Dog Training 101

I thought I would do some dog training tips. For those with new puppies, it is important to have a dog trained enough that you as an owner are not frustrated and more importantly, the dog is a happy dog. I only know about dog training from puppy stage, my Pancho was six months and wasn’t quite house trained. Lefty we got at six weeks. Honey our yellow lab was two years old, she was completely trained when we got her.

First let’s talk expectations, babies are not born potty trained, and puppies are not born house trained. As with babies, you have to have lots of disappointment and failure until the puppies get the real meaning of being house trained. Personally, we allow our dogs to sleep with us, the only time they are in the crate if we are gone for over thirty minutes, or there is a situation to make them best in the crate. As in a small child or Grandpa visits, it is just not worth the stress of the two together. Training a dog at first seems like you are being trained, and in a way you are. When you have to go you have to go, and dogs are no different. Puppies have small bladders and very little self-control. You have to provide them the option of a good result. That is why they are training you more than you are training them. Dog ownership is a responsibility, and it is not easy at times. I take out puppies every fifteen minutes for the first few days. Yes, I did say fifteen, it is only a few days, but it gives the puppy the ability to succeed. More than anything a dog wants to please his owner, and taking them every fifteen allows them to make you happy. When you sleep, you put them in a crate or you decide you will deal with the elimination in the end. I would wake up each morning just like now and let them out, cleaning up the mess while they were outside using an odor eating cleaner. That way they never had a trophy inside. It is very important not to scold or yell or anything negative while they are training. Think of a puppy as a blessed baby unable to understand your language, your expectations. If you scold, you will damage the beauty of a dog. After three days, you can bump it up to twenty minutes, then thirty. That is the only way to do it. No there are no shortcuts just like parenting you cannot get a great kid by accident. They are a lot of hard work. My dogs go out a pretty much a schedule, but even in that schedule they know they can come to me and paw and I will let them out. My dogs never have accidents. They might throw up but never accidents. And yes both are males un neutered. It is about the training not about the sex of the dog. From the moment, they pottied outside I would praise each time they went potty. That way they looked forward to being praised, not worried they were going to mess up.

If you think my training is too difficult then accept that your dog may have accidents and it is not his fault. Clean up the mess and know he did what you taught him.

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