Puppy toilet training

Last updated Jul 20, 2020 | Published on Apr 20, 2018 | Blog, Dog health, dog health & behaviour, Health & Safety

Puppy – toilet training

Here at Happy Hounds we are more than happy to give you basic tips and techniques. How toilet training works for your puppy? It should be quite a simple process, as long as you’re patient and take the time to develop a good routine.

You will need to build your routine around your puppies needs which are reliably predictable when your puppy is very young. Eating meals stimulates the digestive system. They will normally need to urinate 15 minutes after eating and defecate half an hour to an hour after. Having a feeding routine is very important as it will regulate your pup’s toileting. Puppies need to go every 1-2 hours so it’s so important you try and get them out in the garden as often as you can. They can wee if they get excited so take your puppy out regularly if they have been active or playing. Don’t expect your pup to hold it in through the whole night especially when they are very young.

Outside

When you’re out in the garden try and use cue words like “wee wee” and “poo poo” whilst they are actually urinating or defecating. Use different words for each action so that you can prompt the puppy later on. Don’t use words like “good girl” or “good boy” as the next time you say that guess what could happen? Always go with your puppy whenever they are in the garden so that you can reward them when they go with lots of vocal praise and treats. If you introduce the garden as the toilet area as soon as you can. You shouldn’t get your puppy into the bad habit of going indoors. If they ever do go indoors never ever punish them. These rumours of pushing their face in it or shouting at them never works. They will then become scared to go to the toilet full stop or in some cases, begin to eat their own poo in order to ‘hide it’ so they aren’t scolded. If your puppy does have an accident inside you don’t say anything just simply put them outside.

Dogs naturally don’t defecate where they sleep so never put puppy pads or try and persuade them to go near where they sleep. If they are crated it is very important that you let them out first thing in the morning. Use cleaning products that are specifically for cleaning up pet odours. It will get rid of the smell and will stop them recognising a ‘marked’ area and so they won’t repeatedly go in the same place.  If you have left your puppy alone for a while and you come home, don’t make a fuss just get them straight out into the garden. If you make a big fuss, your puppy is going to get excited and will probably wee out of excitement when he sees you.

On the walk

If you’re struggling to get your puppy weeing and pooing whilst out on a walk then you could try taking them out first thing in the morning before they have had their morning wee. Make this routine and praise them when they go.  Some pups struggle to learn to go when outside as they think the only place they can go is at home or in the garden. So try and get them out on walks as soon as they’ve had their jabs using your prompt words to try and persuade them to go.

Puppy Habits – Biting

Last updated Jul 20, 2020 | Published on Apr 19, 2018 | Blog, Dog health, dog health & behaviour, Health & Safety

Puppy habits

Puppies will develop bad habits, this is all part of the process of them growing up. It’s important that you know what to do to help make these puppy habits go away. Here at Happy Hounds we have been asked numerous questions. Mainly on how to stop a puppy from biting, whining, jumping up and toilet training. The biggest piece of advice we can give you is to be patient. These processes take determination and time. You will not fix these problems overnight and every puppy is different. So it’s figuring out what works best for your puppy. Here at Happy Hounds we are more than happy to advise you.

The Biting

I think we all agree that this is the habit most owners want to get rid of as soon as possible. Those tiny razor sharp teeth can really hurt sometimes especially when your pup is at the age of 3 to 4 months and getting bigger by the day! There are various ways to teach this lesson, the overall goal is to stop them mouthing and biting people altogether. Firstly let’s teach our puppies that our skin is very sensitive. That they must be very gentle when using their mouths.

Biting inhibition is a dog’s ability to control the force of his mouthing. Trainers believe that a puppy that has learned to be gentle when playing with people is much less likely to bite hard or break the skin if they were to ever bite someone out of fear or pain. Puppies learn biting inhibition whilst playing with each other. If you watch puppies playing together you will see them biting each other all over. You will then notice when a puppy bites another too hard, the pup that’s been bitten will let out a loud “yelp” sound and will stop playing.  The offender will be taken back by the “yelp” and will also stop playing for a moment. However in no time the pups are back to playing the game. Now this is what we recommend that YOU do when your pup bites you too hard. Through this interaction puppies learn to control intensity of their bite so no one gets hurt and they can continue to play. If they can teach each other that, then they can learn to do the same with people.

What to do

You’re playing with your puppy, everything is fine until he really nips you and it hurts. This is when you let out a high pitched “yelp!” and immediately stop playing. You could also try just physically turning your back on them. All the fun that you were just having together must immediately stop. I have personally done this and then the puppy has licked me afterwards as if to almost apologise because he realised he bit me too hard. That is what you want! You then need to make the judgement call of when it’s time to go back to the play. Another way to help puppies learn bite inhibition is to play lots of tug of war, this is a great game to play. Be positive when they are doing what you want them to do, lots of praise. For example if they are playing nicely and grabbing that tug of war and really going for it, good boy! Yes! Always reward puppies when they are doing what you want them to.

As I mentioned before this takes time, doing this once won’t magically stop your puppy from biting. What it will do is teach them, learning takes time. Make sure everyone in your household is providing the same rules, otherwise the pup can become confused. This is a phase that will eventually go. Be patient!