Papers?

Baby its cold outside!

Do you WANT your dog to pee in the house?

Oh, come on, quit laughing.  Some people DO.   They live in an apartment with lots of stairs between here and down there.  They have a tiny dog who ‘doesn’t go much’.   They just want to paper train their dogs.  They use newspapers, potty pads, those new ‘pee here’ pieces of equipment.

Doesn’t matter.  It all works out the same.  IF you have a small dog and that’s what you want.  This doesn’t work for Huskeys.  Or Labs or rotties or…well – you wouldn’t have gotten a dog that worked with if you didn’t want it, right?

One – name your spot.  When you go outside, I call it…outside.  When in the house, I call it Papers.   Either way, you let your dog walk to the same spot all the time.  I’ve seen people with papers all over the house.  So the wherever the dog pees, we can catch it.  Good in theory.  Not so good in practice.  Once you pick up the papers by the end table – will he know to stop?

Don’t give your dogs that much credit for smarts.

One spot.  Confine your dog to that area.   Teach them the name “papers” or “pee” or whatever feels good to you.  Get his attention.  Throw a treat there – Papers!  So he runs to get the treat.  Its a Game!

Take him there on your schedule, saying the same words.   We want this dog thinking  he knows How to get there, and what to do once he does.   So we take him there on his schedule.  We hold him there with the leash and we tell him what we want “Hurry up” “Go potty”  whatever.   and if that happens we praise and reward with treats.

We also send him there on his own.  “Papers!”   “Potty!”  and throw a treat – send him.

This is the same thing you do for an outside peeing dog.  You think the same place, the same time, the same words, the treat for going, the same schedule.

I’ve had people act as if puppy pads or papers in the corner of one room was a bad thing.  Just like cat litter boxes, no.  Its Not bad.  You just have to clean up after them, teach them what you want and hey – you Might be the smart one.  Not standing outside when its zero and sleeting!

Leash walking with a puppy

Often the thing that dog trainers hear most is ‘my dog pulls my arm off when we walk’ or ‘he pulls so hard he gags himself’.   Yeah, that’s not fun.

But what I’m going to talk about today is the exact opposite problem, balking.  Balking means he plops his butt down and won’t move, or she braces her legs and acts like you are asking her to walk across an invisible bridge.   Ahh come on, would you?  Me, neither.

Dogs know there are scary things out there! No invisible bridge for me!

A couple quick balking tips.  One to realize that this is very usual puppy or shy dog behavior.   Yeah, they do that, especially if you leave the home turf.   They are just getting used to being here and you want them to go there!  Why oh why, they stress seceretly.   What nefarious purpose do you have?   They outgrow this in a few months.

Use this time to practice your leash walking skills.  Just go back and forth in front of your house and driveway.   Back and forth back and forth.  You can still get your mile – or your two blocks – in, going back and forth.  Pop in your music and just go.   Keep the leash loose and encourage baby with bits of treat and lots of praise.   Soon – a week or more – add in another house.   Just one more, and do that till puppy is walking nicely there.  You are going to have this dog ten plus years.  I promise you will be walking whereever you want before then!   A couple months of back and forth will be worth it in the long run.

The other thing to do is when puppy starts to balk it to turn around – take a couple steps backwards calling puppy to come.  Then as soon as he starts to come, you walk forward, so you are going past him.  “Let’s go!!!” and often they turn around and follow.  Then a few back and forths again.

What? Wait. I’m confused.

Treats are always good.  Make sure they are something exceptionally yummy because – hey, there’s a big wide smelly world and you have to compete!   Let puppy sniff  the treat enclosed in your fist, maybe a tiny bit and then, move your hand and hope he follows.  “Touch” is a good command to practice at home.  If he touches your hand or fist, then his feet will follow his nose.

Stick his favorite squeak toy in your pocket and when he comes to balk stage, bring it out, squeak it and toss it ahead of you.   Not far – you don’t want to create a pull situation.  Because that is a whole ‘nother ball game!

Ready!

Well, a puppy home fell through tonight.

I’m sad.  I really thought the home would be a good fit.

But, after reflection, they didn’t.

They wanted a “bigger” puppy.

Umm- so you didn’t know what a Crested is?

this big. not much more

No.  They didn’t want this puppy.  And  I heave a sigh of relief.   I sent another puppy home today and all his new mommy could do was coo….  I want coo.  I want happy.  I want arms full of love and eyes wide open and knowing what is coming.

So – I have two now, ready to go.  One with full hair, one with minimum hair.   Who has a good home??

katesdogs@live.com

217-875-1368