What is the most effective procedure to house train a mature dog (Chihuahua)?
Help With Dog Training
Recommended Answer:POTTY TRAINING HELP
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Questions You Must Answer:
1.Where do you want your puppy or dog to eliminate?
2.Where do you want your puppy or dog to live all of the time that you can't supervise him? Limit their freedom. Where you go, the puppy goes. Or put the puppy behind a baby gate, safe room, playpen, in their crate, or on a leash attached to you.
Important Facts to Know
Fact 1. Crating or otherwise confining a dog does not teach him bladder and bowel control. This is a normal developmental process that occurs on its own.
Confining a dog in a small area such as a crate or playpen when he cannot be supervised supplements his natural tendency to move away from the ‘nest' or ‘den' to eliminate, but it does not create the tendency.
The statement-a dog won't soil his crate is a myth. If left too long a dog will soil his resting area.
Fact 2: Learn what your dog is trying to tell you when he has the urge to go.
Barking, whining, growling, sniffing, squatting, turning in a circle are things to watch out for.
Tip 2: Keep track of his/her intake of water.
Drink after meals, during and after play. Allow him to drink his fill whenever water is offered. If you have to leave him alone while you are at work, leave ice cubes in his bowl. Don't expect him to hold his bladder that long if he is not at least 5 or 6 months old.
Tip 3: Premium food is your best choice. Why?
Feeding a better quality food will be more digestible which means smaller stool volume and better nutrition.
Avoid changing your dog's diet while working on potty training unless you are changing to a better quality food. Digestive upsets may occur. Gradually switch food over a 5-7-day span.
No table food. A dog's digestive system isn't designed to handle the same things yours is. Don't blame your dog for potty training setbacks because you shared your food with him.
Tip 4: Scheduled feeding works best for puppies during this process. If you want to “free choice”, you will have to be especially looking out for your puppy for signs that he needs to go potty. If your puppy has special needs, check with your veterinarian.
Where To Feed Your Puppy
Place his bowl in the same place. If you have a working or guard group breed dog, place the dishes in more of an open space.
How to feed your puppy/dog
Tip 6: Allow 20 minutes to eat it. Take it away if they leave their bowl and do not offer him more until his next feeding time. Unless you are free feeding you can leave it down. Measure out their food and keep track how much the puppy is eating during the day, as you don't want to over feed.
When To Go Out
Make out a chart on your puppy's progress. Be more concerned about the improvements, not the mistakes that he makes. Routine is very important in the potty training process.
After Eating and drinking water
Before play and exercise.
After waking up in the morning and from a nap
Sometimes even after eating a treat
If he stops chewing on a bone or toy and walks away
Any other time that he acts like he needs to go
Removal from confinement
Teaching Your Puppy/Dog To Let You Know That He Has To Go Outside.
1.Barks
2.By ringing a bell at the door
3.Pushing a doorbell to go out or back in. “Home Depot” sells doorbells that can easily be attached to the door.
Turn any signal into wanting to go outside. They bark at you, take the dog outside. If they bark, take them outside. Take them immediately. Take them to the same place to go potty. You must watch to see if your puppy goes. Supervising your puppy is important.
Teach Them to Potty on Command
Pick out your phrase that you will always use. It is important that everyone in the household is consistent in saying the same thing. Use phrases like, “Better Go Now”, “Do Your Business”, or “Go Potty”, etc. “Do your little potty”, “Do your big potty”. They use two different muscle groups during the potty process, so use two different phrases. So what I do is go out and ask them to Look for their potty. I tell them to LOOK for their little potty, and if I feel like they need to, to find their big potty. If I am not sure they don't have to go, I will just tell them to LOOK for their potty. The way they will do this, is to have their nose to the ground sniffing for it. If I tell them to FIND it, be sure that you are willing to stay out there as long as it takes until they go, because you told them to do something.
Put your puppy in a body harness and leash. Take him to the spot that you have picked out for his potty area. Ask him to look for his little potty. Try to not over do the talking though as some dogs will get too distracted by that. When he starts to sniff the ground, praise him by saying “There you go looking for your little potty”. Then keep repeating your phrase, “Looking for little potty”. If he gets distracted by something, or wanting to go out of the potty area, just use your leash and do a little tug back into the area. When he does his little potty, verbally praise him and go briefly and pet his head. “That's your little potty, good boy”. Then I will tell him to go look for his big potty. When he finishes, bring him between your legs, bringing up his head and praise him well, talking about how he did his big potty Anytime he does his big, we go on a walk in the neighborhood for an added reward.
The goal is to be able to take him anywhere and ask him to do his little and big potty, so that you are not waiting around forever for him to go. So I am able to ask my dog to go and he will at any moment that I ask him or her to do so.
Chart to see how long after eating does he need to do his big potty. Morning time, after waking up, how long after his meals, etc. Normally if they pee a couple of times they don't have to do big potty. If they do their big potty, there will always be their little potty. Sometimes you can be outside with them for quite awhile so be patient and consistent. The more consistent you work on the process, the faster they will get it. I will use time-out if they are out there and refusing to go, even though you know they need to go potty.
Where in the yard, one spot or all over?
My dogs have a space 5'x6'. So it doesn't have to be a large space. We put down drainage rock on the bottom, then I laid shade cloth down, and then mulch on top of that. Put a little poop on it to give them an idea where you want them to go.
If you have a small or very young puppy you may have to carry outside. Always praise your puppy for going in the correct spot. Verbally praise well. If you play with him outside afterward, take him to another area in the yard, but only after we eliminate first.
What Do I Do If He Messes On the Floor?
People thought they could correct a dog for house training lapses no matter how long ago those lapses occurred. Many of those same people also thought that rubbing the offending pooch's nose in his poop or pee would further help him understand that doing his biz in the house was not a good thing to do. First, dogs don't remember their housetraining mistakes. They don't feel bad for doing what comes naturally. And they don't connect having to eyeball their waste with having deposited that waste in the wrong place a few minutes or hours earlier.
All that will happen is the trust that you are building with your dog goes away.
If you come upon a puddle or pile inside your house, it's too late to do anything but clean it up. Shame on you for not watching him! Do that, resolve to prevent future accidents and consign the nose-rubbing.
If you can't watch him, place him into his crate or outside!
When your dog uses his potty in one particular space in your house, simply eliminating the odor of urine and then marking the area with a different scent can get the dog going in the right rest room again. Once the area is odor-free and clean, sit down on the carpet with your dog and a paperback and spend a little time each day there. In just a few days, that place will smell like a living room instead of a toilet to your pup.
Give the treat at the time we went potty, not after we have come in from outside.
Once our dogs are no longer puppies, we seem to have some sense of entitlement that grown-up dogs should go outside, because “they should know better”. But if they're to the bathroom in the house, you can either get upset about it and put on a threat display as any agitated primate would-scaring the heck out of your dog in the process- or you can get over it and give him a treat for going outside. Trust me, the latter works a lot better.
He looks guilty!
Your dog's failure to meet your gaze does not result from guilt. His low-hanging ears and tail do not reflect remorse. His body language does not reflect any feelings he has from peeing on your rug. Before you walked in the door, he was probably taking a nap and wasn't thinking at all about how the rug got that stinky yellow stain. Only when you sent that menacing glance his way did he realize that he might be in trouble. And he responded accordingly: with body language that says, “I don't know why you're upset, but I'll do anything it takes to make you feel better”.
Dogs don't know the meaning of guilt. Your dog has no idea that you're angry, because he used your Oriental rug as a potty. He doesn't even remember having done so. He understands only that you're unhappy, and he's responding in the only way that he knows how.
Remember: Success depends on how consistent you are with him. You are setting yourself up for failure by failing to stick to the schedule.
Dog Training Advice - How To Do Obedience Training For Your Dog
- lay news paper all over the ground then slowly decrease the size til it is one paper
- the same way you would house train any other mature/young breed of dog.
- Well, heres what I did with my chihuahua...
I first bought those dog pads. Then, put their food by the pad. When the dog does the buisness on the pad give the dog a treat. When they go outside give them a treat. If they urge you to take them outside give them two treats. Thats all i have for pottey training. Sorry thats it.
- I would cut up some soft treats and put them in a conatiner. so when you walk him and he goes he gets a treat. he will eventually associate treat with going outside.
Make sure that you don't punish him for going inside if you don't catch him in the act. He won't know why your mad.
If you do catch him, say a firm "No" then, take him out right away! Then, give him a treat when he goes outside.
Make sure you clean the spot inside with a good pet smell cleaner so he doesn't smell his own pee and think he can go there. just make sure you don't use anything with ammonia because there is ammonia in urine, so he would still smell it.
Good Luck!!!
- Do not paper train. That is telling them it is ok to go in the house.
first, get a crate to put them in it when you are not home and when you are unable to watch them (sleeping or taking a bath)
second... Be consistant.
You have to watch them. If your dog starts going in circles or looks like they may need to go potty, take them outside. After they eat or drink, take them outside. When they wake up, take them outside. When they have been playing and stop, take them outside.
While they are outside, give them constant encouragement to do their job, go potty. As soon as they do the deed, give them lots of praise and a little treat helps (like a cheerio).
If they start going in the house, make a loud noise like clapping and tell them no, pick them up and take them outside.
If you find where they have gone in the house, clean it up and don't scold them... they will not know why you are scolding them unless you catch them in the act.
Every time you catch them in the act or they do the deed outside where you want it is a major training opportunity. treat it as so and always give lots of praise.
Try to get them on a schedule.
Mine go out when I get up in the morning as soon as I open the crate doors at 5:00am. Then again when I get home at 4:30 or 5:00 pm then again before bed at 9:30ish.
If something happens between those times and the need out... one will go to the door and whine like she is lost until I let her out... the other jsut runs back and forth looking at me like I am the most clueless woman on earth until I realize something is up and she needs out.
- Management is the most effective tool you have. Baby gates or a playpen to keep puppy in the same room you are in, or leash her to your chair or belt so she can't ever be more than a leash length away at any time. If you do not see her, she's probably going potty. If you have to answer the phone or make dinner, put her in her crate or a playpen in the room you are in. By confining her to a small place, (for limited periosds of time - no more that 2 hours during the day) like an airline kennel, you will teach her to wait to be let out. She will be more reluctant to soil her crate, because if she does she will be forced to sit and look at it and smell it until you return. When you do let her out, take her directly to her assigned toilet area and praise for quick results. Take her outside( or to her assigned toilet area) on an unfailingly regular schedule - every hour on the hour and make every outing a party with cheering and cookies. Remember, this is not forever, just until she is housetrained.
Watch your dog constantly. One of your first duties is to identify what your dog does right before she eliminates. Does your dog sniff? Circle? Pause mid step / ear twitch / sniffing pattern, hold her ears in a certain position? Some dogs provide signals that are easy to spot, while others are more difficult. Watch carefully. Just as the dog begins to show signs, you can redirect (shake a rattle can to stop the potty action then pick up your pet and head outside-or to the potty area) and respond with enthusiasm, to go OUTSIDE (or on the pad). Once outside, stay with her until you witness the desired results and praise her as she goes. "Good, go potty outside!" Make her feel that she is the most special dog in the whole world. STAY with them until they go.
If you don't stay, you'll miss the chance to praise and you'll also miss the chance to name the behavior. "Outside" is where she needs to go, "Go potty", "Find a tree", or, "Do your business" (call it what you like) is what she needs to do when she gets there. If you stay with her, you'll also know for a fact that both duties were accomplished before she comes back in. Many young puppies are distraught about being separated from their owners. They may spend the entire time while outside just sitting on the porch. It's unlikely that your pup will want to ask to go outside if it is a negative experience to be separated from the security of its family.
Feed and exercise on a regular schedule. Remember, what goes in regularly, will come out regularly. How soon after she eats does she need to go out? Keep track, usually within an hour. Free-choice feeding may hamper your house training efforts - what trickles in will trickle out unpredictably! Your dog will probably need to go out immediately upon waking in the morning, soon after eating, after napping, and after exercising. If you can anticipate when she needs to go and hustle her to the appropriate spot at the first sign, you'll avoid accidents.
Potty pads are one more step to get rid of if the ultimate goal is to get your pup to go outside, so if you must have an indoor toileting area in the interim, try a low sided tray with a piece of sod or dirt - copy the surface of the intended outside target. At first, keep your puppy in a small area like the kitchen and cover the entire floor with pads. There can be NO MISTAKES!! Then slowly remove all the pads except in the exact area you want them to go on. You can also move the tray closer and closer to the outside door, until one day it's on the other side. Use the above method to direct the pup to the “correct” pad area. In the long run, having an indoor potty area will slow down the process of getting the pup to go outside, so avoid it if you can.
If your puppy has already soiled on the carpet or floor, it is imperative that you get a good enzyme cleaner to rid the area of any smell, remember your dog can smell what you can not, and that odor triggers the elimination response. Make sure you are neutralizing odor on all the spots they use. Fresh spots will respond to white vinegar, but if a spot has dried before treatment, you need a bacterial enzyme odor eliminator product such as Nature's Miracle. Either way, the product needs to soak deeply into the carpet pad. If she has an accident, swat yourself with the rolled up newspaper, not the dog. It was your fault for not watching her closely enough! Rubbing her nose in it (yuck!), scolding or hitting will only teach her to avoid you when she feels the need, rather than come find you. Scolding the dog only teaches the dog to sneak off down the hall where you won't see her. Remember, she loves you and wants to do what is right, she just doesn't know what that is yet.
Summary:
1.Never leave a puppy unattended. A Puppy you can not see is eliminating in the wrong place. Use play pens, leashing the dog to your belt, or a kennel to help contain your puppy.
2.Kennels or crates should be large enough for the animal to stand up, turn around and lay back down. If the dog can walk or step in the crate, they will eliminate in it. Never leave a puppy in the crate more than the recommended time.
3.SCHEDULE. Take the puppy out for elimination first thing in the morning, then about 45 minutes after scheduled meals, last thing at night, after napping and after exercise.
4.Watch for elimination signals from the puppy.
5.When you take the puppy to the elimination area, take her directly to her assigned toilet area and praise for quick results.
6.Stay with your puppy to avoid separation anxiety, ensure she does all she is suppose to do, and gets praised quickly for the correct results.
7.Be sure to name the activity so later your dog will eliminate on command
8.If your puppy has already soiled on the carpet or floor, it is imperative that you get a good enzyme cleaner to rid the area of any smell. Any smell left will trigger the pup to go again. Natures Miracle or a similar enzyme cleaner is the most effective. Rubbing her nose in it (yuck!), scolding or hitting will only teach her that you can not be a leader (you are pretty stupid if you think don't want anyone to ever go potty), she will learn to hide her elimination, she will learn to worry about you when you leave the room, because when your return, you are angry,,,so you have just increased separation anxiety
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