Ring the bells to go out!

Teaching your puppy not to soil in your house is not an easy task, but you can make it easier by teaching him or her to ring bells.
Dogs find this fun and it gives you a clear indication what the dog is asking for.

Housebreaking is simple using this method. The one thing to remember is you won’t get overnight results and it takes many months and somtimes up to a year to fully teach your dog to ’hold it’ until you are around. After all, puppies are babies and just like human babies, they take time to learn things and their bodies are growing and changing all the while as well.
Consistency & patience on your part is a must as well.

The first rule of housebreaking is not to use paper on the floor. You only teach the dog to pee in the house this way. Also you confuse the dog because one minute he’s getting praise for peeing on the paper, the next outside. Then he gets scolded for messing off the paper but you just taught him inside is OK by giving him paper. Only he can’t differentiate between which place inside you allow him to mess.
Confused reading that? Well, so is the dog trying to learn by that.

Now, you must confine your dog when you cannot supervise his actions all the time. Crate training is best, but if you absolutely refuse crate training, then a baby gate across a room that an occasional accident can be allowed to occur is best. We confine the dogs to the kitchen, which by the way has the door to outside with the bells.

Any inside messes whether it be pee or poop gets picked up with paper towels (sanitized and cleaned with an enzymatic cleaner like Nature’s Miracle) and the dirty towels placed in a specific spot outside and left there. This is going to be your designated toilet area for a while until the dog gets the hang of this outside business. Doing this leaves the dog’s scent there indicating in ’doggie lingo’ that this is the spot to toilet at. Leave any poop there for a few days longer than you normally would as well. This helps to teach the dog. Only pick up the poop if you walk the dog where the law says you must pick it up or it’s in a public area where it SHOULD be picked up.

Always walk the dog on a leash to teach them to housebreak. This is done even when using your own back yard.Why? Because this means business, not play. It keeps the dogs mind on the task at hand. Playtime is only for when the dog has done what you brought him out there to do.

Use lots and lots of praise when your dog does toilet outside. Make a big deal out of it. Don’t use food treats as the dog only will become accustomed to receiving food for doing what he needs to learn. Praise works best. This goes for any training, whether it be obedience, or tricks or housebreaking.

Now you need to get a regular schedule installed for out times and food. Young dogs eat 4 times a day. This makes for alot of poop and pee! Water needs to be left out at all times but now until your dog is trained or it is unbearably hot and you’ve no air conditioning, you need to start taking the water away in the overnight hours. Taking the water away gives you a fighting chance.

So now you feed the dog at the same time for each meal (as the dog gets older and you reduce the meals, you still keep your schedule). When the dog is finished eating, IMMEDIATELY put his leash on and take the dog outside. Use the SAME WORDS to indicate the dog is going outside to toilet. We use, "Want to go out?". This is another tool that shows the dog what is going to happen next.
So, as you’re putting the leash on, say "want to go out?" and take the dog to the designated toilet area. You must stay there until the dog does his ’business’. We used to say ’go piddle’ or ’go potty’ and all the other words we want the dog to associate with going out to toilet. Once the dog actually does his ’business’ you give lots and lots of animated and happy praise.
Keep in mind you could be outside for quite a while before the dog learns wha

Author: Joan Walker

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