If you ever hire a dog trainer, be very open with them.
A good dog trainer will NOT make you feel bad about your dog. A good trainer will not judge you and belittle you. If a trainer does, tell them to leave. We all make mistakes when it comes to dog training. Even (GASP) me.
But no dog trainer has the right to talk down to you. You called in a trainer after all which separates you from about 90% of the dog owners that never do any training.
Anyway, I recently started working with a client that is having housetraining problems with her dog. The first dog trainer she hired spent the whole time telling her what a rotten job she did with her dog.
She made her feel so bad that she did not give me the full story until I used my incredible powers of persuasion and patience to draw out of her what really happened.
You see, her dog was peeing and pooping all over the house. She would go outside with her dog and wait for up to an hour. Nothing.
She would come in the house and within minutes her dog would find a corner or go behind the couch and he would let loose.
What the owner did not want to tell me was that she punished her dog when she found the pee or poop. Like many, she had heard that you should rub your dog’s nose in the mess when you find it.
I explained that using punishment to teach housetraining can backfire.
Punishment should never be used when it comes to housetraining. What happened in the above story is very common. The punishment was associated with the owner. The dog was nervous about peeing or pooping when the owner was around.
Outside the dog would hold it. The dog would wait until the owner was not around. So here are some tips to help you housetrain your dog:
- No punishment for mistakes.
- Manage your dog’s behavior. Use crates, x-pens and leashes to keep your dog with you. Don’t give your dog the opportunity to make a mistake.
- Go with your dog outside so you can reward them when they do go.
- Teach and use markers like the word, “YES,” or a clicker to help communicate to your dog when they do go outside.
- Modify feeding and water schedule if necessary.
- Clean up with products that have NO ammonia. The ammonia smells like urine to your dog. Use a product like Nature’s Miracle.
- Put your dog on an “outside schedule.” Bring your dog out every hour if necessary.
- Become a member of The Dog Training Inner Circle for just $1.00. Ask questions in the forum, check out over 90+ training videos and articles and a whole lot more.
Here’s where to go to get started:
Best,
Eric