Puppy Information

Chew Training and House Training Your Puppy
by Angelica Steinker, M.Ed.

Chew training and house training your puppy can be a challenging task.  To help us understand how to better train our puppy, let's look at things from the puppy's perspective for a moment.  Puppy is born and spends time with his littermates.  During this time, anything and everything around him is a chew toy and puppy eliminates whenever he has a need to.  When puppy is corrected by his mother it is never for chewing on something or for eliminating, it is for behavior like wandering off or other behavior that is dangerous to puppy.

Next puppy is adopted by a loving family and everything in his environment changes.  The giant hairless dogs (a.k.a. humans) that have taken him home have a bunch of rules that make no sense to him.  One thing puppy immediately realizes is that the giant hairless dogs are not big on him chewing on whatever he pleases.

So, how can we help puppy avoid chewing our belongings and teach him to only chew his toys?

1. We set puppy up to avoid making any mistakes by always keeping puppy under supervision and always keeping a toy handy for him to play with.
2. When we catch him chewing on an improper object we substitute a proper object and praise and gently pet puppy for chewing the proper object.  It is never necessary to yell at, or hit the puppy.  The gentler you deal with puppy the gentler he will be with you.
3. We do not leave any temptation lying around until puppy is done teething and is ready to ignore highly desirable chew toys such as shoes, socks, and kids' toys.  If you try to leave them lying around and they get chewed on then it was too soon and puppy was not ready.
4. If puppy does chew on something we would have preferred he did not chew on, we can get angry with ourselves instead of puppy, because we erred in not managing the situation properly.  If puppy is set up to do it right he will not have access to anything we do not want him to chew on.  This means moving rugs and even furniture, if necessary, until he is ready to ignore those objects.
5. Keep a variety of chew toys for puppy and rotate them.  Exchange chew toys on a daily basis, so that puppy does not loose interest in the toys.

Now puppy is educated and set up to succeed in the chewing department, but there is still another issue: house training! Since you have already learned how to set up puppy to succeed in terms of chewing, house training is going to be a snap.

1. Invest in a plastic crate.  Dogs are den animals.  By using a crate to train your puppy you are building on the puppy's natural instinct not to eliminate where he sleeps.  You are also teaching your puppy to hold it.  In the dog world holding it is unheard of.  If you have to go you just go.  Crates enable us to help our puppy understand and succeed at holding it until we take them outside.  Please do not give your puppy water in his crate.  Also puppy can not be crated for more than four hours at a time, because he will need a potty break and access to water.  If you can't come home for lunch consider hiring a pet sitter.
2. Help puppy love his crate by feeding him in the crate and always having something good happen when he goes in the crate.  Something good can be a cookie, or a Kong toy stuffed with some peanut butter.  Helping puppy pass the time while he is in the crate is a very important part of crate training.
3. Consider any house training mistake the puppy makes an error on your part.  Puppy may not be left unsupervised EVER until he is house trained.  If puppy is out of the crate, then he is in the yard where it is safe for him to eliminate or he is on a short leash with you so you can keep an eye on him.  This way you are setting puppy up to do it right.
4. When puppy eliminates outside have a puppy praising celebration.  Every time he goes potty outside you must praise him.  Praise in high tones with a smile on your face, so puppy can read your body language, and your tone, and be clear that you are happy with him.  Praise while puppy is eliminating, not after.  If puppy gets distracted by your praise just praise softly.
5. Make sure that puppy is on a schedule so that you know when to expect him to potty.  If you feed puppy at the same time every day, you will soon be able anticipate when he will have to potty.  You can also put his water on a schedule.  In the morning water goes on floor for a couple hours.
6. Keep your eyes peeled for "I need to potty" behavior.  If puppy sniffs, circles, or makes a "I am full face" these are red alert signals that puppy is getting ready to go.  Also, make it a routine to take puppy out every few hours, after things like meals, play time, training time, and napping.
7. There is no need to put your dog's nose in an accident.  To the puppy that is only gross and confusing.  It does not help clarify that puppy needs to eliminate outside.

Regardless, of what you are trying to teach puppy, praise the behavior that you want to see more of.  Chew training and house training your puppy is simple when you set him up to do it right!

© Copyright 1998 Angelica Steinker, M.Ed.
Author gives permission to print out and distribute this article for educational purposes providing both the author and this website (www.courteouscanine.com) are cited.