Ausshole Academy

 Learning the Signs of Potty Behavior

Teaching your dog the basics is sometimes a bit frustrating.  Sometime it takes longer for a dog to figure out what your wanting, and sometimes you get lucky and have a dog that just automatically knows.  

House training is a big issue on several groups I belong to.  People get new puppies and seem to expect that it should only take a week or so to potty train.  It doesn't always work like that.  The main problem that I see happening is not the dog, but the owner has failed.  

Some first time dog owners think that a dog should automatically know what is expected of them.  I want to remind everyone, not just first time owners, but everyone, a puppy is a puppy.  They are learning.  A 15 week old puppy is comparable to a 2 year old toddler.  When potty training a child you have to be consistent and watchful, the same applies to a 15 week old puppy.  

I know a lot of times we as owners just don't pay attention.  I have been guilty of that myself.  But after raising 4 kids and numerous dogs and puppies,  I can honestly say, there isn't much difference when  it comes to house breaking or potty training between the two.  The one difference is a diaper.  

You must pay attention, and watch your puppy, learn its mannerism.  If you actually pay attention for the first few days, you will be able to spot the signs.  Your pup may begin to sniff a certain spot, or maybe he starts to circle, he may also disappear into another room (to stop this from happening, tether your pup to you.)  There are all different kinds of signs, but they are there.  Just watch and pay attention.  As soon as you see him doing one of his signs, grab him up and out the door you go.  Don't be lazy either, once you are outside, stay outside until the pup has done his duty.   He is going to push you and sometimes when  you put him outside, he will wander around for several minutes, or try to play, remember he is still a kid.  When he finally does what he is supposed to do, take that squat, or poop.  Be sure to praise him just like you would a child.  Do the potty dance with him.  Sing song at him, Good potty, good poop.  The more excited  you are the more the dog knows "Hey I did good, I need to do this again."

There are sites to learn about teaching a dog to ring a bell to go outside.  Its not really hard to teach.

Hang the bells on the door handle and every time you go out ring them.  Ring the bell the door opens, good things happen outside.  The dog will generally link the two together and low and behold your dog is trained to ring the bell to go outside.  

I've gotten rid of the bells because, after a certain amount of time, my dogs rang and rang and rang, just because they wanted to go outside.  Now they sit by the door, and that's my clue, "Hey man, I got to pee. Come on open the door."

My advice to new puppy owners, is patience.  The pup is not going to learn over night,  Be consistent, take them out every 20 minutes or so for the first few days.  Don't give them a chance to fail, and by this I mean pay attention to them, learn their signs.  

The first few weeks of owning a puppy can be frustrating, but if you take the time, and pay attention to them, those weeks will fly by, and the pup will have pretty much trained themselves and you as to when they need to use the restroom.