Housetraining is a combination of using the dog’s instincts and creating a habit. Patience and calmness are definitely required. It is important to be consistent in all aspects of housetraining to avoid confusing your puppy or new dog. Lack of housetraining is one of the main reasons that dogs are surrendered to shelters and it makes these dogs hard to place in new homes. Dogs are creatures of habit, so, beginning the first day your puppy enters your home start developing the elimination habits you desire for your adult dog.

Thinking Like A Dog
Dogs and humans look at elimination very differently. Dogs do not look at their urine and feces as offensive, dirty, insulting or shocking. As a matter of fact, they are communication tools for dogs. A dog’s instinct is to not soil its den and that den size can depend on the size of the dog. Very small dogs may see just a room or two where they eat, sleep, and hang out with the family as the den, so, to them the rest of the house is not the den and eliminating in other places in the house seems okay. Larger dogs are more likely to see the whole house as the den area, so, they are more likely to want to eliminate outside which is not part of their den. To make it easier for the dog to understand the den area, it is important to completely remove any odors from housetraining accidents using a bacterial enzyme odor eliminator designed for this purpose. If your dog detects odor from urine or stool, even from another dog, the likelihood of that spot being used again increases.

Dogs live in the moment, so, unless they are actually caught in the act of eliminating inappropriately they won’t know why you are yelling at them. This causes problems both in the bond you have with your pet and in housetraining itself. Punishing your dog for misbehaving can cause your dog to become anxious when it sees you. When your dog cringes and “acts guilty”, the dog is reacting to your body language; the dog is not equating your actions with a misdeed that occurred earlier. All the dog knows is that it was just sitting there or sleeping when you started yelling for no reason.

Punishing a dog during housetraining can create problems that make the training even harder. A dog may learn to hide from you when eliminating by going to another part of the house. A dog may become afraid to eliminate in front of you due to past punishment. Positive praise and rewards create a confident, secure dog that is more easily trained. If your dog has learned to hide from you or will not eliminate in front of you, you lose the benefits of positive rewards and praise when you accompany the dog to the potty area you want used.

Make use of the dog’s desire to please you by always rewarding proper behavior of any kind. It is easy for us to forget to reward our dog when everything is going the way we want. Remember that in housetraining we are molding the dog’s natural behaviors to fit our ideas of proper dog behaviors. Be patient and consistent so your dog can learn those behaviors without confusion or anxiety.

If your dog suddenly loses housetraining, it is important to quickly determine why. Do not punish the dog or ignore a problem thinking it will improve on its own. There are many medical conditions or normal dog behaviors that can cause this. Refer to further sections of “Eliminating in the House”.