When Pigs Fly_ Training Success With Impossible Dogs - Jane Killion [77]
Nice try on the punishment. Those mouthfuls of your best cooking that he managed to toss back before you caught up with him are awfully reinforcing. What do you think he learned from your punishment once you caught up with him? He learned that next time he should run faster after he steals the roast.
How about using that back up you trained, instead?
A. You open the refrigerator door.
B. Your dog automatically backs up.
C. You toss him a tidbit from the fridge.
Ask him to back up every time you put your hand on the door handle, and then promptly reinforce that behavior. He will eventually back up automatically when you open the fridge.
Gotta Go
Housetraining Issues
Given the opportunity, dogs housetrain themselves. They have a strong instinct not to dirty their den. Puppies as little as three weeks old will make an effort to relieve themselves away from their den area. So long as they have the chance to go outside when they need to, they will housetrain themselves as soon as they are physically able.
Sometimes, though, it seems as if your dog is just not getting the hang of being housetrained. There are many different reasons why your dog might be soiling in the house. If your dog was previously housetrained and is suddenly having accidents in the house, a physical problem should be the first thing you suspect. There are all kinds of sicknesses that can lead to incontinence, and your veterinarian will know what tests to run to diagnose a physical problem or rule it out. Often a round of antibiotics is all that is needed to cure incontinence.
If your dog is under a year old and he occasionally just goes in the house without warning, understand that is natural. Like young children, some dogs develop physical control over their bladder and bowels faster than others. It appears to me that dogs under a year sometimes don’t even feel the urge to go and are surprised to find themselves dirtying the house. Some dogs will be perfectly housetrained at eight weeks, and some dogs will be unreliable until they are a year old. Although it is not desirable to have a dog that still occasionally messes in the house at 10 months old, there is not necessarily anything wrong with that dog.
If your dog is over a year old, you have ruled out any physical problems, and he is still going in the house, chances are he is not getting enough opportunity to go when he needs to.
Dogs have such a strong instinct to go outside their den (or house) to relieve themselves that housetraining is somewhat self-reinforcing. Because of that, this section focuses mostly on the antecedents. If you can nail those and get your dog out the door when he has to go, housetraining is a snap.
To crack a tough housetraining case, the first thing you need to do is keep a scientific record of when your dog goes. Note when and where he went, what activity he was doing prior to going, and what physical signs he gave just before he went. You will be surprised at how predictable your dog’s bathroom habits are. Here is a breakdown of the kinds of antecedents you will discover if you pay attention to your dog.
Length of Time. The first important antecedent that you will glean from this research is a specific length of time; you will learn that the passing of a certain amount of time, be it fifteen minutes, two hours, or ten hours, predicts your dog’s need to relieve himself. Whatever that length of time is, make sure you take him out before it has elapsed. You may think that you are taking your dog out “all the time” but when you start keeping records you might be surprised to find that you are not as reliable or as routine as you think you are. If you are not home during the day to take him out, have a dog walker come in.
The most common housetraining problem I see is that people have unrealistic expectations of how long a puppy can wait between trips outside. A young puppy may need to go out fifteen times a day. A two year old rescue dog that has never been