House Training

Housetraining Your Dog

Before you start housetraining your dog, it is important to recognize that your dog doesn't really understand that peeing on the floor or jumping on people's laps when they are sitting down is not good etiquette. What you dog does understand however, is good behavior versus bad behavior. This kind of training however, takes take enormous patience so be prepared.

There are a lot of different options for how to housetrain your dog so let's begin. This kind of training is called crate training. You are going to need to use a crate or a small, confined area to keep your dog in during this process. Your dog needs to be able to turn around in it and move comfortably, but not so big that he can actually play in it. Leave the dog alone in the crate for a while when you are away from the house. Put some water in there, a little bed and a toy. Overall you want the crate to become his haven that he will sleep in, play in, feed in and keep clean. It is the keep clean component that is the key here. Your dog will want to keep his haven clean. Using the crate method your dog will quickly learn to adapt to concept of keeping the crate area and eventually a larger area free of waste.

A common problem for dog owners is the jumping dog. Usually this is jumping is of a non-aggressive nature but even so it can still be very annoying. This is an easily fixable problem and usually starts when the dog is a puppy. The primary reason your dog jumps on you is probably because he knows he can get attention this way. No doubt most of the time you play right into his hands, but when the jumping starts that is when it is time to introduce some boundaries.

When you first begin this retraining exercise, you would be best to wear some dirty clothes because your dog will probably jump all over you. Firstly, figure out when your dog is most likely to jump on you. Determine that time and then approach your dog at that time as part of this exercise. As soon as your dog jumps on you, freeze. Don't do anything and don't say no. In fact, don't give him any attention at all. Eventually your dog will get sick of being ignored, and will stop jumping on you and look for something else to do. As soon as he has all four paws on the ground then turn around and give him attention. Give him a hug, click your clicking device and then reward him. Now give him a treat. Wait for a couple of minutes and while his paws remain on the ground give him another hug and a treat. Repeat this process a few more times.