by Grayson Schaffer | on July 14th, 2009 | in Features, Video Clips
Here, Mike shows the results of successfully crate training Opus.
by Mike Stewart | on June 2nd, 2009 | in Features, The Wildrose Way
Ol' Gibbs catches some Zs in his crate at six weeks
As with any new pup or dog that’s going to share the home, the first order of business is housebreaking. We are talking about forming habits that will last a lifetime:
Crate training
Housebreaking
Place training
We approach the matter by thinking about these three things as one concept. The outcome: a well socialized, disciplined home companion. With pups, building these habits begins the day you acquire the pup, and it’s no different with a new older dog.
We get to all three of these through restriction and confinement: First, no free run of the home and no free choice food or water. Control the inputs and the dog’s space and you will more likely control the outputs. Build absolute reliability before bending these rules.
Use these behavioral tendencies to your advantage. When food or water is offered and accepted, upon conclusion, take the dog straight outside to the designated relief area. Keep feeding and watering on schedule and you are building habits – absolute predictability, absolute consistency. Dogs are creatures of habit and appreciate routine.
Second, dogs need their own space. They should not have the chance to build a their own territory out of your house, so don’t give them the run of the house. When you’re not available to give 100 percent supervision, keep your pup in his crate. Crate training provides the dog with a sense of security. Crates are great for travel and for control when necessary in the home. Pups spend a lot of time in their crates now so they don’t have to later, when they’ve grown into calm reliable dogs.
Dogs do not like to soil their own nest. Do not indulge the dog with an over-sized crate or your dog will likely turn it into a condo – soil in the back and live in the front. As soon as the youngster exits the crate in the morning or after a rest, it’s straight outside to the ol’ designated area. Not a time for a slip up here. Stay the course: Persistence and routine.
Place training is a great habit to instill. It puts you in control as the pack leader. Leaders control territory and define a “place” where the pack members may rest and be patient. While outside the crate, our dog has a place in the home, office,or camp site. Again, dogs respect the sense of security and pack order. With place and crate training, one has improved chances for housebreaking success and the ability to prevent the entrenchment of some quite undesirable behaviors as well. See our selection of dog training mats at www.wildrosetradingcompany.com.
These are the habits fit for a lifetime and rest assured, with consistency and patience, you can teach old dogs these tricks or shall I say, habits.
by Grayson Schaffer | on May 4th, 2009 | in Features, Training
A little privacy, please?
We’ve mentioned it in passing elsewhere, but housebreaking is really a lot easier than most people make it out to be. Dogs are naturally clean animals; they won’t drop a deuce in their den unless you force them to. All you need to do expand the dog’s view of the den to include all indoor surfaces.
- Put your pup on a schedule. Control what goes in and you control when it comes back out again.
- Until the pup is about two months old, this means three feedings and waterings per day at regular times.
- When the pup is not being fed or trained, he should either be in his puppy pen (outside if temperature allows) or in his crate. Outside, it’s fine to pee; in his crate, he won’t.
- If your puppy does soil his crate, he’s doing it for one of two reasons: 1) The crate is too big and the pup thinks there’s enough room to turn one end into a bathroom, or 2) you’ve left the pup in the crate for too long. Most experts recommend no more than an hour of crate time unsupervised, but every dog is different. Main thing: Don’t leave your puppy alone in his crate for longer than you know he can hold it.
- When you take the puppy out of the crate for feeding time, don’t put him down on the floor before putting him outside. It’s a near certainty that he’ll pee first thing.
- Right when your dog is about to eliminate, give your elimination command, Get it done. This is capturing the behavior, adding a cue to something the dog is doing anyway. Eventually, you’ll be able to tell the dog to go to the bathroom on command. Praise and reward lavishly.
- You can see from this that housebreaking, crate training, and confinement are really all part of the same exercise. The goal is that by ingraining a routine at this age, you won’t have to worry about it later.
In the Event of a Water Landing. . .
If your dog does pee on the floor or take a dump in the closet, don’t get mad or rub the dog’s nose in it. The mistake is yours alone. What was the puppy doing unsupervised? Why did he have a full bladder? Just work on setting your dog up to succeed.