Introduction
Even if the extent to which dogs (Canis familiaris) are intrinsically related to the wolf (Canis lupus) is debated at a ‘pack’ level, there are certain several ‘genetically pre-programmed’ similarities between the two. One such similarity is urine marking. Dogs and wolves often use urine to mark their territories. Another similarity is their cleanliness instinct - the habit of soiling outside the nest. When they are still very small, puppies are cleaned of waste by their mothers, and have an instinct to move away from the nest at around three weeks of age to go to the toilet. By the same token, adult wolves are very meticulous with their toilet habits and ‘empty their bowels twice daily away from the den’.(1)
Our human houses with their plush carpets, soft sofas and polished floors, are of no importance to a puppy who needs to go to the toilet away from his puppy bed. If we care about our decor, we need to help puppy to understand where to eliminate, and, eventually, how to tell us when he needs to.
Elimination patterns
In order to get house training off to a positive start, it is important to establish a connection between being outside and eliminating. Bruce Fogel states that ‘various internal bodily sensations such as a full bladder, combined with external stimuli such as the smell of urine are the influences that cause the pup to urinate. House training involves classically conditioning the dog’s mind to associate these stimuli with the outdoors rather than the indoors.’(2)
Young puppies will usually need to eliminate soon after the following:
- Immediately after waking up
- After every meal (eating stimulates the digestive system and puppies normally urinate within 15 minutes of eating, and defecate within half and hour of eating)
- After drinking
- After playing or running around (exercise stimulates the bowels)
- After any excitement (e.g. after visitors greet your puppy)
One of the best ways to maximise the chances of successful house training is to ensure that the puppy is outside after each activity.
Creating an elimination schedule
At such an early age a puppy doesn’t have the physical capacity to hold his motions for long. The ‘bladder muscle is the last to develop: Flimsy and small, it fills up very fast, and until social maturity (around 5 months), it needs to be emptied often.’(3)
Very young puppies (younger than 12 weeks) may need to go out every hour to eliminate. The following guidelines generally apply:
| Age |
Number of times out per day
|
| 6 - 14 weeks | 8 to 10 |
| 14 - 20 weeks | 6 to 8 |
| 20 to 30 weeks | 4 to 6 |
| 30 weeks to adulthood | 3 to 4 |
A house training schedule should be established as soon as possible, and the puppy will need to be taken outside on a regular basis, every 1-2 hours, day and night.
Whilst on the lead, take puppy to a designated toilet area in your garden and let him walk and sniff around the area. Stay with the puppy and wait for him to go. It should only take a few minutes.
It is useful to associate a cue word, such as ‘pee pee’, or ‘toilet’, with the action of elimination. This will be handy in the future when he gets older and you need him to eliminate on cue.
If he eliminates in the required area, reward him lots of calm, happy praise while he is performing the action. Give him a couple of special tasty treats after he has finished. It’s important that the puppy is rewarded while he is still outside, not when back inside the house.
As with all other experiences in the puppy’s early life, by making toileting a happy experience, he will soon get the message, have positive associations and learn quicker.
Punishment doesn’t work
‘Going to the toilet is a necessary and natural behaviour and any form of punishment in house training will lead to confusion.’(4) The ’old school’ method of punishing the puppy after discovering the evidence, either by physical (smacking or ‘rubbing his nose in it’) or mental (shouting or prolonged isolation) punishment will only delay the house training process. If the puppy associates your anger or physical abuse with the sight of urine or faeces, he will learn that it is safer to go to the toilet in places where the evidence cannot be found. Furthermore, he may also refuse to eliminate in front of you, thus delaying the success of house training.
Owners may misread the ‘guilty look’ on their puppy’s face after finding urine or faeces on the kitchen floor. Human concepts such as guilt, regret, spite, do not exist in dogs. This is instead a display of submissive/appeasement language by the puppy in the anticipation that he is going to be punished. In the puppy’s mind, there is no correlation between the punishment he is receiving and his previous action of going to the toilet, and he is only deflecting the owner’s anger.
Catching him in the act
Anytime the puppy is sniffing around the ground, and crouching down about to go to the toilet or is actually in the process of eliminating inside the house, the best thing to do is to quickly get his attention by clapping, slapping the wall, or shouting out something innocuous and non-threatening like “turnip!”. The purpose of the shout, or loud noise, is to alert him, thus breaking his attention and causing him to stop ‘mid-flow’. When the puppy has been interrupted, adopt a relaxed posture and calmly lead him outside to relieve himself in the right place. Ensure that he is enthusiastically praised if he does continue to go.
Dealing with ‘accidents’
Accidents should be cleaned up calmly, with as little amount of fuss as possible. It’s important to clean the area with specialist cleaning detergents, specifically designed to help with house training. Standard household cleaners do not effectively remove all the proteins found in puppy urine, and even if we think the area is clean, and we can’t smell them, guess who can! It’s also important not to use an ammonia or bleach based cleaner as the puppy will identify it as a toilet area due to it smelling similar to the ammonia in urine.
How long should it take?
On average it takes about two to three weeks to reasonably house train a puppy during the daytime, however he will not be able to last through the night without eliminating until he is about 14 weeks old.
Puppies don't really develop full control of bladder and bowel muscles and sphincters until they are about 5-6 months old. Therefore, depending on the breed, the individual puppy and how much effort the owner puts into house training, it may take up to 8 months for a puppy to be completely house trained - day and night.
Crate Training / Confinement Area
It is during the times when it is not possible for the owner to keep an eye on the puppy, or during the night, that accidents will most likely happen. During these periods the use of a puppy crate and/or confinement area is recommended.
A puppy crate can be used at night, with the crate kept in the owner’s room initially. The owner should be prepared to be woken up a few times during the night, as it is likely that the puppy will cry. If the puppy cries, he should be calmly taken outside immediately to eliminate. When he is finished he should be praised and then taken quietly back to his crate to sleep.
Alternatively, the puppy’s bed should be placed in a area which is relatively confined. The remainder of the floor area should be covered with newspaper, onto which the puppy can eliminate. The size of the newspapered area can be gradually reduced and moved further away from his bed. In this way, the puppy will learn to go to the toilet on the newspaper, if the owner is not present to encourage him outside.
House Training Errors
New puppy owners should try to avoid making the following additional house training mistakes:
- Access to water too close to bed time or during the night
- Feeding too close to bed time
- Over-feeding
- Feeding salty foods (which makes them drink more)
- Not sticking with persistent and consistent training
Conclusion
House training is an essential part of puppy ownership which needs to begin as soon as possible. Helpful breeders would hopefully have started the process off before the puppy is collected by his new owner. It can have its frustrations, but with a bit of patience and positive reinforcement, the puppy will eventually understand that he needs to be outside when he needs to ‘go’.
Works Cited
(1) The Dog’s Mind, ch.9, p.144 (Fogel, Bruce 1990)
(2) The Dog’s Mind, ch.7, p.106 (Fogel, Bruce 1990)
(3) Puppies For Dummies, ch.12, p176 (Hodgson, Sarah 2006)
(4) Puppy Behaviour and Training, ch.4, p.26 (Heath, Sarah 2005)
Bibliography
How To Speak Dog (Coren, Stanley 2000)
Puppies For Dummies (Hodgson, Sarah 2006)
Puppy Behaviour and Training (Heath, Sarah 2005)
Take The Lead (Watson, Heather 1998)
The Dog’s Mind (Fogel, Bruce 1990)
The Culture Clash (Donaldson, Jean 2005)
The Kennel Club Puppy Handbook (2007)
Internet
www.canineconcepts.co.uk/Solution Centre and Guides/New Dog and Puppy Guides/Dog and Puppy housetraining - the modern way!
No comments:
Post a Comment