Hello,
I came from a household where we had no pets whatsoever, dogs, cats, fish or anything. I had a friend whose family had several dogs, including Great dane’s who were toilet trained well.
How do train a dog not to Pee or Poop in the house? I would hate to beat on a poor puppy for doing its bodily functions. How does one do this?
sp
This is only my experience but I use the newspaper method. Lay down some newspaper in a location near where the dog usually stays. Each time the dog begins to squat, pick up the dog from the nape of the neck and put it on the paper. you’ll have to do this as many times as necessary until the dog goes to the newspaper himself. After that, start moving the newspaper closer to the outside until finally having the paper outside. It’s worked for me in less than two weeks, but round the clock vigilance is required!
There is no one correct method.
Paper training is problematical. While the dog learns to go on the paper it also learns it is ok to go in the house which most people do not want.
Turns out that a dog’s own nature works in your favor. Wild dogs do not poop in the den and your house is your dog’s den. When they are puppies they will go wherever but potty training is generally not difficult. For a bright dog (like mine 
) they can be potty trained inside a week. Some dogs may take longer.
Basically walk your dog on a regular schedule and frequently (say three times a day minimum when your dog is a pup…morning, afternoon and night). When the dog does its business praise him/her. You might try avoiding play when going out for a walk till the dog does its thing then praise and play. When (not if) the dog goes in the house DO NOT punish it…probably your fault anyway. Pick/wipe-up the mess and take that and your dog outside. Put the soiled mess where the dog is supposed to be doing its duty (doody?) and point it out to the dog. Give the dog some time to hopefully go potty there again and praise it.
I remember reading the following advice from a book dealing with dog training (from memory so no cite):
If your dog has an accident in the house find a newspaper, roll it up really tight and hit yourself over the head with it because it is your fault…not the dog’s.
Our dog can now go twelve hours or more without a potty break…they really do get it. Twelve hours is cruel in my mind and not something my dog has had to deal with more than twice but it has happened and bless her heart for holding it…I don’t think (I know) I could not do so well.
I should note that I read that a puppy needs to go out based on the following rule of thumb…
One hour per month of age plus one. Take that with a grain of salt though…very loose rule and should be adjusted to the individual dog…you’ll figure it out pretty quickly.
So…a three month old pup should go out every four hours (3+1). I know many people who walk their dog only twice a day and the dog seems to have no issues but personally I think three times a day is best (at a minimum).
I [or my family] have the luxury of a dog that was [probably] toilet trained before we got her. She will ‘inform’ us (by moving between us and the door) that she needs to pee or poo. And she gets two ‘walks’ (or ‘oportunities to shit and piss’) a day. So I can only guess - I guess that you keep your eye on the dog. when the dog squats to pee you get off your ass ASAP and drag the dog into the garden. Do this often enought and I think the dog will get the message that you don’t like it shitting in the house.
Another thing - dogs (border collies at least) are very observant - our dog, for example, knows that we crap and piss in only one room - the bathroom. so if our dog has exceeded the point where it can hold it’s poo and wee in - it goes to the bathroom [floor] to empty it’self of waste.
Accidental moral of my post - shit in the street. Your dog will do the same.
I’ll bet dollars to doughnuts, this thread will be moved. IMHO:)
I’ll take that bet!
Dog training is only somewhat a matter of opinion. There is, however, a great deal of factual literature on dog training and as one might imagine they almost all begin with potty training.
In short…there are factual answers to this question.
Whack-a-mole has got it with the dogs-don’t-poo-in-the-den deal. However, a dog’s (or at least a puppy’s) den generally doesn’t include the entires house. Initially they consider their sleeping area to be their den. This is why some people use the “crate” method of toilet training. Basically you get your puppy used to sleeping in a fully enclosed dog crate (you can get them from pet stores). Then, when you aren’t closely monitoring the pooch, you keep him/her in the crate. Crate = Den = no poos/wees = learns to hold on. When you think he may be ready to go to the toilet (generally after playing and eating) you take him outside and if he does the right thing, reward him.
Personally we found it hard to do the crate thing, mainly because our dog didn’t really get used to it. However, our dog was unable to get down from on our bed (too small). The bed then became the den. We would have him sleep with us at night, and I’d get up and take him outside every 2-3 hours, gradually increasing the time interval as he got older. When he did the right thing, he got a treat. He very quickly learned where to go, and he now goes out through the doggy-door whenever he needs to.
We realised he was fully trained when our house cleaner accidently locked him inside for a day. No messes, just an anxious dog when we got home!
Some links for you:
If you want to cheat a little, they have some sort of “training pads” available in pet stores that are supposed to work well. I guess you start with them inside and then move them outside. It’s been a while since I had to train a dog, so check it out yourself; I’m probably mixing up the facts.
We trained ours by taking her outside regularly and rewarding her when she did her business where she was supposed to. She responded well to this. I don’t think that hitting the dog does much good, since by the time you find the “evidence,” too much time may have passed and your dog won’t know why it’s being punished.
Make sure to scrub any accident spots well with a good cleanser. If you don’t, the pup will sniff it out and think it’s an okay spot to go in.
Praise, praise, praise when he goes outside in the correct spot.
Scheduled feeding helps if you can do that. Free feeding makes their potty times irregular.
Good luck!
Oh, I should have mentioned that those “training pads” have some sort of special scent that helps the dogs in some way. They’re not just pads of material.
Again, check it out yourself, as I’m probably not being too helpful.
You got it right, nineiron. Puppy pads are actually made of the same sort of material that Pampers are. They have a plastic underlining so the pup’s urine won’t soak through. The pads are scented with…something to make the puppy attracted to those spots. In my experience, the scent didn’t make a lot of difference…just the fact that they protected my floors and carpets did, really. YMMV, of course.
I recently toilet trained our dog, and it went quite easily. We noticed that she would do a sort of dance for a second or two before she would go (it was a sort of turning around motion) so I would pick her up and deposit her outside (sometines dribbling a stream of urine as she went) and praised and played with her when outside.
Very quickly she learnt to go to the back door when she wanted to go.
Thankfully we have tiles on the kitchen floor so cleaning up wasn’t too bad.
Hiya shep, you will get many many different opinions on how to deal with toilet training a dog. Here’s what worked for us.
Crate training. Crease – my Cardigan Welsh corgi – has a crate that is large enough for her to turn around in, but not much larger. For the first year we had her, she stayed in her crate when we were not home. She soiled it only once, when we left a blanket in there. (She peed in it, then balled it up and put it in a corner, far away from her. Dogs.)
We took her out to do her business first thing in the morning, last thing at night, upon returning to the house after any absence, after she ate or chewed a bone and after she napped (she didn’t nap much).
We feed her in her crate; advice we got that really seemed to work. We say “Crate” and she goes in there, no problem.
We also taught her that scratching the front door would get her taken out. Just before leaving the house, we took her front paw and scratched the door with it, then said, “Go out!” excitedly. She caught on to that right away.
We also named her bodily functions. “Pee-pot” is urinate, “Tee-tom” is defecate. (Yes, I know they’re dorky words, but they work.) She will now do these things upon command, pretty much. If there aint’ nuthin’ to come out, nuthin’ will come out.
Watching a puppy like a hawk is another must. Catching them in the act of squatting or lifting a leg in the house, then scooping them up and saying “NO!” and getting them outside quickly is another way to really drive the point home. NO ELIMINATION INSIDE.
All of these techniques, in concert, have virtually eliminated accidents. Every once in a while when we have a party, we’ll miss a door scratch… Poor Crease is so ashamed.
Be sure to get some Nature’s Miracle spray to clean up accidents. It rocks.
Crease is 4.5 years old now and is now confined to the kitchen when we’re at work. No accidents, ever.
She’s the best doggie in the world.
Hope this helps!
Oh yeah, what Pergau said, too. Praising when eliminating outside is another must.
In addition, it should be emphasized that there are few, if any, good reasons to hit your dog. If you hit your dog because he’s gone inside then he may associate you finding dog poo with him being smacked. His answer to that may be to hide the poo e.g. by eating it. That’s not exactly the result you want.
Skogcat has it exactly right.
Okay, it looks like housebreaking is rolling. Have you thought about how you will train you dog to do (or not do) other things. I suggest a few trips to the library.