Friday, December 11, 2009

Training A Puppy Begins With Toilet Training

By Greg Stannionis

What is it about puppies that makes them so irresistible? The first time you bring a puppy home, everyone rushes in excitement to greet their new family member. Then, when the new puppy has an "accident" on the rug, everybody seems to disappear. This is when you have to start training a puppy.

You can make training your new puppy a chore or you can make it an enjoyable experience for everyone, including your dog. All it takes is a little education about animal behavior to avoid toilet training the new member of your family the wrong way.

All animals, including ourselves, do what they do through a mixture of instinct and learned behavior. You may notice that your puppy will experience some anxiety before it relieves itself anywhere in the house. That is because dogs instinctively know that they don't want to soil their own dens, but your new puppy has just come to a new home and doesn't know where its "den" is.

On top of that, your new puppy can't "hold it in" for very long. It knows something is about to happen and will run around the room, whimpering and sniffing until finally it can't wait any longer. Punishing your puppy for this would not be appropriate, because it has done nothing wrong. Laughing it off would also be inappropriate, because it needs to be shown the right place to go or it may decide that it got it right the first time!

Do not loudly scold your puppy, hit it or rub its face in its mess. Immediately clean up the area and take the waste matter outside and put it where it belongs. Take the puppy with you and let it see and smell where its waste belongs. Then go back and clean up thoroughly. Take special care to use a cleaning solution that completely eliminates the odor, remembering that your dog has a keener sense of smell than you do.

Constant vigilance may be required at first for quick success at toilet training. Look for the signs that the puppy needs to go and take it outside before it relieves itself. Then immediately offer it a reward. In this way, your puppy will learn two valuable lessons. It will learn positive reinforcement for good behavior and it will learn that you are the leader of the pack.

Teaching the puppy who is boss is as important as toilet training itself. Dogs are pack animals, which means that they either follow the pack or lead the pack. Your puppy must know from the beginning that it is living in your home and that you are the leader of the pack. You need not be a harsh leader. In fact, benevolent leadership is a far better way to lead.

Start training a puppy early and you will have a rewarding pet for many years.

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