house training Archives - Smart Dog University

How to Get Your Dog to Go to the Bathroom When You Ask

February 20, 2014

It’s raining, it’s cold. It’s time to walk the dog.

Don’t you wish you had a way to tell your dog “Hurry up! Let’s get this over with so we can get back inside where it’s dry and warm!”

Here’s a quick video to teach you how to do that! It’s fast, it’s easy, and all my dogs know how to go to the bathroom on cue.

What does it mean to go to the bathroom “on cue?” (And why am I using “cue” instead of “command?”)

When you can ask your dog to do something — and he does it! — you can call that behavior “on cue.” Old-fashioned trainers call it a command. I think it’s a little silly to command anyone, let alone a dog, to go to the bathroom. The thought of it makes me giggle. “I COMMAND YOU to take a tinkle.” Hahahahaha.

What word (or phrase) do you use to tell your dog to do his business? Leave a comment and let me know!

Our permanent three dogs know “Do your business.”
Levi and most of the dogs I raise know “Hurry up.”
Another service dog agency uses: “GitRDone!” (I’m not kidding.)

How to House Train Your Puppy

February 9, 2014

Need to house train your puppy?

Potty training problems can be frustrating.We’re on our 16th service dog in-training and I’ve had plenty of practice at house training — I’ve developed an efficient and easy system.

I think puppy owners underestimate the number of times a puppy needs to go outside to do his business, which then results in accidents all over the house. The more times your puppy goes to the bathroom indoors, the more “ok” going to the bathroom inside seems to your pup. By the way, this article applies to adult dogs, too, who (for whatever reason) haven’t been house trained.

A schedule is critical for house training success.

Your pup’s potty training will take a lot longer if you don’t stick to a consistent schedule. You need to schedule two primary events:

meals
trips outside

What goes in, must come out. Put your dog’s food down at his regularly scheduled meal time, give him 15 – 20 minutes to eat his meal, then pick up the bowl until the next feeding. Letting the pup graze into his food bowl (called free feeding) sets your pup up for house training failures.

Scheduling the meals at specific intervals gives you the advantage of predicting when your pup needs to be taken outside. Allowing your pup to free feed takes the predictability out of house training and will set you back a few weeks on your house training schedule.

You also need to schedule your pup’s trips outside.

You want to give your pup lots of opportunities to go to the bathroom outside and very few (if any) opportunities to go to the bathroom inside.

Take your puppy out immediately after:

waking from a nap
letting him out of his crate
a vigorous play session
a meal
a big drink from the water bowl
he walks near the door you always go out to take him to the bathroom
he starts sniffing

A quick note about puppy training pads.

Puppy training pads are a poor choice if you want to train your puppy to go to the bathroom outside. Puppy pads have a scent on them that encourages a dog to go to the bathroom. If you want your dog to go outside to do his business, don’t use a puppy pad in the house — you’ll confuse your puppy and house training will take longer.

When you take your pup outside for his frequent bathroom breaks, carry him directly to the area in which you’d like him to do his business. Keep him on a short leash (a Flexi or retractible leash is a poor choice for many reasons). All playtime and walks happen after he does his business — just stand still (silently) until he begins to go to the bathroom.

Putting potty on cue.

I put going to the bathroom on cue so that when I need my pup to go (if I’m in a hurry, if the weather is bad, if we’re at a rest stop on a road trip — the reasons are endless, really), I can tell him when and where to do his business. To teach your pup a “go to the bathroom now, please” cue, simply say the words (we use “hurry up”) as soon as your pup starts to go to the bathroom (either pee or poop). As soon as he’s finished his business, praise him enthusiastically and then play with your pup or take him on a walk around the yard or neighborhood.

No house freedom.

Don’t give your pup a chance to make a mistake inside. Your puppy is too young to be wandering the house (or even the room you’re in) — a mistake will happen, believe me. Keep your pup tethered to you (put the leash on your pup, then hold it or attach it to your belt loop) while you’re watching tv, working on the computer, fixing dinner — whenever you can’t watch your puppy 100% of the time. Following this one tip will cut the number of mistakes your pup can make and makes the house training process much shorter.

Here’s a quick video with service puppy in-training, Levi, detailing how we house train a puppy.

Do you have house training tips that worked for you and your puppy? Please share them here (dog-friendly solutions, of course).

Puppy Training: House Training (aka Potty Training) Setbacks

October 4, 2012

We had torrential rains all day recently.

Siena doesn’t like to get her feet wet, so getting drenched was not on her list of things to do that day. Which means she didn’t go to the bathroom outside very often. Which is a nice way of saying she went to the bathroom inside a lot.

I’ve been giving her more house freedom as she’s shown more mastery of her bathroom abilities.

She’s also been fairly good about going to the door — and even pawing at it — to tell me when to let her out. She’s also been in a heavy growth period which means she sleeps an awful lot. It’s easy to watch a sleeping puppy — they don’t make many house training accidents!

Anyway, yesterday and today have had more than their fair share of house training mistakes. Apparently Siena thinks that because she went to the bathroom inside on Tuesday, that now every day is go to the bathroom inside day.

Starting last night and continuing through the coming weeks, I’ve taken away a good portion of her house freedom.

Puppy gates are back up, we’re using the tether and the crate again, and she’s always in the same room as me. Not surprisingly, the puddle and pile count has decreased in direct proportion to the amount of supervision.

House training a puppy takes time.

And it’s really easy to be lulled into thinking your pup is farther along than she really is. If you notice that your pup is having more bathroom incidents indoors, simply tighten up your supervision: use that crate, the gates, tether, and keep that pup with you.

It’ll take Siena another week or two to get back on track — and even then I’ll keep a lid on her house freedom. I don’t need another regression in house training!

Service Dog Training: Going to the Bathroom on Command

September 17, 2012

In service dog training, it’s important to be able to tell your dog that this is bathroom time and to hurry up and go to the bathroom. One of the many “first things” we teach our service dogs is to go to the bathroom on cue. We use the words “Hurry up,” to tell the dog that the clock is ticking – this is your chance to go to the bathroom.

This is an essential skill for the service dog, but I find it helpful to teach the family dog to go to the bathroom on cue, too! This is great when it’s raining and you don’t feel like standing in the rain with your dog ’til he decides it’s time to go; for when you’re in the car with your dog and you stop at a rest stop; and for anytime you want to tell your dog that time is limited, he better go to the bathroom now if he needs to go.

How to Teach Potty On Command
It’s super-easy to teach your dog to go to the bathroom on cue. First, decide on a word or phrase. I like “hurry up,” or “do your business,” but you can use any word you want. Next, take your dog outside on a leash. Just as he starts to go to the bathroom, say your cue. All you’re doing at this point, is just pairing the word (or phrase) with the action of going to the bathroom. Say your word when your dog starts going to the bathroom (no matter if it’s #1 or #2). Try to get your words in just as he’s starting to go.

Praise quietly and enthusiastically (too much enthusiasm might make your dog stop mid poo or mid pee!). I don’t use food for this – it just seems to get in the way and muddy the process.

Continue pairing the word with the deed for about a week or two every time your dog goes to the bathroom. Long about the beginning of Week 3, say the word just before your dog does his business. Praise quietly and enthusiastically just like you did before.

Finally, around Week 4 you can start saying the word to cause your dog to go to the bathroom. If you did your homework in the first three weeks, when your dog hears those words, he should start to do his business! Unless, of course, he doesn’t have to go.

Now, you’ve got yourself a really cool tool to tell your dog that this is his chance to go to the bathroom.

Have you taught your dog to go to the bathroom on cue? Please leave us a comment with the word (or phrase) you use.

Service Dog Training: House Training (aka Potty Training)

September 17, 2012

Potty training your puppy doesn’t have to be hard.

House Training Schedule for Your Puppy

Start with a schedule and stick with a schedule. Repeat, repeat, repeat. There’s nothing more helpful when potty training a puppy than getting him on a schedule and keeping that schedule. Schedule your pup’s meals. Leave the food down for 20 – 25 minutes, then take it up until the next feeding. Allowing your pup to have free access (called “free feeding”) will slow down your house training efforts.

Schedule frequent trips outside — with your pup on a leash — to give him lots of opportunities to go to the bathroom on the grass. There are good reasons to take your pup on potty breaks on a leash.

You can control your pup — this isn’t play time, it’s pee and poop time.
You are there with your pup to make sure he goes to the bathroom. Too many suburban dog owners just let their pup out in the backyard and assume that business gets done. And then they’re surprised when their pup comes back inside and promptly goes to the bathroom in the house.
You can create the bathroom area in a specific part of your yard. Take your pup to the pee and poop area, stand there, and wait for your pup to go to the bathroom.

You want to take your puppy outside every 30 minutes and after he wakes up from a nap, after an enthusiastic play session, and after he’s eaten.

Supervise Your Puppy

When your pup is inside the house with you, control his access to the rest of the house. Your pup should be in the same room with you at all times (for so many reasons, not just for house training). Wooden or plastic baby gates are easy to find and are relatively inexpensive — there’s no reason not to have at least one in your house. I also use a tether, as well as a crate to help control the pup’s access to the house. Between these three tools, it’s pretty easy to keep your confined so you can “eyeball” your puppy all the time.

It’s important to control your puppy’s access in the house.

Doing this ensures that you will:

teach the puppy to go outside to go to the bathroom
catch on to your pup’s subtle signals that he’s gotta go to the bathroom
make sure he’s not learning to sneak off and pee or poop out of sight.

More Potty Training Tips

Take your pup out the same door every time.
Whenever the pup is even remotely close to that door, praise him and take him outside to the potty area.
If your pup goes to the bathroom in the house, don’t scold him. You messed up, scold yourself if you feel you must scold someone. Scolding your pup will encourage him to hide when he has to go to the bathroom and it’ll be even harder to teach your pup to go outside.
Create a family schedule to share the house training responsibility and so there’s no breakdown in supervision or potty training coverage. It’s really hard to say “I didn’t know I was supposed to be watching the puppy!” if the schedule is posted on the refrigerator.
Use an enzymatic cleaner to clean up messes. These enzymatic cleansers actually breakdown the elements of waste and they’re the only thing that will remove the scent. You can’t cover the scent — at least not to a dog’s nose. Dogs can smell 1 tablespoon of sugar in the water it takes to fill two Olympic-sized pools!

It all comes down to YOU.

The more consistent YOU are, the quicker your puppy will learn to go to the bathroom outside. It takes a little bit of planning, but you can have the problem licked in just two short weeks if you get your plan in motion now!

Talk back!

What’s your biggest potty training headache? Have house training hints to share? Leave a comment!

Introducing A New Puppy – Siena, Great Dane Pup

August 27, 2012

Our latest service pup in training has finally arrived! Her name is Siena and she’s a Great Dane.

We were taken by surprise Friday afternoon when we were told we might have a pup that weekend. It had been too long without a pup as it was, so there weren’t any complaints from us!

We’re so used to a new puppy to train that it felt like eons since we’d had a pup, even though Caysun was turned in only seven weeks ago. This pup, Siena, is being raised for Service Dogs of Virginia, the organization for which we’ve raised most our pups. We’re fortunate to have found such a fabulous organization with which to work.

It’s very exciting to train a pup — Siena is our 12th service pup and we’re thrilled to have another Great Dane in the house. Our last Dane, Talos, went on to do great things with his new partner and we’re hoping sweet Siena can follow in Talos’ footsteps.

Siena is 11 weeks old and we’re working hard to get in all the puppy socialization before the 18 week mark, which is when the socialization window closes for pups.

What that means is: I’ve got my work cut out for me! No, really, what it means is that you have to get your pup out and about to expose to in a happy and fun way to a variety of things before they are 18 weeks old. At 18 weeks, pups become less like sponges — they stop accepting everything as normal and begin to look at new, unknown things as potentially scary.

Siena hasn’t seen much in her 11 weeks — almost everything is new to her and she hangs back a bit. Thankfully, once she’s seen something once, she integrates it into her repertoire as if she’d never thought it was strange.

We’re very excited to have another pup and we’ll be sharing a lot of puppy training stories as well as puppy socialization and puppy training ideas!

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