Quick Tips

 

Training Tips from Dr. Spurling

Patch-Training Your Dog

(Note: This is easiest if done when you first get the new dog or puppy.)

• Use a leash.

• If necessary, pick up your dog and put him down where you want him to be, rather than doing a yank-and-drag on the leash.

• First thing in the morning and last thing at night, as well as multiple times during the day, take the pup out to the place you want him to go.

• Just stand there! Do not move your feet. If the dog goes to the end of the leash, jerk it back gently and quickly, but then release the leash so it is hanging down again. The release of pressure is the reward.

• Wait only about 5 minutes for the dog to eliminate (usually urine is first, then defecation). As the dog is eliminating, use your secret word, such as “hurry up” or “go potty.” Don’t use “good boy” or “good girl,” because if you say that phrase in the house, the dog will go in the house.

• If no results, take the dog back in the house, but do not let him loose in the house. If you have had the dog for a while, he may not like to eliminate in front of you since you yelled at him when he went in the house. So he will try to hide “it” from you by running into the other room, behind the refrigerator, under the piano, anywhere you will not see it. Doggy psychology…

• In 10 to 20 minutes, or after you feed the dog, take him outside again.

• The dog must stay on a leash, in a cage, or with you. If you take your eyes off the dog, he will go in the wrong place.

• If you see the dog going in the wrong place, take the several paper towels you have stored in your pocket for this purpose, place them under the dog to collect “it,” and pick up the dog and run outside. Then put the dog down where you want him to go.

• You only have 3 seconds to say “no” to the dog so he knows it is the place he is not to go, not the act itself. (They really do have to go!)

• If he is “guilty looking” when you come home, it’s not because he knows he did something wrong. He does know that these crazy humans do a very strange yelling and screaming dance when they find “it.”

• If your dog doesn’t make you know when he has to go out, either by barking or whining, hang a bell on the doorknob on a cord so he can bump it with his nose when he goes to the door. Let him bump it whenever you go out and want the dog to go out. Open the door as soon as he bumps it and makes the noise—alerting you that he needs to go.

• This needs to be continued until the dog goes when you say. You will find that the training pays off not only at home but also if you take your dog on a trip; he or she will go on command.

• Have your dog eliminate before you play with him—urine first, then wait if you know he needs to defecate, using the same phrase (“hurry up”) multiple times as he is going. After he is done, then say “good dog!” and pet and play. After both jobs are done (in the patch that you picked for him to go) then have playtime together.

• After he consistently goes with you standing by him on a leash, you can tell him to go when he first goes out and you’ll only have to clean one place, and you won’t have circles where the grass is burned!