I have posted and will continue to post every good article on the subject that I find. You need to choose the one you can use and STICK TO IT. Consistency is the key.
Mike Wombacher
We know all about it. You’ve stepped in the puddles. Your carpets are DNR. You’re home is a puppy potty. The cons of pup parenthood are few. But your letters to Woof Report spell out the biggest one – housebreaking. Whether you’re welcoming a new puppy, an older dog, or just can’t seem to get your dog to stick with the program, today is your lucky day. Woof Report got the poop on housebreaking from Mike Wombacher, our new Woof Report resident training expert. Follow his Three Pillars of Housebreaking, an excerpt from his book, There’s a Puppy in the House, and your carpet lives another day.
The Three Pillars of Housebreaking The first impression of a young puppy is that, other than being cute, it’s little more than a relentless pooping and peeing machine. Unfortunately, piles and puddles are an unavoidable part of puppy ownership. Therefore the suggestion to simply “deal with it” is valid. That being said, the next question of course is, how do we put this behind us as fast as possible? The answer can be found in what I call The Three Pillars of Housebreaking: Confine, Supervise, Regulate. Imbibe these principles and you will be on your way to a housebroken pup relatively quickly; don’t and you’ll be sorry. Let’s take a look at each of these principles in turn.
Confine. Confinement is key to any housebreaking program because pups, generally speaking, don’t like to poop or pee in the immediate area where they’re hanging out. You can confine a pup in any number of ways – crates, ex-pens, patches of backyard, or cordoning off certain areas of your house such as a kitchen or hallway with baby gates. These are the most common approaches and they work nicely in tandem with one another. You should avail yourself of these areas at any time when it is not possible for you to supervise your pup.
Supervise. If your pup is not confined in a situation such as the one described above, he or she must be supervised. Now, supervision does not mean that you know your pup is “back there somewhere.” Supervision is active; it means you know where your pup is because you can see him or her. If you’re too busy for this, confine your pup. You should be aware that the bulk of all housebreaking problems revolve around failures in this area. Now, you might ask yourself, “what’s the big deal about supervision? The pup will still go right in front of me?” That’s true, but if you see your pup eliminate you’re in a position to do something about it, that is reprimand your pup. Yes, that’s right – reprimand (more on that in a minute).
One very clever way in which you can both confine and supervise a pup at the same time without constantly crating or penning is to leash the pup to yourself in the house or tether him or her to nearby objects such as table legs (offer a little bone or other chewie to keep the pup busy in the latter case). That way the pup gets to be with you, starts to understand your leadership role (as he or she will be following you around), and you can supervise while still being engaged in other activities.
Returning to the subject of reprimands, please don’t be taken in by training tips that suggest you ignore the pup when he or she is pooping in the house because reprimanding them will make them afraid to go in front of you. Reprimanding them teaches them what’s not okay and helps them to learn. So how should you reprimand your pup? By clapping your hands loudly and in a strong tone – not an angry one but one filled with urgency – commanding “ah, ah, ah - no, no, no.” The idea is to startle and interrupt the pup, then bring him or her outside as quickly as possible, and encourage him or her to finish there, at which point you deliver a treat.
Regulate. This third pillar simply refers to establishing a predictable routine for your pup, that is, regular meal times and regular elimination times. The more predictable this becomes the more your pup will come to expect it and the more his or her little metabolism becomes synced to that routine.
So there you have it – the outlines of a solid housebreaking program. If you find yourself having trouble with housebreaking there is a 98% chance that your problem can be found in one of these areas, mostly likely lack of supervision. That being said, there can be many subtle nuances and problems in housebreaking, so check out the link below for more information.
The Scoop:
Read the entire chapter from Mike’s book, There’s a Puppy in the House, for more information and helpful tips. www.doggonegood.org/housebreaking
Submit your behavior or training questions for Mike in our new Ask the Trainer feature. www.woofreport.com/ask-the-trainer
This was taken from a handout provided by the Marin Humane Society and it
provides great guidelines to housebreak your puppy or dog. It is not any
harder to train a dog than a puppy and I have adopted two adult dogs who
were not housebroken and found the training to be very easy.
Housebreaking Your New Dog or Puppy
The best way to train a dog or puppy not to soil in the house is to be proactive
and prevent it from happening in the first place. “Keeping an eye on her” is
more wishful thinking than a solution. She can dart behind the sofa when you
turn your back for a second. Each time she manages to go potty in the house,
it becomes more of a habit and training becomes that much more difficult. Be
sure to clean up all accidents with an enzymatic cleaner, such as Nature’s
Miracle, so she won’t seek out that spot to go again.
Elimination is such a non-event in a dog’s life that it is forgotten immediately,
so punishment after the event, even minutes later, is almost always
misunderstood by the dog. She probably will have no idea why you are so
upset. She may conclude that you don’t want her to go potty at all, and will
take pains to hide from you while she decorates places like your closet or
bedroom. The worst case scenario is that she will decide that you are
dangerous and be afraid of you—certainly not the relationship you want with
your dog. If, however, you catch her in the very act, it’s OK to say “oops” or
make a quick intake of air, then scoop her up to take her outside. All this can
be avoided in most cases by following the routine below.
For a healthy dog, the best way to keep things dry and clean is with total
management. When dealing with young puppies the easiest and most
effective method is crate training. With older dogs, you can employ a variety
of methods of restraint. If your dog seems restless, take her outside
immediately. Remember, you are trying to prevent unwanted behavior. For
the duration of the training, your dog should spend every waking minute,
24/7, in one of the following places:
1. Their crate, with all padding removed. Dogs don’t seem to mind lying on
a damp towel, but they don’t like lying in a puddle.
2. On a Tie-Down, a short leash attached to the baseboard or, for smaller
dogs, to any immovable object.
3. Outside in a fenced yard - not all day, but for reasonable intervals.
4. On a leash, attached to an adult member of the family. Loop the leash
around your wrist while you read or watch TV.
With this kind of confinement, remember that it’s your responsibility to
provide ample opportunity for your dog to eliminate at regular intervals.
Generally, the younger the dog, the shorter the interval should be between
opportunities. A rule of thumb would be about every two hours. In addition,
you should take her out when she wakes up in the morning, after a long nap,
after a play session, 10 or 15 minutes after each meal, and any time she seems
restless or anxious.
During the training period, it’s best for you to accompany your dog outside. If
the dog is more comfortable with one member of the family, that person
should take her out. Go armed with small but really, really delicious treats,
such as bits of chicken or steak. Pick a word or phrase, such as “hurry up!”
and use this phrase every time you take her out. Some dogs are reluctant to go
when on leash; others do not like to be watched. Go with the flow on these
things, making it as easy as possible for your dog to succeed. You can watch
her out of the corner of your eye, so that your praise can come
IMMEDIATELY after she finishes. If you wait a few seconds, she may think
you are praising her for any number of unrelated things, from lifting a paw to
scratching her left ear.
Your praise should be lavish, as if she had just invented the wheel. Then give
her several of those great little treats and take her back in the house. This is
the only time she should get those special treats. If she shows no interest in
relieving herself after 5 minutes or so, take her back inside to one of the places
listed above, and try again in 15 minutes. Repeat this every 15 minutes until
she goes potty, hiding your impatience as best you can. Greet success with
the same enthusiasm and delicious treats as you would if she had cooperated
the first time you took her out.
Occasionally a dog will refuse to go outside, then pee on the floor the minute
she gets in the house. Resist the urge to scream and accept the idea that she
doesn’t quite understand yet. She is not doing it to spite you. If she is off
leash, the responsibility is yours for giving her the opportunity to make a
mistake. If she is on leash, it’s a perfect opportunity for you to scoop her up
and rush back outside.
During the rainy season it’s not uncommon for dogs to regress. When a dog
regresses, it is always a good idea to have your vet check her for a possible
urinary infection. If she gets a clean bill of health, the sooner you address the
problem, the better. You certainly don’t want your dog to conclude that inside
the house is a more comfortable bathroom than out in the rain. Should this
happen, go back to square one, just as if she had never been house trained. It
won’t take nearly as long as it did the first time, especially if you catch it
early.
If you’ve adopted an older dog, she must have been relieving herself
someplace before you got her. If it was always on a certain surface—say, dirt
or gravel—she may only feel comfortable going on that surface, and think she
is doing what you want when she refuses to go in the place you have selected
as her new bathroom. If she relieves herself when on walks, observe what
surface she chooses. If, for instance, she seems to prefer grass, and you want
her to go on the bricks in your patio, put a small amount of sod in your patio.
Proceed with the above routine, but when you take her outside, lead her to the
spot with the sod. If this works, you can gradually cut down on the size of the
sod, until it is gone. For the best chance of this working, take your time
reducing the size.
If you like, you can use this training period to teach your dog how to ask to be
let out when she needs to go. One simple and fun way is to say “Want to go
outside?” or some such phrase. With a treat, lure her around into a spin just
before you take her outside. In time she will associate the spin with going
outside and will offer the behavior when she needs to go out. Alternatively,
you can attach a small bell to the door you use to take her outside. Help her
bat her paw at the bell when you say, “Want to go outside?” then immediately
take her out. The more cheerful you are about this, the more readily she will
see it as a positive thing. Your friends will be impressed.
Some dogs are very easy to house train, while others are much more difficult.
If yours seems slow to catch on, and you are doing all the things you can to
help her, don’t assume she is stupid. After all, Einstein, though a genius in
theoretical physics, had trouble learning to read, but he did eventually
succeed. Your dog may never shine in physics or the written word, but with
consistent training, she can succeed in the important job of being potty
trained.
Housetraining The Very Young Puppy (Under 16 weeks of age) by Lesley Morrow It takes A Human To Make A Dog Soil Its Bed Successful housetraining depends mostly on the humans involved in the process. By using prevention instead of punishment, with vigilance, reasonable expectations, and by using a puppy's natural instincts, housetraining can be accomplished painlessly and in a reasonably short time. Breed and/or sex have no impact on the ease or difficulty of teaching your puppy to eliminate in a specific area (be it outdoors, on newspapers, or in a kitty litter box.) Puppies are instinctively clean. From birth, they leave the pile of sleeping littermates and go as far away as possible to eliminate. Unless forced to do so, puppies will not soil their bed and this instinct is your greatest training aid. Scolding or Punishing A Very Young Puppy Is Ineffective and Counterproductive. The younger the pup, the less time there is between impulse and action. He needs to eliminate, so he does. Punishing or even scolding a very young puppy has no more effect than it would have on an infant in diapers. Fortunately, a puppy will train a whole lot faster than a baby! Confinement: the Basic Rule of Housetraining Before we go any further let me assure you that confining your dog is not cruel! In the wild, canines instinctively seek out small-enclosed spaces in which to make their dens. If you have obtained your puppy from a reliable and knowledgeable breeder, your puppy will be accustomed to being confined and will accept this in your home, provided you do not allow him the run of the house. It is far more cruel to give a dog that is untrained too much freedom, too fast, which guarantees puddles and messes all over your house. The puppy becomes subject to constant reprimands, which will probably be after the fact, so he has no idea why you are upset; you are frustrated by the unpleasant task of cleaning up after him, and having your good carpet soiled; and things might get so bad that you either put the dog in exile in an outdoor kennel, or you recycle him.... or even have him destroyed. Which is worse, being euthanized, spending your life alone in a backyard, or spending part of every day in a comfortable and safe area? Before you bring your puppy home, decide where and in what, he is going to sleep. Strongly recommended is the crate, a wire or fiberglass and wire enclosure, big enough for the puppy to stretch out in comfortably, but not big enough for him to have a sleeping and "bathroom" areas. If you have a puppy of the large or giant breeds, and expense is a consideration, you may want to purchase the size crate your dog will need as an adult and partition it off, giving him more room as he grows. Another option is a discarded baby playpen, with wiring fastened around the outside of the slats to insure that the pup can't get caught between them or wriggle out. Collapsible fencing or commercial exercise pens, attached to a wall or walls can be used to enclose an area. Baby gates or commercial dog gates can be used to enclose a small area. The crate has a decided advantage over these other options in that it is portable. Puppies and dogs need companionship, and the crate can be moved from room to room (although you may find yourself, like many doggie folk, with crates in many rooms. They make handy end and coffee tables!). It is also a benefit if your dog is crate trained, should he have to stay confined because of illness or surgery. In case of automobile accident, it is safer for your dog if he is traveling in a crate, rather than loose in the car. There may be times when you want to protect your dog from untrained children, or you may have company who is afraid of dogs. Many hotels and motels will only accept dogs if they are crated. The crate is the dog's bed, his haven, and as he earns his freedom in the house, you will find that you can leave your crate open, and he will go in and out at will. It is his place, his den, and he feels safe and comfortable there. What Should I Put In The Crate For My Puppy To Sleep On? Nothing. Did you ever wonder why, if there was one tiny throw rug in the midst of a sea of linoleum, your dog or puppy always messed on the rug? It's because of Rule Number 2: dogs always seek the most absorbent place to do their business. Since we don't want the puppy to get the idea that we want him to soil his crate, don't put a blanket or towel, or even a canvas covered crate pillow inside, yet. Later, after the puppy has demonstrated cleanliness in the crate, you may do so. Introducing Your Puppy To His Place of Confinement Ideally, your puppy will come to you already crate-trained. However, not all puppies have ideal beginnings, so you may have to introduce your puppy to the crate. One way to introduce the crate is by removing the door and surrounding it with an exercise pen, where the exercise pen area can be covered with newspapers if the puppy must be unsupervised, or if you must leave the puppy alone for more hours a day than he is capable of regulating his eliminations. This arrangement allows the puppy to keep his bed (the crate) clean. Feed the puppy in his crate, and if he is reluctant to go in to eat, put the bowls just in the doorway, so he can stand outside and eat with only his head inside. At each meal, put the bowls an inch or two further back, until he willingly goes in to eat. Also keep a few toys in the crate. When he is comfortable eating in the crate it is time to teach him to stay quietly inside while confined. Put the door back on the crate. This time, when you feed him, close the door. As soon as he is done eating, let him out and take him to his potty area. How Often Should I Take My Puppy Outside? Generally, a puppy should only be confined as many daytime hours as he is months old before being taken out to relieve himself. That is, an 8-week-old puppy will need to go out every two hours during the day. Doubling that for the night would mean that an 8-week-old puppy should be taken out every four hours during the night. A 12-week-old pup would go 3 hours during the day and 6 at night; a 16 week old would go 4 hours and give you an 8-hour night. These are guidelines, of course, and every puppy is a little different. You may get lucky, and have one that will sleep the night from day one, or yours may take a little longer to get there. Very young puppies need to go out first thing in the morning, immediately after eating and/or drinking, after playtimes, immediately upon waking, and immediately before you retire for the night. Then, if there is any time left, take him out according to the schedule outlined in the previous paragraph. Your personal schedule may not allow you to follow the schedule rigidly. If there is any way for you to adjust your schedule for a few weeks to allow you to accommodate the puppy's needs, you will be repaid in a short time with a dog that is reliably housebroken. If you cannot adjust your schedule, then please adjust your mindset to accepting the fact that it will take a little longer for your puppy to get the message. If you know you are going to be gone for more hours than your puppy can reasonably be expected to control himself, then make it easy on both of you. Suspend your attempts to housetrain during that time, put him in an area where he can leave his bed (crate) to eliminate. The crate surrounded by an exercise pen described previously works fine. Just put down plenty of newspaper for the pup to use while you're gone, clean it up when you get home, and go on with your training. Quite often, once the pup develops the muscular control, he will try and wait for your return, in spite of having those papers available. If you are using newspapers, take note of where your pup makes his deposits. Gradually start removing the papers around this area, until you only have to leave a small section covered for him. It is generally best to carry the puppy outside because walking stimulates the pup’s bowel and sphincter. Set him down where you want him to go and then you just stand in one place until he goes. Always go with your puppy, even if you have a fenced yard. Your being there t is the only way to know if he has relieved himself and you cannot give timely praise if you can't see what he is doing. You can teach you pup to relieve herself on command by telling her to "Go potty" or "get busy" (or whatever words you want to use) just as she starts to relieve himself. Praise quietly while she is going (don't distract her!) and then give enthusiastic praise and a treat (if you use them) when she is done. If the Very Young Puppy Has An Accident In The House It is your fault for failing to prevent it. Do not punish the puppy. If you catch him in the act, don't let him finish. Pick him up (you can give one low, growling "anghhh!" of disapproval) and take him outside. Wait with him until he finishes, then praise. When you bring him back in, put him in his crate while you clean up. Make sure you use one of those scent-removing solutions, such as Simple Solution, to remove all traces of odor. If the odor is not completely neutralized the dog will be attracted back to the same place. In a pinch, seltzer works pretty well. Asking to Go Out Once the pup has the idea of housetraining, you can teach him to signal you when he needs to go. If your dog hasn't already developed a signal by himself, decide what you want him to do. Some options are barking, going to the door and scratching, or even ringing a bell. Teach him the signal as a separate exercise. I strongly recommend using clicker training to teach the new behavior. When you recognize his need to eliminate, ask him, with some enthusiasm, "Do you want to go out?" Put on his lead, and take him to the door. At the door, have him perform his signal behavior. Click/treat and take him out. (Or if he really needs to go, click and treat after he potties.) If you opt not to clicker train, use praise and/or treats instead, but otherwise, follow the same procedure. Before long, your pup will automatically give you the signal in response to your "Do you want to go out" question, and shortly thereafter, he will initiate the signaling behavior when he needs to eliminate. In all fairness, though, do not tease him with the "out" question by not following through. If you do, the question will lose it's meaning and confuse the dog.
This is the basic plan for housebreaking a puppy or an adult dog when no one is home during the day, either all day or for some portion longer than a puppy can be expected to "hold it" when crated (number of hours equal to puppy's age in months). No one home means either no responsible adult or that whoever is home is unable to give adequate attention to supervising the dog , eg a mother with two young children may have her attention totally pre-empted. Of course this is a really bad situation for introducing a dog to the home, worse yet for a young puppy (especially in the absence of another dog for company) ; but it is still manageable and better for the dog than being left to die in the pound. Also you might need to use this method during some emergency when you have to be away from home for the day or may be delayed longer than puppy can "hold it" in his crate. Even if you are home, you may find you like this plan using an "X-pen" better than you like the "standard" plan using a crate.
There are also medical and dietary issues relevant to housebreaking. this is especially important if you are having problems with a pup or if a dog you thought was housebroken starts having accidents. See your vet !!! Discuss the situation and ask the vet to rule out any contributing medical problems and to evaluate the diet.
For further information, please see the classic text "The Evan's Guide to House-training" by Job Michael Evans. This wonderful book has the answer to just about every house-breaking problem you can imagine. Step 1 : assess your home's floor plan and dog door to yard access.
Is there a room (eg laundry room) in your home that has a waterproof easy to clean floor and also has a door leading into a safely fenced yard ? If so that is great and that is where the dog door will be installed. If not, then what room does have a door that could lead into a safely fenced yard ? You can go out and buy a piece of vinyl flooring ("no wax" sheet flooring ) to place on top of the existing carpet.
Now as to your yard, assess carefully if the fencing is adequate and the situation safe for a dog to go into the yard without human supervision. Perhaps it would be safer to fence off a small section adjacent to the door you have chosen ? An area of as little as 5 feet by ten feet is adequate for a potty yard, though a bit more would be desirable. If there is any chance of aerial predators (pirds of prey) assaulting your puppy , play it safe by putting a cover over the potty area, eg welded or woven wire.
If the door you have chosen is one that you don't want to cut into to install a dog door (or if you live in rented housing), simply remove that good door and store it away in the garage and buy a cheap solid core door to install in it's place and put the dog door into this cheap replacement door. If you have sliding glass doors, there are special panels that you can get at any big building store or at the big pet supermarkets that can be installed and (when desired) removed again with very modest effort. You can also install a dog door into an ordinary wall, placing it between the studs; you would need some carpentry or construction knowledge to do this. Step 2 : fence off an area indoors next to the dog door.
An "X-pen" , consisting of 8 panels two feet wide, available in a variety of heights (choose height sufficient for the adult dog) is ideal. All you need are two or three eye-screws secured into the wall at each end of the pen and snaps to attach the ends of the pen to the wall. The pen will be set in a semi-circle (or rectangle) enclosing the dog-door .. Now this is the area where the dog will live whenever no one is home (or you are unable to supervise). It will contain a comfortable dog bed and one or two water buckets snapped to the X-pen so as to be spill proof. Also of course a few of puppy's favorite toys. Initially I would leave the flap off the dog door to encourage the dog to recognize it as an exit. Teach your pup or dog how to go in and out the dog door, eg get a friend to be on the other side and call him back and forth (possibly with aid of a leash) giving praise, petting, and a treat each time he comes through. Usually one or two five minute lessons will suffice. (In place of a dog-door, you could just leave the entire door open, but I assume you would not want to do that.)
The X-pen should provide an area small enough that the dog will not want to eliminate in that area. Dogs normally have a strong instinct to NOT eliminate (pee or poop) near where they sleep or eat. Now if you have been foolish enough to get a puppy from a pet store or otherwise obtain a puppy bred from a puppy mill, you are likely to find that this normal instinct has been bred out of the dog or destroyed by the experience of living its formative weeks or months in a tiny cage where it could not avoid sleeping in its own wastes. If so then this method will not work ; if so then you will have to stay home and use the umbilical method exclusively until your dog is rock-solid housetrained.
Initially you will use an area encompassed by one single X-pen. As time goes by and puppy gets bigger and has proven reliable about keeping this indoor area clean, you can add a second X-pen to increase the amount of space. The next step may well be to close all exits from this room to the rest of the house, either by closing doors or by blocking the doorway with stretch gates (also known as baby gates). If the dog jumps over the stretch gate, it is possible to install a second one above the ground level one. (I call this "stacked" or "tandem" stretch gates, and will put a photo of such an arrangement up on the site.)
If you already have another dog in the home, and if that dog is tolorant of the puppy (and many adult dogs of both sexes are very tolorant of puppies), then let that dog stay in the pen with the puppy so the puppy is not lonely. It is not normal for a puppy to have to be completely alone, and indeed many adult dogs are unhappy if totally alone. Dogs are by nature highly social animals. Of course you will have to provide enough bedding and enough water supply for both dogs. If the other dog is able to hop over the stretch gate to take a break from "baby-sitting", that is all right. Step 3 : use the umbilical cord method when you are home.
The umbilical cord method is simply to have a leash or cord from the dog's collar to your waist whenever you are home and awake and able to take some cognizance of the dog. The dog goes everywhere with you and whenever you see the slightest indications that the dog may need to eliminate , as well as any time the dog has recently eaten, drunk, awoken from a nap, or been very active, you will take the dog outdoors into the potty area and you will wait to see if he eliminates and if he does so you will very sweetly praise and pet him. Let him know for sure how much you approve of him using the potty yard. Do NOT simply put the dog outdoors and hope he will eliminate. You must be there to watch and to praise. Later in his life, when eliminating outdoors is a rock solid habit, of course you won't need to watch and praise, but right now you are building the foundation for the rest of your life together.Step 4 : at night, dog is either in X-pen, crate, or your bedroom.
You've got a few alternatives for the night. First of course make one last visit to the potty yard. With young puppies you may want to pick up the water bowl a few hours before bedtime and you may want to feed the last meal shortly before bedtime (and before the last potty outing). Doing so helps them make it through the night without needing to eliminate. While the puppy can spend the night in his pen, it is better to have him sleep in your (or another family member's) bedroom. So use a crate (or an X-pen) in your bedroom, or tie puppy by a short cord to the leg of your bed or other immobile object. Or if your bedroom is small and no valued possessions (eg shoes!) or dangerous objects (eg electric cords!) are left out where puppy could play with it (chew on it), then puppy could be loose in your bedroom -- I really don't reccommend this as you will find that something does get chewed that you had not thought of. Or finally puppy could be in bed with you -- if you are committed to sharing your bed for the rest of the dog's life -- and consider carefully size of the bed, the probable adult size of the dog, and presence or absence of others likely to share your bed in the future. Puppies in bed usually will sleep through the night and you will likely be aware if puppy does wake and need to be taken out.Step 5 : if there is an accident, clean up and deodorize -- and DON'T punish !
Any urine or feces inside the house,including inside the X pen, MUST be cleaned and deodorized. Use a product specially made for this purpose. Do NOT attempt to punish the dog, as it's your fault not his for not being there or not noticing that the dog needed to go out. If you must punish someone, then roll up a newspaper and hit yourself over the head and scold yourself.Final thoughts :
This program relies on an x-pen with dog door access to the outside yard or outside potty area. The difference between this program and those that use a crate is that the dog door allows the dog to let himself out at time when you can not be home to take him out.For a crate program to work , you (or some other responsible person) must be home at the needed times. For a puppy, the length of time he can be crated and remain clean is only the number of hours equal to his age in months. Ie an 8 week old puppy must be taken outside at two hour intervals throughout his waking day (and probably at least once in the middle of the night). If you are not able to be home as needed, then you would be better off to adopt an adult dog rather than a puppy. Please consult your local breed Rescue group about adopting an adult dog. I would still recommend some form of confinement, umbilical cording, and supervised potty breaks for the first couple of weeks, but for a yearling or older dog it would suffice to give a potty break every 4 (daytime) hours for the first week and then with luck you may be able to leave the dog in his X-pen with dog door situation for the full length of your workday. Again, if you run into problems, please visit your vet to deal with any medical reasons.
Pam Green
Set up either a crate or an x-pen (if need be anchor two corners of the x-pen to the wall with eye-screws and snaps and if necessary put a top on it so it turns into a super-sized crate). The crate or pen is where he will live when you are not home or not in mood to supervise. When you are home and in supervisory mood, tie him to you with an "umbilical cord" , ie leash or string to your belt. Take him outdoors at appropriate intervals (ideally every 4 hours or oftener if you are able to during the first few days) and praise him liberally for peeing or pooping in your yard. As you take the dog out of his crate or pen and head towards the door, you might want to add a cheerful phrase such as "wanna go out?" or "let's all go out to pee!" Don't give him any opportunities to have an "accident" inside the house. (and use a black light to find all prior accidents and deodorize them with Natures Miracle or similar deodorant) If you have a dog door, when you take him out take him through the dog door outbound and returning : slide yourself around the edge of the people door and pass the leash through the dog door and call and guide him through.
I can pretty much guarantee that a month of strict housebreaking procedure with confinement, umbilical, and supervised potty excursions outdoors will get him housebroken. The next step would be supervised off leash freedom indoors, watching closely to see if he is indicating a need to be taken out or if he is using your dog door if you have one. Then if you see he is reliable, you can give him more and more freedom indoors with less and less vigilant supervision. Using stretch gates to exclude him from areas with highly valued carpet that you don't want to risk subjecting to an "accident" would of course be prudent.
Please realize that a dog "telling you he needs to go out" is a process of mutual learning and training. In the first step, as you see the dog looking the slightest bit like he might need to go out, you say brightly "wanna go out?" (or any phrase you've been using) and you take him out. Next step, as you see he may need to go, you say "wanna go out?" and wait a moment to see if he heads towards the door. If he does, that is great, and you follow and immediately let him out. Next step is you don;'t follow immediately but watch what he does when he gets to the door : he might bark or whine or scratch or nudge the doorknob or he might do nothing -- most will do something, but what he does depends on his individual personality. Don't wait more than a few seconds, because you don't want him to give up and pee in front of the door. Soon as he does any behavior that could be exaggerated into a good "asking to go out", you must react with a word of praise or with "wanna go?" and you head to the door and let him out. After a few times of you reacting promtly, you can be less prompt and in effect pretend you are a bit "dumb" or inattentive. With any luck, if you don't respond, the dog will "ask" in a more emphasized form, to which you will react. From this point on from time to time you will be slow to respond but then respond as soon as he "asks" more vigoruously. Most of the time you can respond to a low level "ask", but just occasionally be inattentive to keep him tuned that sometimes he has to "ask" more vigourously. Some people will hang a bell on a cord from the doorknob and teach the dog to nose-nudge or paw at the bell to make it ring; this is a signal that would be hard to miss.
Whatever "ask" signal you and the dog develop between you, do realize that unless your dog is extremely stupid, he will also realize that he can "as" to go out for purposes other than urinating and defecating. For example, perhaps he detects a squirrel or a cat in the yard.
If it has occurred to you at this point that it would be much easier to have a dog door, yes, indeed it surely is much easier ! I have found that if there is a dog door , then many rescued dogs will housebreak themselves with very little intervention from me. I used to make a point of showing the new dog where the dog door is located and how to go through it, but very often my own dogs do this for me, simply by running out excitedly and the new dog usually follows them out and then back into the house. I really consider a dog-door to be a great blessing for dog and person, and having a dog door frequently makes a big big diference in ease of housebreaking and ability of a dog to refrain from "accidents" if no one is home for periods of greater than 4 hours. However there are situations in which one might justifiably decide not to have a dog door : for example, because one has a very young child in the house who one does not wish to have unsupervised access to the yard (to protet the child from possible danger), because one has a cat whom one wishes to keep strictly indoors (thereby protecting it from many dangers), or because there are raccoons and other critters in the neighborhood who might use the dog door to invite themselves into your home, or finally for fear of a small sized burglar using the dog door to enter your home. To adopters, I say "It's your choice and it's your carpet."
Scolding him for peeing indoors by itself won't solve the problem and may make it worse by simply teaching him that it is unwise (dangerous) to pee in your presence. Now after a month of being praised for peeing outdoors, if he should make a mistake indoors right in front of you so you can scold within 30 seconds, then that could be appropriate -- but not nearly as good as recognizing the warning signs that he is thinking about it, interrupting him with a sharp word , taking him outdoors and praising him for doing it outdoors. Pam Green
