from eliminating until it’s time for the potty break she’s come to expect. If she doesn’t get that break, though, she may not be able to hold her water. She may pass her personal point of endurance and have no choice but to unload.
That may also be true of the housetraining graduate. No dog
can keep her floodgates shut forever. If you expect your dog to refrain from
eliminating during the day, you can’t reasonably expect her to continue to
refrain during the evening. The next time you’re tempted to stop off someplace
else before going home to take your dog out, ask yourself this: Could you hold
it as long as she’s been holding it today? If the answer is no, hightail it
home and give your friend her break.
Failing to Clean Up Completely
Canine urine is a magnet to dogs — including the dog from
whom the urine came. Even one stray drop can lure a dog to a given area and
prompt him to pee there again.
Using club soda and/or ammonia may get rid of urine stains,
but it certainly doesn’t get rid of the odor. That come-hither fragrance works
its dubious magic on dogs, drawing them back to the scenes of their potty
crimes. If you use ammonia, not only do you fail to get rid of the odor — you
actually intensify it! That’s because ammonia smells a lot like urine to most
dogs.
Remember
If your pooch makes a potty mistake, clean it up completely — and use a commercial cleaner that’s expressly designed for the job. Otherwise, you may as well tell your dog that flunking Housetraining 101 is okay.
Not Cleaning the Indoor Potty
No question — life sometimes feels like a never-ending to-do
list. Understandably, you’d like nothing better than to pare that list down a
little bit. But failing to change your indoor trainee’s soiled indoor potty —
whether that potty is newspapers, a litter box, a grate-covered tray, or
another device — should not be one of the tasks you skip.
Do you like using a dirty bathroom? Of course not. Chances
are, even if the rest of your house looks like a hurricane swept through it,
your bathroom is reasonably clean. And even though you probably don’t enjoy
cleaning your toilet, you do it anyway — because the very thought of using a
dirty john grosses you out.
Your dog doesn’t like to use a dirty bathroom, either. The
idea of pooping or peeing on soaked papers, in a dirty litter box, or on a waste-filled
bathroom tray grosses him out. But
because he can’t change his papers or litter or clean the tray himself, he’s
left with only one alternative to using the canine equivalent of a dirty
toilet: doing his business someplace else. That solves the dirty-toilet problem
for him, but it represents a housetraining setback for both of you.
Tip
Change your indoor trainee’s papers or litter as soon as possible after your pooch has used them. That way, he’ll stay on track with housetraining. And for advice on washing the indoor potty, flip to Chapter Making Some Inside Moves: Indoor Housetraining.
Thinking Your Dog Looks Guilty
You’re on your way home after a long day grappling with
office politics and are looking forward to spending time with your cherished
canine companion. But when you walk in the door, you see a telltale stain on
your gorgeous Oriental rug. When you cast a baleful glance over to your now
not-so-cherished companion, he seems to wilt in front of you: He folds his ears
back, places his tail between his legs, and looks away from you.
“Aha!” you think. “He knows he’s been bad. He knows that he shouldn’t
have peed on my rug. He feels so guilty he can’t even look at me.”
Time out. Your dog’s failure to meet your gaze does not
result from guilt. His low-hanging ears and tail do not reflect remorse. His
body language does not reflect any feelings he has from peeing on your rug.
Before you walked in the door, he was probably taking a nap and wasn’t thinking
at all about how the rug got that stinky yellow stain. Only when you sent that
menacing glance his way did he realize that he might be in trouble.
Remember
Dogs don’t know the meaning of guilt. Your dog has no idea that you’re angry because he used your Oriental rug as a potty. He doesn’t even remember having done so. He understands only that you’re unhappy, and he’s responding in the only way that he knows how: with submissive behavior.
Scolding Her after the Fact
Scolding your dog for a housetraining error does nothing to
teach her what you want her to do. If you yell at her, restrict her, or try to
correct her for producing that puddle, she won’t have the faintest idea why
you’re acting that way. She’ll learn nothing from your rant except to be afraid
of you.
So when you confront a misplaced puddle or pile, take a deep
breath and then just zip it while you clean up. Understand that the mistake was
yours, not your dog’s — and figure out how to prevent that mistake from
recurring.
However, if you catch your dog in the act of making a
mistake, or just about to make one, your approach should be different. Distract
her by clapping your hands, saying “Oops!” in a loud voice, or using a similar
technique. She’ll probably stop what she’s doing (or what she’s about to do).
When she does, get her to her potty spot pronto. Then, when she unloads, praise
her lavishly and give her a small treat if you have one handy.
Rubbing His Nose in You-Know-What
Back in the days of yore, people thought they could correct
a dog for housetraining lapses no matter how long ago those lapses occurred.
Many of those same people also thought that rubbing the offending pooch’s nose
in his poop or pee would further help him understand that doing his biz in the
house was not a good thing to do.
But that really isn’t the case. Giving the dog a snoutful of
dog doo falls in the same category as thinking a dog looks guilty. Either way,
dogs don’t remember their housetraining mistakes. They don’t feel bad for doing
what comes naturally. And they don’t connect having to eyeball their waste with
having deposited that waste in the wrong place a few minutes or hours earlier.
Remember
If you come upon a puddle or pile inside your house, it’s too late to do anything but clean it up. Do that, resolve to prevent future accidents, and consign the nose-rubbing routine to where it belongs: the past.
Changing the Menu Abruptly
You’ve been feeding Rover pretty much the same things day
in, day out for the past few weeks, and his housetraining’s been coming along
beautifully. In fact, you can’t quite remember the last time you had to clean
up a canine potty mistake.
Then, lo and behold, it’s time to celebrate Thanksgiving or
another holiday that calls for a grand and glorious feast for the human members
of the family. But as you’re preparing that feast, the nonhuman member of the
family lays an incredibly effective guilt trip on you. As you baste that turkey
or prepare that sausage stuffing, Rover’s there with you, staring at you and
the food with big, hungry eyes. And you ask yourself how you can possibly stuff
yourself with such wonderful food but force Rover to stick with his usual fare.
You think, “What the heck?” and decide to give Rover a Thanksgiving dinner,
too. And he loves it. He practically inhales it.
Unfortunately, several hours later, Rover has a loose, runny
bowel movement all over your floor. Your tender-hearted gesture at dinnertime
has given Rover an exceptionally tender tummy now — with all-too-predictable
results.
Warning!
Any time you change a dog’s menu suddenly, you risk upsetting his digestive system. Digestive upsets in dogs manifest themselves the same way as they do for people: with diarrhea.
Does this mean that Rover can’t enjoy Thanksgiving dinner
along with the rest of the family? No. It does mean, though, that giving Rover
a completely different meal all at once is likely to wreak havoc with his
bathroom behavior. Let him have a little taste of the turkey (white meat, no
skin). That way, he’ll get to enjoy some holiday fare without having to pay for
it afterward.
The same principle applies when you’re switching Rover’s
everyday cuisine. If you’re changing dog foods or switching from commercial to
raw or home-prepared meals, don’t make the change all at once. Do so over a
period of several days so that Rover’s digestive system can become accustomed
to the new grub. By taking your time with any culinary changes, you’ll greatly
reduce the risk of messy digestive upsets.
Declaring Victory Prematurely
Oh, you are so proud of your little Fifi, aren’t you? She’s
been with you for only a month, she’s just 3 months old, and she hasn’t had an
accident for a whole week. Surely she’s a housetraining prodigy. How many other
dogs her age have aced their bathroom lessons so quickly and so thoroughly?
Probably not many — including Fifi.
Remember
When it comes to housetraining, declaring victory prematurely is a big mistake. Being sure that those potty lessons are imprinted onto the canine brain takes longer than a week, particularly with a puppy. For one thing, a 3-month-old puppy doesn’t have enough physical bowel and bladder control to be considered reliable for long periods of time. Even adult housetrainees who have developed that control may have trouble remembering where and when they’re supposed to potty.
With canine children as well as with human children, don’t give too much freedom too soon. The parents of a 5-year-old child who’s figured out how to ride a bike aren’t likely to let that child ride alone to the other side of town. Similarly, your canine child’s housetraining prowess does not merit unsupervised access to the whole house. Give her longer stretches of unsupervised time outside her crate, or try taking her out for potty breaks a little less often. With both kids and puppies, gradually increased privileges get better results than total immediate freedom.
by Susan McCullough
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