House
Breaking Your Puppy
The
importance of thorough house-breaking cannot be overemphasized.
The younger the dog, the more difficult the job will be.
Some breeds house-break more readily than others. Unless
you do what has to be done, whether directly house-breaking
or paper-training as an intermediate step, as discussed
below, the dog will not learn. Unhouse-broken dogs are unacceptable.
All the reasons that make dogs worthwhile, enjoyable companions
are destroyed if the dog cannot be trusted in the house.
There are two basic house-breaking techniques, one which
uses paper-training as an intermediate stage. Direct house-breaking
is by far preferable, but is not convenient to everyone’s
lifestyle. If you have a yard of any sort, just outside
your door, it is not only 
possible
but best to house-break directly. Apartment dwellers may
have to rely on the intermediate paper-training method.
Direct house-breaking is simple. Basically, it involves
taking the puppy outside frequently, allowing him to relieve
himself, and returning him to the house. Once inside, he
is confined to either a large sleeping-living box or crate,
or playpen. Or, if you can keep a close eye on him, loose,
but in a restricted space such as the kitchen. In either
case, the puppy will be restricted to a small area in which
he must play and sleep, an area that he will be extremely
reluctant to soil. If he does soil the area, and accidents
will happen, chastise him mildly and take him outside immediately
to the area he has used before, to remind him that the only
permissible place is there. Remember to be fair to him though.
A young puppy needs to eliminate often, so take him out
frequently in the early days before he has built up a measure
of control. He must be taken out about an hour after each
feeding. With age, he will be able to contain himself for
longer periods and the necessary outing will be reduce to
approximately four a day, but let him work up slowly. There
is nothing cruel about restricting a puppy to a box or crate,
contrary to what many new dog People think. It is actually
a kindness to allow the puppy to get house-breaking over
and done with efficiently. A majority of house-breaking
problems originate with the “kind” owner who
lets an untrained puppy have the run of the house. Then
the puppy falls into the habit of soiling the floors and
furniture, and for years afterward he may be subjected to
constant corrections. The choice is between a couple of
weeks of close confinement resulting in efficient house-breaking
and the possibility of years of dissatisfaction accompanied
be non-stop corrections. Furthermore, it’s not as
if the dog is in solitary confinement. Give your puppy plenty
of attention and playtime both in and out of his confinement
area. Accustoming a dog to a crate may also be beneficial
later, if you decide to travel with him. In addition, many
experienced breeders and trainers who give their dogs free
access to their crates following house-breaking will tell
you that dogs appreciate having a space of their own apart
from the hustle and bustle of human life. House-breaking
in an apartment is a more difficult task. Your veterinarian
may advise you not to take the puppy out into the city streets
until his shots fully protect him from diseases he might
contract there. On the other hand, it may be difficult to
make frequent trips down to the street from a high-rise
apartment. Such cases call for use of the paper-training
method. Cover the entire floor of the paper-training room,
preferably the kitchen, with several thicknesses of newspaper,
and confine the puppy to that area. Wait for him to use
them, then pick up the soiled papers and replace them. Continue
in this fashion for a day or two. Then leave a small corner
of the room bare, and hope he doesn’t use it. If he
does, chastise him mildly and put him on the papers, letting
him know that is the one and only place for him to go. Our
puppies are started on paper-training even before they are
weaned from the mother. As he seems to understand the paper
idea, widen the bare area until you have a papered space
equivalent to about two full newspaper sheets. Allow him
to use that area until his is old enough to go to the street.
Then begin street walks with him until he learns the street
is the proper place for elimination, and remove the papers.
At that point, watch carefully for any indication of need
for relief (he may search frantically for the papers) and
then take him out IMMEDIATELY. As with direct house-breaking,
keep him absolutely confined (in this case to the paper
area) until the lesson is fully learned. Also, you can help
your puppy control his bladder by limiting water at night.
Don’t give him water for at least two hours before
his bedtime (this is, of course, your bedtime), and make
sure he is taken out, or allowed access to the papers, just
before the household retires. Be patient and GOOD LUCK!!!
House
Training
A puppy instinctively
will not soil its bed if given alternative areas on which
to relieve itself. During the first 3 weeks of life, the
mother licks the external genitalia every few hours with
her tongue to stimulate urination and defecation and to
clean the puppies. She ingests the excreted waste. Once
puppies are old enough to begin eating solid food, they
wander a short distance away from
the bed to relieve themselves.
Puppies are not capable
of controlling urination or defecation until 8 weeks of
age. Before this time, they express their bowels or urinary
bladder 15 to 30 minutes after awakening and eating, during
intense activity, and before bedtime. House training for
a new puppy usually takes from 2 to 4 weeks and is accomplished
through confinement, a regular schedule of feeding and elimination
breaks, a great deal of praise, and limited to no punishment.
House training rarely
presents a problem with puppies who have been reared under
proper conditions - puppies instinctively want to be clean
and they are eager to please their owners. You should begin
training as soon as you bring your puppy home. Any delay
in establishing a proper routine can make training more
difficult later on. Patience and perseverance are required.
A young puppy will want to urinate
and defecate frequently because he has a small bladder and
bowel. If you have an enclosed yard, take him out and place
him on a suitable spot whenever he indicates that he wants
to relieve himself. In addition, take him to the same spot
first thing in the morning, last thing at night, after every
meal, and whenever he has been inside for long periods.
Make sure that you go with him and stay with him until he
performs; then praise him lavishly.
Don't punish him when mishaps occur.
This will only lead to confusion and fear. Never "rub
his nose in it" if he makes a mess.
Tips:
1. We trained our
dog to partially scratch or knock on the door every time
he wanted to go inside or outside the bedroom and house.
Every time we took him outside, we would take their paw
and gently teach them to touch the door. After about a week
of doing this, they have perfected the method and did it
by themselves. There's no barking at the door! This is marvelous,
and it is quite
a conversation piece.
2. If you want to
have your Dachshund sleep with you on your bed, you might
want to use boxes, or something else that you could stack
on top of each other, so your dog can jump up on each box
to get to your bed. You won't have to pick them up every
time and they don't hurt their back.
3. How do you make
a dog scratch a door when it has to poop? Train him to bark
for a toy or food, he will do it on command. Then make him
bark every time he goes outside, just before you open the
door.
House
Training Your Puppy
Initially, your puppy should be confined to a small box
or crate that is large enough for it to lie down in with
its legs extended. Food should be offered on a regular schedule.
Every hour and before bedtime, carry your puppy to the same
designated area to relieve itself. Successful urination
or defecation should be rewarded with lavish praise. To
prevent a puppy from defecating or urinating
where it shouldn't, food or large amounts of water should
not be left in the crate with the puppy overnight.
The length of time between trips outside the box or crate
can be extended as the puppy learns to control its urinary
bladder and bowels. The puppy will signal its intent by
crying or sniffing earnestly at the floor when it needs
to go out. The area of confinement should be gradually enlarged
as the puppy learns control until it earns the right to
spend the day unconfined. However,
even when completely house-trained, puppies should be confined
to small areas during the night to prevent accidents.
Both you and your
puppy will be much happier if he is well-trained. His natural
instinct is to submit to the discipline imposed by his pack
leader - this is your role. Through training he will learn
to understand what is required of him and how to please
you. Take a little time and trouble over this and you will
find the companionship of an obedient dog more than repays
your efforts.
Basic
Training:
You will need to teach
your puppy a few basic commands. For training to be of any
benefit, he must first respond to his name and
understand the meaning of the word "no."
Once your puppy has completed his
vaccinations, you will be able to take him for short walks.
You must keep him under control at all times when he is
in a public place, and for this a leash is essential. Introduce
him to his collar and leash and let him get used to wearing
them before you first take him out.
Once he is used to the leash, you
can begin his basic training. All members of the household
should be involved in the training program. Use short words
for commands, with vowels that sound clearly different.
The first four essentials are heel, sit, come and down.
Be clear in your commands and, above all, be consistent.
Reward him with a show of affection
and by stroking him when he does well. Remember, you don't
necessarily need to provide a food reward while training.
Don't punish him for not obeying a command - simply withhold
the positive reinforcement. Otherwise, he will associate
the command with punishment.
You may later want to join an obedience
class for puppies or dogs in order to extend your puppy's
training. A skilled instructor can also help you to overcome
any problems that have arisen. Puppy kindergarten can start
as soon as your puppy has been fully
vaccinated. These classes are fun for you and your puppy,
and they also allow him to socialize with other dogs.
Clicker
Training For Daxies
The name that sounds new and
quizzical for all Dog Enthusiasts in India is a simple but
effective technique that is being used to train dogs all
over the world. Record shows that it is being used in over
40 countries. This method is based on omitting punishment
from the start.
History:
Clicker training
is based fully on Positive Reinforcement. Karen Pryor, known
as the God mother of Clicker training, in her foreword of
the book "Don’t shoot the dog" which has
sold more than 3,00,000 copies writes "This book is
all about how to train anyone - human or animal, young or
old to do anything that can and should be done". Such
is the strength of Positive reinforcement. Applying positive
reinforcement on dog training will prove great success.
Clicker training began in 1992 with a panel discussion between
trainers and scientists. Followed by "Don’t shoot
the dog" seminar conducted by Karen Pryor, Gary Wilkes
and marine mammal trainer Ingrid Shallenberger. From then
on there has not been any stop. Seminars followed with books,
videos and finally through Internet where there are a number
of sites hosted and e mail lists. Email lists like "click
for Success" on the one list is very active.
Clicker training is associated with dolphin training. Dolphins
are wild sea animals and training them never involves punishment
to which they will never obey. No chokes or leash was involved
with their training. The simply responded to positive reinforcement
- marker signal with a whistle. In Clicker training for
dogs, the marker signal was replaced with a clicker.
Basics:
Anyone after reading
just this page can jump into clicker training. Clicker training
needs no physical strengths or special skill beyond the
ability to press the clicker with well-timed clicks. Clicker
training today is a much scientifically processed technique.
Serious behaviorists
have studied, tried and have associated a lot of scientific
terms. I think for a basic dog trainer these following terms
when understood well is sufficient to start off with. Dogs
love clicker training. They learn happily how to please
you by doing those things that make you click:
1) Reinforcer:
A reinforcer is anything that occurring in conjunction with
an act, tends to increase the probability that the act will
occur again. Reinforcement strengthens behavior. There are
two kinds of reinforcer:
Positive
Reinforcer: - (+R) means that you give something
desirable to the dog to reinforce ("reward") the
behavior that occurred (dog sits, gets biscuit)
Negative reinforcer:- (-R) means that you
take something undesirable away in order to reinforce the
behavior just occurred. A leash/choke chain is a negative
reinforcer. The dog sits to avoid the jerk on the choke
and a hand pushing its rump into the ground. This reinforces
the dog to sit as and when the sit command is given to avoid
the nagging choke.
2)
Primary Reinforcer (PR): is something the dog "naturally"
want. It can be food, play, run or romp.
3) Conditioned
Reinforcer(CR): is something the dog is "taught
to like" by pairing it with a primary reinforcer. Anything
can serve as a conditioned reinforcer, voice, whistle or
a clicker.
Let us put all three
definitions together. Clicker training is all about positive
reinforcement with conditioned reinforcement. Simply it
means that dog is taught to associate the sound of a clicker
to make them think that something good is following. Clicker
sound is like saying "Good boy".
What
Is A Clicker?
The magic
device: The clicker really is the magic device.
It is this small device which is hand held and can be present
all the time,
it is always reliable in delivering the same sound, it is
immediate and a dog is always able to recognize it.
Clicker in real sense
is a small box with a thin metal strip inside a groove,
which when flexed will release a sharp sound.
Clicker is available
anywhere in India, excepting we don’t have such clean,
finished colorful plastic box clickers. Metal clicker should
be easy to source, I picked up a handful in Chennai, priced
at Rs.1 each. But these are rugged and are most unreliable,
as they it doesn’t have long life.
The
Start:
Get armed with a clicker.
Prepare 20-30 cut up treats, something very delicious. Boiled
liver, small pieces of mutton or chicken (Left over of your
meal) are best suggested as they are unlikely to be considered
bore by any dogs. Size the treat to small pea sizes. If
you have small spitz pea size is big enough, may be two
or three pea sizes will suit good for your shepherd or Lab.
For the first session I would suggest only live and delicious
food as I mentioned above, they could be replaced soon with
commercial goodies, which are clean, dry and easy to carry.
But always size is important, we do not want training session
to be hindered by big chunks and having the dogs to sit
and chew them.
First Session: The
first session may be only a few minutes but in a peace and
quiet place. The living room is just fine. Wait until you
and the dog can be alone. Put the treats in a dish or bowl
where you can reach but the dog cannot. Always be prepared
to move around and not just sit in your sofa or chair. Some
dogs are not food motivated that’s fine once they
catch the meaning of clickers, a zest for treats will develop
naturally.
Get your treats ready,
click and simultaneously hold out a treat right under your
dog’s nose so it can get it easily. Move around but
repeat the click and treats as often. These few clicks and
treats are to help the dog understand what clicker means.
Always keep your treat hand quiet or behind your back just
out of sight of the dog. Always give the click first and
the treat next. Now click and toss the treat on the floor
or onto a plate or just let the dog search for the treat.
You are showing the dog that click always mean food is coming.
But it may not be in the same place everytime and it may
not come right away. Do these two or three times.
Some clicker trainers
like to condition the dog to the clicker by repeating this
introductory process many times. But it was just once with
my 10 month old lab Isha. After the first session she started
pricking her ears and eyes full of glee. This was enough
to convince me
that she has learnt the meaning of clicker, associating
the clicker sound to a treat to follow.
1. Learning
Sit: To start the sit behavior, while the dog is
standing up, hold the treat in your closed hand, right over
the dog’s forehead; your hand can touch the forehead.
If the dog sits, click and treat. If not move your hand
backwards towards the dog’s tail, an inch or so. This
way you’re luring the dog to go behind into folding
its back legs and sit. Click when the dog starts to sit.
Open your hand and give the treat immediately. When the
treat is given, the dog might jump out of its position and
grab the treat. Fine, unlike conventional training where
we give the command, we are not concerned what the dog does
when it is fed. We only click and click "Marks"
the behavior. The dog will remember what it was doing when
it was clicked without any help from you. If the dog does
not sit, be patient. Take your treat hand back and start
over by keeping your closed treat hand over the dog’s
forehead. Do not push the dog, don’t tell it what
to do. In clicker training we don’t start ordering
the dog around. First we get the behavior and then we name
it. What if the dog jumps all
over you? Ignore the behavior and wait for it to die down.
When the dog puts its front feet back on the ground, start
the hand movement again. Now start increasing the time of
clicks and treats. Hold the treat make the dog sit and treat.
Do this several times. Next time when the dog sits don’t
click right away move your treat hand away. Is the dog still
sitting? Click and treat. By delaying the click you are
teaching the dog to sit there and stay until he hears the
click. By this time you will have your dog coming in front
of you and offering sit to win his clicks and treat. Encourage
this - this is called "Off Cue" that is getting
a behavior without giving command.
2. Adding
Cue (Establishing the command): When you start
this process of clicking, treating and delaying the click
for the dog to sit. When you know the dog is responding
well it is time to add the cue. Once the dog is reliably
offering the sit, simply say "sit" as the dog
is moving into the sit, just before you click and treat.
Continue this cue combined with moving the treat over his
head. This reinforces into the dog that it has to sit when
offered the cue.
3. No Corrections:
What do you do if your dog doesn’t sit when you say
"sit". You might see this as disobedience, which
should not be the case. Perceive it differently, think your
dog has missed an opportunity to earn reinforcement.
You can teach a lot
of things to your dog, making teaching for you and learning
for the dog fun. I’ve taught my Isha to be polite
dog offering best of the behavior with people. She sits
whenever people cross their arms over their chest. Its simple
read this:
a. Pick up a clicker
and keep treats nearby
b. Make eye contact with the dog and slowly fold your arms.
"don’t say sit"
c. If your dog sits - click and treat. Toss the treats to
make your dog and stand up, move over and get the treats
d. If he doesn’t sit, move closer to him so that he
looks up to see you and subsequently lowering his bottom
to reach a sit position
e. If he starts jumping around, just move away and try the
exercise later.
f. Ask your friends and visitors to cross their arms, you
click and treat when the dog sits.
This training teaches
your dog to sit and accept petting only when it is stationary.
This eradicates the bad behavior of jumping up on your visitor
and licking his face.
Clicker training can be applied to puppies even after they
are weaned. When I mean puppies it can be a whole litter
of puppies. The treats for these cuddly dolls can be a pan
of food that is set down for the puppies.
Click and place the pan for the puppies to eat. This when
repeated few times will make the puppies understand the
meaning of clicker. To this when each puppy is picked up
for clicker lessons a finger dipped in a thick paste of
puppy feed can act as a treat. Do not concentrate on inducing
behavior. Just pick up something the puppy happens to do,
such as lifting the front paw and click as the paw goes
up. It will take ten or more clicks for the puppy to understand
and making it understand to lift paw on purpose. It will
be amazing to note your puppy coming in front of you offering
to raise its paw and staring directly into your eyes as
if asking "Hey look I’m raising my paws, where’s
the click and treat". You can now add your cue "Shake
Hands" just as it offers to raise its paws. You can
catch up on a lot of such behaviors for each of the puppy
like jumping on all fours. It is for you to catch the right
behavior you want and reinforce it. This training process
can really turn the puppy into an observant learner.
