Housetraining

Lack of housetraining is a common reason that pet owners relinquish a dog or banish him to the backyard. Yet housetraining is a straightforward process, as long as you understand that your new pet is like a toddler without a diaper and needs to be housetrained appropriately.

Ann Allums,

CDPT-KA,Best Friends Animal Society, Kanab UT

When housetraining, be gentle, be patient, be consistent, and most of all, set your puppy up to be successful.

Trish McMillan, MSc, CPDT-KA, ASPCA Animal Behavior Center, Urbana, IL

Supervision and consistency are the keys to housetraining success.

Jim Barry, CPDT, CDBC, Reston Dog

Training, Reston, VA

Imagine this: Inside your house you have a wonderful bathroom-it's clean and temperature controlled, the toilet seat is heated, and there's a guy standing outside the bathroom door waiting for you to finish so that he can clean and sanitize the area. Outside about 100 feet away from the back door is an outhouse that's old and rickety, there are splinters in the seat, and you only have newspaper sheets for toiled paper. It stinks in the summer, it's freezing in the winter, and there are cracks in the walls; it's horrible. Now, how much would I have to pay you to get you to go outside and use the outhouse every time? Think about your dog in the same situation-he can go in an inside area where it's nice, soft, and temperature controlled with someone standing by at all times to clean up, deodorize and sanitize the area; or he can go outside to his toilet area where it's not sanitized, where it's dirty, wet cold in winter, hot in the summer, and it stinks. There is nothing nice about the outside toilet area. So how much do you think you have to pay your dog to use his outside toilet area?

Sandra L. Wire, K9 FunTime, LLC

Indianapolis, IN

It can be helpful to take a long weekend to devote to housetraining. Stay home with your dog and go out every hour, generously rewarding each success. If you can keep it up for three or four days, progress is often very rapid.

Jim Barry, CDBC, CPDT-KA, Reston Dog Training, Teston, VA

Top Tips from Top Trainers