Training the Housetrainer: Taking the Right Approach

In This Chapter

• Reviewing the history of housetraining
• Understanding how dogs really learn
• Becoming your dog’s best teacher

Before a person can teach any subject, he or she has to know not only the subject itself but also how to convey that information to a student. That’s just as true for housetraining as it is for any other topic. For your puppy or dog to learn basic bathroom manners, you need to teach him those manners in a way he can understand.

That said, your four-legged friend brings plenty of positive attributes to the housetraining process: a strong instinct to seek out a den, an equally strong instinct to keep that den clean, an ability to learn through repetition, and a desire to score rewards. But it’s up to you to capitalize on those attributes and develop an approach to housetraining that enables him to get the hang of proper potty protocol with minimum stress on him — and on you.

A lot of what I talk about in this chapter may seem to range far afield from the task at hand: teaching your dog where and when to eliminate. But nothing could be further from the truth, because housetraining is probably one of the first lessons — if not the first lesson — you’ll try to teach your dog.

Remember

The way you try to show your dog proper potty protocol lays the foundation for your efforts to teach him other maneuvers, such as coming when called, sitting when told to, and walking nicely while leashed. What you do now, in this most basic of lessons, can set the tone for your relationship with your dog in the years ahead. For that reason alone, it’s worth taking the time to do the job well.

Leaving Behind Housetraining Methods of Yesteryear

Housetraining a dog doesn’t have to be difficult. But a generation ago, not many people realized that. At best, housetraining was a difficult undertaking; at worst, it was a total failure. Unfortunately, failures occurred all too often.

Here’s what may have been behind these failures. Mom (she was the one who usually got stuck with the housetraining task) would see a puddle or pile of poop on the floor. She’d freak — naturally, the little deposit would be gracing a just-mopped kitchen floor or freshly shampooed living room carpet — and go on the warpath to find the canine culprit. When she found him, she’d grab the culprit by the collar, drag him over to the puddle or pile, and yell, “Bad dog!” at him. Maybe she’d swat him with a rolled-up newspaper. She may even have rubbed his nose in the object of his offense. The terrified pooch would then creep away, and things would settle down, at least temporarily.

Maybe the dog would eventually figure out what Mom was trying to tell him. Often, though, he wouldn’t. And so the dog would soon have another accident, and the whole miserable cycle would begin again. Still, the dog was learning something: He learned that he should avoid the rolled-up newspaper at all costs. He also learned that he should avoid screaming moms.

Most of the problems people had with potty training their dogs weren’t the dogs’ faults; they were the people’s faults. People knew very little about the canine instincts that make housetraining and other training easier. They knew only that they didn’t want their dogs to do their business inside the house.

Since then, dog trainers and owners alike have discovered a lot about how dogs learn. And you can use that knowledge to make housetraining a much easier process than when your mother was trying to do the job.

Using Your Pooch’s Instincts to Lay a Foundation

When housetraining your pooch, you’re not working with a blank slate. Your canine companion probably learned a lot about bathroom behavior before you ever met her — whether she came to you as a puppy or as an adult dog. And a lot of what she knows comes from her instincts: those feelings, drives, and desires that have been with your dog since the moment she was born. They’re hard-wired into her very being. No one taught her the behaviors that result from these impulses; they just came naturally.

The places where your dog chooses to sleep, her tendency to hoard things, her love of licking your face, her delight in fetching objects — these and countless other actions and reactions may all be inborn. And although some of these instincts don’t affect her ability to be housetrained, others do. After you find out about some of these inborn impulses, you can begin to direct them in ways that help your dog learn to do what you want her to do. Your dog’s instincts help her pick up not only potty deportment but also just about anything else you want your dog to know.

The training your dog has already had

You can housetrain almost any dog, but the challenges of teaching a puppy to go potty may differ from those you encounter when you try to teach the same maneuvers to an adult dog. Some of that has to do with the kind of nurturing and training the dog has already received.

The wee ones: Preliminary training and physical limits

All a healthy puppy usually needs to become housetrained is some time to grow and to develop some self-control — and of course, some guidance from you in the meantime.

If you got your puppy from a reputable breeder, Fifi may already know the rudiments of proper potty behavior. After all, the well-bred pup has had lots of opportunities to learn about keeping clean and getting along with other dogs (and people) — both of which are important prehousetraining skills. A puppy who has nailed those basics is easier to teach than one who lacks such knowledge.

Many breeders go even further. They take their puppies outside every morning and after meals, and they praise the little pups when they eliminate. If your puppy’s breeder did that (ask when you’re interviewing prospective breeders), he or she already did some of your dog’s housetraining for you. The same may be true of a dog you adopt from a shelter, rescue group, or individual.

But even if your new puppy aced those preliminary lessons, one crucial lesson she’s only just starting to learn is the lesson of self-control. To put it simply, your little pup just can’t hold it — at least not for very long. A puppy younger than 4 months doesn’t have a big enough bladder or sufficient muscle control to go more than a couple of hours without eliminating. As she gets older, a pup’s ability to control herself gradually increases. By the time she reaches adulthood at about 1 year of age, a healthy dog usually has plenty of self-control. In fact, some adult dogs can hold it for a very long time.

Grown-up pooches: Unlearning bad habits

Even an adult dog who appears to have an iron bladder isn’t necessarily housetrained. The fact that she can hold it doesn’t necessarily mean that she will hold it. An adult dog may be burdened with mental baggage or just plain bad habits that can create additional obstacles to housetraining.

For example, if you adopted your young adult dog from an animal shelter, her previous owners may not have bothered to housetrain her — or if they did, they may have done a poor job. Either way, her failure to master proper potty deportment may well have been what landed her in the shelter in the first place.

Some shelter and rescue dogs have behavioral problems that manifest themselves as inappropriate elimination — for example, a shy dog may roll over and pee whenever someone stands above her and looks directly at her. Even a dog who’s been a model of proper bathroom behavior at one point in her life can later appear to forget what she’s been taught.

Not surprisingly, then, housetraining an adult dog is often less straightforward than housetraining a puppy. The grown-up pooch who has less-than-stellar bathroom manners often needs to unlearn some bad but well-entrenched habits before learning new ones. The person who lives with such a dog may need to develop his detective skills and figure out why his canine companion keeps making bathroom mistakes.

In any case, though, when you know something about your canine friend’s instincts and impulses, you have a leg up on your efforts to housetrain her.

Learning from his mom

Even while he’s still with his litter, a puppy is learning a lot about life as a dog. From his littermates, he learns not to bite too hard (if he bites at all) and how to jockey for position among his brothers and sisters at feeding time. And he learns a lot about proper bathroom behavior, too.

How long can a dog hold it?

Some dogs appear to have bladders made of iron. My late, great Sheltie, Cory, was one such canine. When the weather was bad, he slapped his floodgates shut. His personal best was a whopping 23 hours, even though my family and I gave him ample opportunity to unload during that time period. Still, just because your dog has an iron bladder doesn’t mean you should put it to the test. Here are some guidelines: Most experts say a dog needs a chance to pee at least every eight to ten hours. For puppies, the standard guideline is that they can hold it for the number of months they’ve lived plus one. In other words, your 3-month-old youngster can hold it for about four hours, max. But for many puppies of that age, even four hours is pushing their anatomical limits; they may need trips every three hours or even every two hours for a while. My current canine companion, Allie the Golden Retriever, was one such puppy. Very small puppies, such as toy breeds, often need hourly potty breaks when they’re under 4 months of age simply because their bladders are so small. Chapters Heading to the Outside: Outdoor Housetraining and Making Some Inside Moves: Indoor Housetraining address scheduling potty breaks in detail.

Puppies can start learning elimination etiquette from the time they’re about 3 or 4 weeks old or in some cases, even earlier. Generally, their bathroom manners start kicking in when they have sufficient motor skills to start wandering around the whelping box where they’ve been living with their mom and perhaps outside the box, too.

The mama dog takes advantage of this ability. When the pups indicate they’re about to go potty, she may use her nose to push them outside the box if they haven’t already gotten themselves out of there. Doing so keeps their poop and pee from stinking up the doggie domicile. If the mama dog and puppies are lucky enough to be residing in the home of a good breeder, several layers of newspaper will be at the other end of the box or other quarters for the puppies to eliminate on. After the puppies eliminate on the newspaper that the breeder placed on the floor for just that purpose, she whisks the soiled papers away and replaces them with fresh ones. Those are ways a breeder reinforces the mama dog’s efforts.

By 7 or 8 weeks of age, most puppies have developed enough control to master this first bathroom lesson. They have to poop and pee every couple of hours or so, but they’ve learned to listen to their bodies, and they can tell when they need to go. When they get those urges, they try to scurry away from their den before giving in to that compulsion to squat. This effort to eliminate away from the den signals that a puppy is ready to begin learning the rudiments of housetraining.

Denning dynamics

The lessons a puppy learns about keeping clean go way beyond what her mom makes her do (see the preceding section). The nest that a dog’s mother teaches her to help keep clean is really her first den — and dens are a big deal in the lives of most dogs.

Remember

For a dog, the den is simply an area that she can call her own. Generally, it’s a small place that’s at least somewhat enclosed on two or three sides but is also open on at least one side. The area may be dark, but it doesn’t have to be. What it does have to be is a place where the dog feels safe and secure.

Unlike her wolf ancestors, the domestic dog doesn’t need a den to ensure her physical survival, but her urge to find a den is still very strong (see Figure 2-1). My Golden Retriever office-mate, Allie, is a case in point — see the nearby sidebar titled “The under-dog: Improvising dens.”

Figure 2-1: Dogs can find dens in unexpected places.

The under-dog: Improvising dens

My Golden Retriever Allie is using one of her dens right now. While I’ve been typing this chapter at the computer atop my desk, she came into my office and crept under that desk. She’s now lying at my feet, protected on two sides by the walls of my office and on a third side by a part of the desk. My legs provide a kind of doorway that hides her from the view of others who come into the room. However, she still has a clear view of anyone else who comes in. The desk isn’t the only den available to Allie, though. She also enjoys napping under other tables in the house while my family and I are nearby. And sometimes, while the rest of our family is watching TV, my Golden girl spends some time in the dog crate she’s had since she was a puppy. She also makes a beeline for the crate whenever she sees me wielding the vacuum cleaner, against which she appears to harbor some apprehensions. Inside that crate, Allie waits calmly, knowing that she’s safe and secure, while I wage another battle in my never-ending war against dust bunnies.

Cleanliness is next to dog-liness

So-called dog people — humans who are enamored of anything and everything remotely canine — like to say that the word God is really dog spelled backward. They may espouse the motto of a magazine called The Bark: “Dog is my co-pilot.” These dog people aren’t being blasphemous. But their juxtaposition of God and dog has interesting implications for housetraining. Although many people believe that “cleanliness is next to godliness,” most dogs instinctively adhere to the notion that cleanliness is next to dog-liness. In other words, dogs instinctively want to keep themselves clean.

Sometimes a dog’s definition of cleanliness differs slightly from yours. You probably don’t like the idea of Fido’s splashing in a mud puddle, but Fido may not mind the mud at all. In terms of peeing and pooping, though, Fido and most of his canine compatriots draw the line between dirt and cleanliness — and they draw that line right smack in front of their dens.

Instinctively, a normal, healthy dog will do just about anything to avoid having to use his den as a toilet area. The last thing he wants to do is deposit his bodily waste anywhere near his cherished domicile. You can make that impulse work in your favor as you housetrain your dog. The impulse to keep the den clean is the cornerstone to teaching dogs to poop and pee only where and when you want them to. The drive to use a den and the drive to avoid soiling that den form the basis of easy, effective housetraining using a crate.

Life without guilt

Suppose that your dog makes a mistake. Say that she anoints your freshly mopped kitchen floor or leaves a little pile of poop in the foyer. Do you think she feels bad about it? Do you think she’s overcome with remorse? Do you think she even remembers she’s done a dirty deed within five minutes of committing the act? The answers to those questions are no, no, and no. Guilt and remorse aren’t in your dog’s emotional repertoire.

“Now, wait a minute,” you say. “When I come home at night from work and see that Fido’s peed on the rug, he sure looks to me as though he’s feeling guilty. And when I start yelling at him, his ears go back, his tail goes between his legs, and he kind of cringes. He knows he’s done something wrong.”

Fido knows something all right — but that something isn’t any realization that he’s messed up big time. What he does know is that you’re angry. If you’re yelling his name, he also figures out pretty quickly that you’re angry at him. But he doesn’t have a clue as to why you’re so upset; he’s long since forgotten about his little rug-christening party. All he knows is that you’re mad at him, and he’s scared of you. Under such circumstances, he takes what looks to him like two prudent courses of action: literally making himself smaller (that’s why he cringes) and beating a hasty retreat.

Does he understand that you don’t want him to have any more accidents in the house? Nope. Does he realize that if he didn’t have any accidents, you wouldn’t become angry? No, again. He’s just doing everything he can to minimize your wrath and, when that fails, to get away from that wrath — and from you.

Remember

Your dog lives a life that’s completely free of guilt. He doesn’t connect one of his long-ago actions with the angry outburst you’re having now, which is why yelling at your dog after the fact doesn’t teach him anything except to be afraid of you. Time, patience, and consistency are much more likely to get you the results you seek.

Learning by repetition

Your dog’s inability to remember past mistakes doesn’t mean that she can’t make connections. On the contrary, she’s very good at linking cause and effect. You can use that linking ability to teach her proper bathroom behavior or just about anything else you want her to know. How? Behold the power of repetition.

In fact, many times your dog learns something that you didn’t plan to teach her. For example, my Golden Retriever, Allie, knows when I’m about to leave the house — and in response to my near departure, she often heads down to her crate on her own. Figuring out how she knew when I was leaving took me a while, but then I realized that I perform the same sequence of actions every time I leave the house: I put on some lipstick, pick up my purse, and get out my car keys. That sequence sends Allie to her crate.

Although repetition is the key to teaching your dog what you want her to know, you can do less repeating when you provide her with some sort of incentive for doing the right thing. Find out more about this positive approach in the later section titled “Rewarding the good, ignoring the goofs.”

The need for attachment

Ever see a litter of young puppies? They tumble over each other constantly and seem to be touching each other all the time. Rarely do you see one puppy consistently go off by himself. Puppies need each other for warmth and companionship; they thrive in each other’s company.

But perhaps when you welcomed home your new puppy or dog, you made the mistake of having him sleep by himself in the kitchen or basement. If so, you undoubtedly experienced a night full of heart-rending wails, yips, and howls. Your canine companion didn’t like being alone, away from his littermates or the companions of his previous home. Being away from you made those already bad feelings seem even worse.

And of course, you know about the neighborhood dog whose owner leaves him alone in the backyard all day, every day, and who barks his head off — much to the annoyance of those who live nearby. Why does he do it? Boredom is one reason. Loneliness is another.

Remember

Dogs are social animals. When they have a chance to choose between being alone and being with another individual, they generally choose the latter.

What does this need for company have to do with housetraining? Plenty. Not only does your dog’s desire to be with you help build a precious bond between the two of you, but it also helps you keep track of where he is and what he’s doing during the housetraining process. No matter how you look at it, your dog’s instinctive desire to be close to you is something you can use as part of his housetraining — and any other training, for that matter.

How instincts can be thwarted

Instincts play a big role in how quickly your dog masters the art of housetraining. Many puppies learn basic cleanliness and social skills — two important prehousetraining accomplishments — from their mothers and littermates. But what if, for some reason, a puppy doesn’t pick up those lessons in the first few weeks of her life? And how can that happen? One answer to how that happens is just two words: puppy mills.

Puppy mills: Inhibiting instincts

Puppy mills are substandard breeding operations in which female dogs are forced to mate as often as possible. Breeders raise mother and pups in deplorable conditions: I’m talking tiny cages in which these poor animals barely have enough room to turn around. They also often have to live knee-deep in their own poop and pee.

Warning!

Having to live in her own filth is a surefire way to short-circuit a dog’s instinctive drive to do her bathroom business away from her den. She can’t get away from her den. And especially if she’s a puppy, she can’t hold it forever. Sooner or later, she has to go, and if the den is the only place where she can eliminate, that’s where she does so. Eventually, she learns to deal with it.

What does this kind of situation mean for housetraining? Simple: A puppy-mill dog may take quite a while to recover her instinct to potty away from her den. And until she does, housetraining will be extremely difficult for everyone involved. This doesn’t mean that a puppy-mill pooch can’t be housetrained. Plenty of people have persevered until their canine companions finally understood where and when they were supposed to potty. But getting to that point takes lots of time and even more patience.

Unfortunately, many people lack such patience. When such patience is absent, life with their puppy-mill potty delinquents may veer off in one of two directions. Either the owners put up with a dog they say is “partially housetrained” (which really means the dog isn’t housetrained at all), or the owners decide that they can’t tolerate the stains, smells, and aggravation of a dog who can’t learn basic bathroom manners. In turn, they either relegate the dog to remote areas of the house or, worse, get rid of the dog. Any way you look at it, the outcome is unhappy for all concerned.

Clearly, avoiding such problems in the first place is a good idea. How? By not buying a puppy or dog who comes from a puppy mill. A large number of these pooches end up in retail pet stores, such as those located in shopping malls. Others are sold by dealers who pose as breeders and advertise online or through print classifieds. You can evaluate a breeder by visiting the premises, asking to see the mama dog, and using the guidelines in the nearby “What is a reputable breeder?” sidebar.

Tip

Many pet stores have stopped selling puppies themselves and instead hold adoption events to allow shelters and rescue groups to showcase the puppies and dogs who need new homes. Such stores clearly indicate that they’re holding such events, and personnel from the shelter or rescue group are there to talk with you about the animals up for adoption. If that’s the case with the pet store you’re considering, assess the puppies and dogs up for adoption, and know that in doing so you may be saving a life. If you can’t tell whether the store is selling puppies or is just giving a shelter or rescue group a place to display the animals in their care, think two, three, four, or more times before acquiring a puppy from that store.

Did you already buy a pet-store puppy that likely came from a puppy mill? Don’t despair. Housetraining her may be difficult but certainly not impossible. See Chapter Training to Love the Crate for more information.

What is a reputable breeder?

Just what makes a breeder reputable? Here are a few clues to look for: She’s an expert in her breed. I’m not just talking cursory knowledge here; I’m talking someone who knows more about the history of Boxers or the genetic problems of Collies than you could ever imagine. (And if a breeder says her breed doesn’t have any such problems, run, don’t walk, out her door.) She raises only a few litters a year. More than that, and you have the makings of a factory breeding operation — in other words, a puppy mill. She keeps her facilities scrupulously clean. A clean puppy living area ups the odds of dogs and puppies staying healthy — not to mention it encourages the proper development of puppy instincts for a clean den. She asks you lots of questions. A good breeder cares enough about her puppies to make sure they go to the best possible homes. She waits until her puppies are 7 to 9 weeks of age before she lets them go to new homes. By that time, the pups have learned some basic canine manners from their mama and have developed enough control to begin housetraining lessons in earnest. She gives her puppies lots of love and handling and makes sure that they spend time with other people of all ages and both sexes. If a breeder raises her puppies in her family room or kitchen, you’re on the right track. If she keeps the pups in an outdoor kennel, walk away.

Animal shelters and rescue groups: Lacking socialization?

Suppose that you’ve opted for an older dog or a mixed breed from a shelter or rescue group. Will such a dog pose special housetraining challenges? That question has no single answer.

Lots of dogs from animal shelters and rescue groups do just fine with housetraining. In fact, quite a few of them have mastered basic bathroom behavior before you even bring them home. Some, though, may not have done so. And some may be poorly socialized — in other words, they lack the exposure to everyday sights, sounds, and people that enables them to become emotionally well-adjusted animals. This poor socialization may make it tougher for such a dog to become bonded to you and may also make it tougher for you to help him unlearn some bad bathroom habits.

This certainly doesn’t mean that the dog you adopt from a shelter or a rescue group can’t be housetrained. What may be the case, though, is that the task will be a bit more of a challenge than you expected. You’ll get a leg up on that challenge, however, if you find out as much as you can about your dog’s background before you bring him home and start teaching him basic bathroom etiquette. Chapter Sorting Out Humans’ Housetraining Challenges offers more information on how to housetrain the shelter or rescue dog.

Taking the 21st-Century Approach to Housetraining

Today, more people understand that to get what they want from their dogs, they first have to tune in to what their dogs want. People have discovered a lot about how dogs think, feel, and learn. They now know that most dogs don’t want to poop or pee anywhere near where they sleep and eat. They understand that every canine likes to have a den to call his own. They realize that dogs don’t remember what they’ve done within a few minutes of having done it. Consistency, patience, and repetition are what you need to teach your dog what you want him to know.

Such knowledge enables you to develop a training approach that helps you help your dog express his instincts in ways that are acceptable to you. In other words, you can train your dog not only to do what you want but to do what he wants, too. After you know what your dog can bring to the housetraining process, you have to realize what you need to bring to that same enterprise. This section covers some of the qualities that can help you be the best teacher your dog will ever have.

Seeing your dog’s point of view

Any communications theorist, corporate trainer, or psychologist will tell you that to persuade someone to do what you want, you have to put yourself in his shoes. You need to imagine his thoughts and figure out what makes him tick.

Remember

Empathy is just as important when you’re trying to reach a dog as when you’re trying to persuade a person. You need to understand the way your dog views the world and relates to it. In terms of housetraining or any other teaching, you’ll be miles ahead of the game if you can think like a dog.

When you think like a dog, you realize that

• Disciplining your dog after she’s done something wrong doesn’t do any good, because she has no idea what that something-wrong is.
• For many dogs, peeing is much more than an act of elimination — it’s a way to communicate with other canines.
• The shy little darling who rolls onto her back and dribbles a bit of urine when you come home hasn’t mislaid her bathroom manners. Instead, she’s paying homage to you, doggie-style.
• When you’re out walking with your four-legged friend at night and she stops suddenly in the middle of the sidewalk, she’s not being stubborn; more likely, she sees something that scares her. To you, it’s just another garbage can, but to her, it’s big and bad and dark and menacing. After you realize what she’s feeling and thinking, you can coax her past the object in question instead of yanking on her leash and dragging her to you.

Remember

You can’t succeed with housetraining — or any type of dog training — by shoving your wishes down your dog’s throat and expecting her to swallow them. Force isn’t effective; it pits the two of you against each other. Instead, you and your canine companion should be on the same side. You should have a common goal: figuring out how to live happily together.

Being benevolent

A lot of dog-training literature, not to mention amateur trainers or people who think they know the scoop, tell you that dominance and leadership are the keys to training success. “Show your dog who’s boss,” they say. “Don’t let him get away with anything.”

Some even recommend that you punish a transgressing dog by grabbing him by the scruff of the neck and rolling him over onto his back (alpha rolls) or by hanging him by his collar. Still others advocate that the best way to deal with a fearful dog is to help him face his fear. And many advocate the use of choke chains and prong collars to bring a disobedient dog into line. You won’t see any such advocacy here.

Remember

At times, a dog owner does need to be a leader. But even at such times, you can be a benevolent leader: the giver of all good things, the source of all things fun, the refuge in times of fear. Such a leader thinks not in terms of dominance and submission but in terms of benevolence and cooperation. You can be your dog’s best teacher, but you can also be his best friend — and dominance never needs to be a part of your vocabulary.

Working with your dog’s instincts

All my life, I’ve had curly hair. When I was younger and straight hair was the thing, I plastered all kinds of goop on it, blew and baked it dry and straight, and otherwise just fought Mother Nature. I rarely got the results I wanted — and when I did, Mother Nature invariably found a way to spoil them in the form of rain or simply some high humidity. Then I wised up. I cut my hair super short and let it do its thing. I still use some goop to give it the shine and texture I like, but I don’t blow it dry. I wash it, finger-comb it, and go. What, you may ask, does this have to do with housetraining a dog? Everything. Really.

Just as I became a lot happier with my hair after I started working with its natural tendencies, so can you housetrain your puppy or dog faster when you work with hers. Her need for a den, her desire to keep that den clean, and her ability to learn through consistency and repetition can all help her become a housetraining ace much faster than she did back in the day when all Mom had to work with was a rolled-up newspaper and a boatload of totally understandable frustration. You just have to use your dog’s instincts to your advantage. But then, that’s why you’re reading this book.

Creating a schedule

I admit it: About some things in life, dog-related and not, I can be a total fanatic. Creating a schedule for the canine housetrainee is one of those things. Why? Because, quite simply, having a schedule is a great way to reduce the time it takes your dog to get the hang of housetraining. The training process becomes a whole lot easier when you feed your dog, play with him, and let him eliminate at the same times every single day.

A schedule plays right into your dog’s need for repetition, consistency, and predictability. A schedule also makes it a whole lot easier for you to anticipate when your dog needs to pee and poop and then to get him to the right place before he has an accident.

There’s no one-schedule-fits-all timetable. You need to put together a regimen that fits your dog’s age, his degree of housetraining prowess, and the housetraining method you’re using. You can find more info on how to create this kind of schedule in Chapters Heading to the Outside: Outdoor Housetraining and Making Some Inside Moves: Indoor Housetraining.

Rewarding the good, ignoring the goofs

No, this section isn’t an advertorial for the Reverend Norman Vincent Peale’s treatise on The Power of Positive Thinking. But frankly, he had a point: A whole lot of power lies in positive thinking — and in positive training, too.

Think about that old approach to dog training I talk about at the beginning of this chapter. Basically, it revolves around finding your dog doing something wrong and then punishing him for doing so. But that approach frequently doesn’t work very well. All too often, dogs don’t know what they’re doing wrong, much less how to do something right.

The opposite, positive approach works much better than the negative one. Instead of pouncing on your dog for messing up, look for him to do the right thing — and when he does (trust me, he will), reward him lavishly. That reward can come in the form of verbal praise, loving hugs and petting, tasty treats, or even all three. In any case, take a positive approach, not a negative one. (Wondering what kinds of treats to give your dog? Never fear: Just about everything you ever wanted to know about dog treats appears in Chapter Feeding Fido: What Goes In Must Come Out.)

Of course, you don’t just wait passively for your dog to do the right thing. As part of your approach, you need to actively guide him into performing the maneuvers you want him to perform, using his instincts to help him get the idea a little faster. And when he does get the idea, don’t forget to praise him to the skies. You have to reward him for doing what you want him to do.

Remember

By consistently showing your dog what you want him to do and then rewarding him for doing so, you’re conditioning your dog to do the right thing. You’re upping the odds that he’ll do what you want him to do every time you want him to do it.

Technical Stuff

Remember reading about Pavlov’s dogs in science class? The Russian scientist actually got the dogs to salivate by giving each dog a food reward — a treat — every time a bell rang. The dogs learned that the ringing bell would precede getting a treat, and they began to look forward to getting that treat. They were primed for that food reward, and as a result, their mouths mouth began to water.

You don’t have to wear a white coat and have a fancy laboratory to condition your dog the same way Pavlov conditioned his. Simply show your pooch what you want and immediately reward him for doing what you’ve shown him — whether it’s the first time he pees in your backyard or the hundredth time he anoints a tree instead of the rug in your bedroom. By giving him that reward, you’re letting him know that he’s done something that pleases you, and you give him an incentive to do that something again.

What if he does something wrong? If he pees on your carpet, you clean it up without any comment. If he poops on your brand-new hardwood floor, you whisk the mess away. Period. You don’t yell at him. You don’t punish him. You certainly don’t rub his nose in it. You just get rid of the mess and move on. (For the lowdown on the fine art of cleaning up the right way, see Chapter Getting Your Home in Housetraining Order.)

Tip

If you catch your dog in the act of peeing or pooping in the wrong place, view the situation as a teaching opportunity for you and a learning opportunity for him. Interrupt him in the act and take him to the right place: the place where you’ve decided he should do his bathroom business.

Being consistent

Yes, I know. You’ve already got so much going on in your oh-so-busy life that you can’t possibly remember what color your dog’s pee was yesterday or when she last pooped. Believe me, I sympathize. Everyone is on information overload. I, too, have trouble remembering what day it is. Sometimes I even forget that Allie has peed within a minute of her actually doing so.

But take heart. Help for memory-impaired folks is here: consistency. In housetraining terms, consistency means having your dog eat, drink, pee, and poop at the same times and places every day. You create a routine that the two of you eventually can do in your sleep (or almost, anyway).

By adopting a consistent routine for your dog’s dining and toileting activities, you help not only your own memory but also your dog’s ability to housetrain faster. Dogs learn through repetition, so when you and she do the same things at the same times in the same places each day, she’ll come to expect that you’ll be doing those things.

This consistency affects your dog both physically and mentally. The repetition that you establish in feeding and housetraining your dog conditions her body as well as her mind. After all, you may be physically conditioned to expect that early morning jog or a second cup of coffee at the same time each day — and without the jog or joe, you don’t feel quite right. You don’t like that feeling, so you stick with your exercise and/or coffee routine; it becomes a habit. By establishing similar routines with your dog, you’re helping to make housetraining a habit for her. When her body gets used to the routine you set up for her, she’ll be primed to poop and pee when and where you want her to.

Don’t worry, though. After your dog is truly housetrained, you don’t have to be quite such a fanatic about repetition and consistency. Your dog will have the control she needs to hold it a little longer if your schedule hits an unexpected snag. Still, keeping to at least a semblance of routine is a good idea, even when your four-legged friend is a housetraining ace.

Attending to details

Have you ever toilet-trained a child? If so, you know the impor- tance of paying attention to seemingly trivial details, such as when he last peed in the potty, when he last did a doo-doo in his diaper, or what he ate for dinner the night before he had a funny-colored bowel movement.

The same is true when you’re housetraining your dog. During this process, you need to remember what you fed your four-legged friend and when you did so. Recalling how long it’s been since he last peed or pooped is always a good idea. And knowing what his pee or poop normally looks like is important so that you can tell when he may be sick. In fact, your dog’s pee and poop can tell you a lot about his overall health. (For more information on this topic, see Chapter Understanding How an Oh-No Can Become a Problem-o.)

Paying attention to details also means taking the time to observe your dog and discover what makes him the unique individual he is. For example, do you know the answers to these questions?

• Does he lift his leg when he pees? Does he like to lift both legs (one at a time, of course)? Or does he not bother lifting his leg at all?
• Does he need to eliminate right after he eats, or does he like to wait awhile?
• Does he like to pee in the same spot all the time, or is he an I’ll-do-it-anywhere piddler?
• Does he circle and sniff before doing his business? Or does he suddenly stop midstride and do the deed before you quite realize what’s happening?
• Is he a little introvert who sometimes releases some urine when you greet him? Or is he an extrovert who offers a wagging tail and canine grin to everyone he meets?

Think of the stories you tell your friends about your dog. What are some funny things he’s done? How about the sweet things, the poignant things? What are some of his quirks — potty-related and otherwise?

What, you ask, do all these questions have to do with housetraining? A lot. The better you know your dog, the more you can empathize with him. The more you can empathize with him — to think the way he does — the better able you are to adjust his housetraining lessons to his unique character and perspective. And the better able you are to fine-tune your housetraining to his character, the more effective your housetraining efforts are overall.

This personalized — or rather, dog-specific — approach is particularly true with respect to your dog’s bathroom habits. By paying attention to what he does when he pees or poops, you can better anticipate when he’s going to go — and intervene when he’s going to go in the wrong place.

by Susan McCullough