py. (SSLR)
(Please note, *no* political commentary here, this is strictly as a veterinarian who works with puppies and their owners every day.)
The best way to train a puppy is to teach them where to go and reward them for going there, *not* punishing them for doing what comes naturally when they don't know any better.
We strongly recommend crate training. In the wild, the puppies have to stay in the den when mom is away hunting, or they'll get eaten. Since mom doesn't have a pooper scooper or paper towels, they have a very strong instinct not to make a mess in their den. When mom comes home, she leads the puppies out to a potty area, where they take care of business, and then they get to play for a while. If mom sees any sign of predators, they have to go back in the den and be quiet, even though mom's still around.
There's a physical limit to how long a young puppy can 'hold it.' You can't expect them to not make a mess if you're gone for nine or ten hours at a stretch. They also don't connect backwards very well and have a memory of only a couple seconds. That means that if you catch them next to a puddle or a pile, it's already too late to correct them, because they won't understand why. They might learn that if you see them and see a mess, they're gonna get whacked, but they won't connect that back to their having put that mess there. You just have to clean it up with an enzymatic cleaner, so they don't smell it anymore, and watch them better the next time.
You teach them where to go by watching for the little signs they're getting ready to go, and getting them to where they should be and then praising them for going there. They'll start sniffing the ground that certain way, or turning circles, or they'll be playing and suddenly get distracted and wander a few feet away. Get them outside or to their puppy pad right away! If you catch them in the act, pick them up and stick them on the puppy pad or newspapers and then praise them for finishing where they should. If you scold them at that point instead, nine times out of ten they just start going somewhere you can't see them when they need to go.
When you're not watching them, and by that I mean paying attention to them, not just being in the same room, they should be in their crate, just like they'd be in the den when mom's away hunting or when there's predators around. You're not being mean, you're just working *with* their natural instincts. My own dog was crate trained, and he still perfers to go in there at bedtime or when I'm away; it's his own private space and he feels safe there. And if you crate train properly, then they learn the rules faster and you can have them out unsupervised sooner, so in the end they wind up with more freedom, not less.
The goal of the crate is *not* to make them lie in their own wastes if they do make a mess. The crate should be their clean place, the one place they *don't* associate with waste. If they cry during the night to go out, and you don't get up and take them out, they'll be miserable and you'll be blunting the very instinct to keep that place clean that you're trying to encourage. It's just like a baby -- you don't expect leaving a baby lying in a wet diaper to teach it not to wake you up during the night, do you?
Puppies usually need to go first thing in the morning, after they eat, after naps, and right away when you get home. You can make use of those times to make sure that they go where they should and get praised for it. A popular trick around here is to hang a bell by the door with a rope dangling from it; whenever you take the puppy out, you wiggle the rope and get them to tug on it, the bell rings, and they get to go outside. They learn to connect those two things very easily.
Trust me, we get a lot of new puppies in, and we get to hear about all the problems people have getting them housetrained. This method seems by far the best, most effective, most reliable, not to mention *kindest* way to do it.
Any questions? ;-) |
