Potty Training Tips

Your four-legged friend has just joined your family, and now the training must begin. The first few months are crucial in setting the appropriate standards by which you wish your pup to follow. Crate training is often times pictured as a cruel way to train, when in fact it can be very beneficial for your pup to experience. Crates range in a variety of sizes and types that will fulfill your home and canine friend’s needs. A simple travel carrier may work, or a steel crate may be necessary so that your pup can see their new world around them. Crate training can help them to adjust to a new world, help them potty train, and feel as though they have a personal place in your home.

The crate training method

Crate training is essentially a method by which you help your pup adjust to your household by offering them a secure place to spend time. Time spent in the cage is necessary to get the pup familiar with the fact that this is your home. Too much time in the cage can be bad for them though. Don’t leave them there all the time, because it’s not a nice thing to do to your new friend. It should be a place they sleep, and spend a few hours of the day. It will help to relieve anxiety your pup may feel when traveling or when you leave the house. The crate offers a dog a place to retreat to if they are nervous or they want to be left alone to chew on their favorite bone alone. By teaching your pup that the crate is their own personal spot, it helps them to build self-esteem and feel secure in a much larger home.

Increased security

Dogs by nature are a den animal. They like the security of a place in which they can be and feel safe. This can help adjust them to your home and new atmosphere. Crates can come in a variety of sizes, allowing your companion the space they require. Crate training allows a dog the comforts and security of their own personal spot that they are in charge of. During the first few weeks of their new life with you, giving them time to retreat and stay in their crate can help to build a bond with their home. Feeding and sleeping are recommended within the crate because of the safety it provides for a pup. Because of the nature of a dog, they will not want to relieve themselves where they sleep and eat. Crate training offers a very helpful hand in potty training a pup. Just make sure that you take them out when it is time to potty. The crate is beneficial to training your pup in all aspects of life.

It is necessary to not create a situation in which they believe that the crate is punishment. Don’t make them feel that this is a bad place to be; make them feel that it is a comforting retreat. By doing so, crate training will assist you in helping your pup to adjust to their new world and find a happy place in your home and heart.

The Porch Potty is the only self-cleaning canine grass litter box on the market. Available in different sizes for different breeds, it provides a clean grass area on the porch, patio, or even indoors. Not only is the Porch Potty ideal for apartment dwellers, it’s also great for elderly dog owners and canines.

If you’re an elderly person who cannot take your dog outside or if you have a senior citizen pooch that has difficulty walking long distances, the Porch Potty is the perfect solution. With the Porch Potty, there’s no need to head outside every time Fido has to go to the bathroom. There’s also no need to wake up early or go for a walk late at night.

The Porch Potty comes with realistic, synthetic grass and a scented fire hydrant that will encourage your dog to use the box and give him something to aim at. The built-in drainage system includes a removable catch basin for indoors and a 14-ft. drain hose for outdoors.

Cleaning the Porch Potty is easy and hassle-free. For the Standard model, simply pour two gallons of water over the grass 2-4 times a week. This minimal routine is enough to keep the grass fresh and free of odors. The Premium model makes things even easier by offering a fully automated rinse and drain system that employs embedded sprinklers and an optional water timer.

Having the Porch Potty means not having to take your dog out several times a day and not having to spend hours cleaning up. Fido simply has to walk a few steps to the Porch Potty and relieve himself there whenever he pleases. The Porch Potty is the most convenient potty box for elderly owners and dogs.

New thinking has led to the increased popularity of canine litter training, especially among owners with older pets. Some time ago, owners were encouraged to train dogs to wait until being taken outside to do their business. But these days, owners are realizing the benefits of letting dogs use litter boxes as they please.

An indoor litter box like the Porch Potty frees your pooch from the discomfort of holding it while you’re gone. Litter box training may also be the kindest option for dogs with health issues, such as if they have difficulty walking outside due to osteoarthritis or old age, or if they have an increased need to potty because of diabetes.

While it is true that litter training is easier with puppies, it can also be accomplished with adult dogs. All you need is time, patience and effort.

Setting Up the Porch Potty

It is possible to teach your older dog a new trick – how to use the Porch Potty despite his being used to another method of relieving himself. You can borrow techniques from the paper training or crate training methods.

Choose a confined area in your home, with just enough space for your dog to feed, lie down, turn around and potty. Just as you once placed papers next to his bed for potty purposes, you can substitute them with the Porch Potty. Since canines don’t like to soil where they eat or sleep, your pet will slowly learn to use the litter box. Feed him and lead him to the Porch Potty at the same time every day until he goes to it voluntarily. Be sure to always praise your dog when he successfully does his business on the Porch Potty.

What Not to Do

For best results, avoid the following common mistakes of dealing with accidents, no matter your pet’s age:

* Don’t scold your dog. If you see him relieving himself in the wrong place, clap your hands, which will cause him to stop. Take him to the Porch Potty so he can finish there.
* Don’t rub your dog’s nose in the mess. There is no point in doing this.
* Don’t hit your dog or yank his collar as punishment.
* Don’t use ammonia products for cleaning. Because urine contains this chemical, your dog may return to spots cleaned with ammonia to potty there again.

Address Health Problems

Litter box training may fail if you don’t realize your dog is suffering from a medical condition that affects his elimination. Always consult your vet before you begin litter training. Your vet will check for health issues as well as behavioral reasons for elimination problems, such as submission urination and separation anxiety.

Here’s some helpful information on potty training your new family member…

Housebreaking your beloved canine companion means deciding when and where you want your dog to eliminate. Once you have determined the type of routine you want your pet to follow, the next step is to select the specific spot where you want your dog to do his business. Having a designated potty area will help make the toilet training process a whole lot easier!

Whenever your dog goes potty, chemicals within his waste are released. These chemicals are called pheromones and are what tell him to poop again when he goes back to his potty area. These chemicals are also what let other canines know that this particular spot has already been taken and so they will have to find another one.

Establishing a potty area is crucial to housebreaking your dog. Now what if he is having difficulty understanding where his potty area is and is constantly eliminating inside the house or in places where he isn’t supposed to go? What you can do is try feeding him where he is having these accidents. Generally, dogs are clean animals and will not dirty the place where they eat or sleep, so by feeding your pet in the accident areas, you can reduce the chances of your dog peeing or pooping again in those spots.

As much as you want your pet to be accident-free from day one, you have to understand that all dogs have accidents, so expect one every now and then at first. Housebreaking your canine friend is a process, not an instant solution. It’s more like running a marathon than running around your block once.

Keep in mind that positive reinforcement will always give you better results than any other training method. Punishment does not work because your dog will be unable to make the connection between his mess and the reason for your anger. In fact, getting mad at him will only lead him to become afraid of you.

I highly encourage you to practice patience and be positive. Your dog will pick up on your positive energy and this will keep him from resisting your training or getting frustrated.

Tips on choosing a crate for your puppy!

When toilet training your puppy, the most important rule that you need to remember is this: If you don’t catch him in the act, don’t punish him for it!

Should you come across a mess that was left while you were gone, just clean it up and let it go. Discipline is useless because unless you catch your pup doing it, he will not know what he is being punished for. He has peed and pooped many times before he met you, and nobody has ever made a fuss over it before. Therefore, he will not be able to associate the punishment with something that he has done without incident hundreds of times before, especially if he did it over 30 seconds ago!

Like children, puppies are not thinking about what they did before, unless it was really fun. They are thinking about what they can do next. Young puppies have very poor memory.

Moreover, you have to admit that it was your fault and not your pup’s. Had you been keeping an eye on him, you would have noticed that he suddenly started walking or running around in circles, sniffing for the right spot. Your puppy will display the same behavior every time he needs to go to the bathroom. The act may vary a bit from pup to pup, but they will always show their pre-potty pattern.

If you do catch your puppy in the act, don’t get mad. Again, it was your fault, as you were not paying attention to the signals. Quickly but calmly pick him up, and firmly say “no” without raising your voice. Carry him outside or to his papers. You can push his tail down while you are carrying your pup to keep him from peeing or pooping any more. He will get excited when you take him outside or to his papers, but stay with him for some time. If he finishes his business, reward him with simple praise such as “good boy.”

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction (remember Newton?), and this applies to dog potty training as well. If you overreact and harshly scold or scare your puppy for making what is in your mind a mistake, you will not be able to make much progress.

Some people believe that rubbing a puppy’s nose into his mess will teach him a lesson, but this isn’t the case. In the puppy’s mind, there is no difference between rubbing his nose in the accident he left in your living room an hour ago and rubbing his nose in the pile the neighbor’s dog left in the park a week ago.

Peeing and pooping are natural instincts, and punishment seldom speeds up the potty training process. Instead, it makes the dog nervous or fearful every time he has to relieve himself.

Punishing your puppy can cause long-term relationship problems. If you discipline your puppy for making a mess while you were away, he isn’t thinking about what he might have done a couple of hours ago. He isn’t thinking that he should not relieve himself inside the house. He isn’t even thinking about the messes.

If you get home and your puppy runs off and hides, he’s not doing it because he has had an accident. Instead, he has learned that when you first come home, you are always in a bad mood and he gets punished. Hence, your pup has decided to avoid you for a while and goes into hiding. Because discipline was misunderstood, your puppy becomes afraid of you, and this can have a lifelong impact on your relationship.

Regardless of the method you use, spend as much time as possible with your pup if you want to accelerate the housebreaking process. Always keep an eye on your puppy and be there when you’re needed. You’ll be surprised at how much progress can be made in just one week.

Puppies make wonderful companions, but they’re not so cute when they do their business in the middle of your living room. Accidents are certainly frustrating, but you need to understand how your pet thinks. “If I have to do it, then I’ll do it!” is what’s in your pup’s head, and this applies to eating, playing, exploring, sleeping, and of course, eliminating. Since your puppy does not understand anything more than that, it’s your job to teach him where and when it is appropriate to pee and poop. Remember, they’re not the ones with the requirements – we are!

There are four key components in most effective housebreaking methods:

* Confinement
* Training
* Praise
* Timing

Confinement

The easiest way to potty train a puppy (or a dog that has yet to be housebroken) is to confine him in a crate or cage. At the start of toilet training, don’t place anything on the bottom of the crate (e.g. newspaper, blanket, etc.); your puppy will only destroy it. Most dogs do not want to eliminate where they live, so the crate should just be large enough for your pup to turn around and lay down. If it’s too big, your puppy will do his business at one end and sleep at the other. For puppies that will grow considerably in size, get an adult sized crate and partition it with an divider.

Training and Praise

Personally, I always use a leash when potty training. This allows me to keep my dog close to me so I can watch him and control everything that happens. Puppies in particular get distracted easily, and a gentle tug on the leash can get their attention back. Leashes are also good for teaching an area to eliminate; with a leash, you simply take your pup there each time.

I use verbal cues as well, so once the puppy understands what the words mean, he will know what I want when I want it to happen. I say “go potty” for peeing and “go poop” for defecation. You can choose any word or phrase you want, just remember that you will be repeating it a lot.

Whenever you take your dog out, say the word “outside” again and again. “Do you want to go outside? Let’s go outside! Outside, outside!” Eventually, he will learn that the word “outside” is connected to going to the bathroom. You will be able to ask him if he has to go outside and receive a response such as tail wagging, barking, or running to the door.

When he goes to the bathroom properly, praise him in a happy voice. I prefer to use words because treats or petting can interrupt the act. Remember, you should praise your puppy while he’s peeing or pooping, not after.

Reward your pup with freedom when he does a good job. The best time for him to be out of his crate is after he has eliminated properly outside, but this free time still has to be supervised. You can use baby gates to restrict your pup’s area of freedom or a leash to quickly catch him (without grabbing him, which can make him fearful) when he is about to do something inappropriate.

Timing

It is best to always anticipate your pet’s need to eliminate. As a general rule, the length of time that a puppy can be left in his crate without going outside is more or less equivalent to his age in months:

* 2 months old – 2 hours of confinement without a bathroom break
* 3 months old – 3 hours of confinement without a bathroom break
* And so on, up to around 6 to 8 months old.

Your puppy must be taken outside anytime there is a change in activity. He will also give signs whenever he has to do his business. It can be sniffing, circling, suddenly stopping in the middle of play, running out of a room, or a certain look on his face. You will learn how to read these hints sooner or later.

Melodies from the late 70′s and early 80′s fill my head when I look at the title of this post.  And, yet it has been a super cool way that my sister and I have trained our Chihuahuas.

It started one day after Christmas when we were taking down Christmas ornaments.  I am one of those hokey Christmas people who don themselves with a holiday sweatshirt and even a bell necklace during the season.  So, I hung that bell around the handle of the backdoor just for a place to put it so that it wasn’t getting in the way (nor incessantly ringing whilst I packed ornaments).  Our pooch, Rocky, needed to go outside – so I opened the back door and in doing so “rang the bell.”

For the next week, the bell stayed there.  Too many holiday happenings and to much decluttering to put boxes and new found treasures away, that I didn’t even recall the bell.  As, it was hanging there, one afternoon, Rocky stood up on his hind legs and “rang the bell” that he need to go outside! What a huge epiphany for me! He had found another tool for communication!

Fast forward to gifting my sister and her husband their new baby Chihuahua a couple of years later.

They were having trouble with potty training, Li’l Bit (he was such a tiny guy)!  So, I shared the bell suggestion.  Li’l Bit would hear it when she would take him out for a walk or to go potty.  And, she would also put him through the motions of hitting the bell and praise him when he did!

Pretty soon, he was “ringing the bell!”

And, now that’s his signal to his “parents” – even if he just wants to go outside and have a look around (we know who rules that roost <smile>)!

If you’re looking for another way to communicate with your four-legged family member, perhaps they can “ring your bell.”

Top 10 tips in keeping apartment dogs

Apartment and Condominium Dogs have played a major part in the daily household experience of its owners. Living in a building with several floors and elevators will already make you think twice of keeping a dog at your flat. It will never be similar to keeping a dog in a normal house. There’s no back door you can open to make him go outside – you will always have to strap your apartment and condominium dogs with their leash and go with them to the ground floor regardless of the current weather outside your apartment. You will have to get used to dealing with elevators, tight pathways, big lobbies and share all these with all the dogs in your condominium. It’s a completely special planet with a totally new group of training requirements.

It is indeed a warm and intimate community you are getting into if you have decided to hold residence in an apartment or condo with shared pathways, common lobby and public elevators. You will start to belong in the same community of common spaces even if you have no idea who your neighbors are and do not communicate frequently with them. This given surrounding demands a strong sense of sensitivity toward the desires, requests and ease of the rest of the condo owners. It will be different on how comfortable you are living in a private home as opposed to living in a condo where you have to act accordingly in an apartment.

Below are Top 10 Tips in Keeping Apartment Dogs that are based from real life experiences on keeping a dog in a high-rise condominium. This can further promote openness between the apartment owners and dog owners to allow dogs in their buildings if each homeowner with a dog will abide by the given rules in this list.

1) If you run or walk on streets, make sure to always bring a plastic bag. You may opt to choose a common grassy area when he can potty, maintain it clean by using a plastic bag to clean it up.

2) Never leave your dogs unleashed. Your dogs should always be tied up on their leash most especially when you intend to go to common spaces of your apartment. Even if your dog is trained, never risk of leaving him unleashed.

3) Use a short leash on your dog. Keep him close to you when you go through the pathways and lobby of your condominium.

4) Never let your dog have that chance of running up to someone. A lot of people are still not keen of dogs around them. If there was a person intending to pet your dog, make him sit first before you let your neighbor touch him. Just ensure that your dog is on sitting position the whole meet. Others may just walk straight to your dog without asking permission. By having a short leash, you can easily control your dog’s actions toward the person.

5) Whatever the size of your dog, never let him jump on strangers. Train your dog to sit before you pet and praise him. Dogs that are rowdy and jump on people may cause a lot of trouble.

6) Train your dog not to growl when you’re in the shared area of your apartment. Dogs are capable of barking very loud regardless of their size when situated inside any closed building. Unforeseen circumstances may arise causing him to be surprised and bark endlessly. By teaching him not to bark when you command similar to training him to speak only when you command.

7) Maintain control in any given situation. If you come across a neighbor inside your condo, make the dog’s leash short and close to you. Have him lie or sit down once the other dog pass through – most especially if your dog is larger.

8 ) It is best that you do not initiate introducing your dog to another dog. If unavoidable, make the bigger dog lie or sit down while the smaller dog comes near. Even if both dogs are sanitized, you still have to be very cautious most especially with two male dogs. There will be a lot of barking and roaring if one of them feels more overbearing.

9) Always stand toward the back when your ride the elevator with your dog. Practice him to just sit next to you and make him keep his eyes on you during the elevator ride. Your dog should only get up and exit the elevator once he gets a signal from you.

10) Potty train your dog indoors. You can start this off by setting a schedule for your dog’s potty times. You have to remember that establishing a schedule is one of the main key you have to be consistent about. It is also essential that you reward your dog for a job well done by praising him. Find the most suitable potty area that is easily accessible and make sure to mark it. The potty area should not be just near your carpeted floors inside your house. It may be on near the dirty kitchen or somewhere that does not have any carpet.

These rules in keeping apartment dogs should be applied even when you are alone with your dog. Your dog will get to learn this as part of his normal behavior if you always make it under your control when he is inside the condominium premises. Your dog will not just associate this when he is surrounded by other people.