Housebreaking Your Dog - Myths and Facts

“Don’t use my house as a bathroom.”  That’s a basic rule required by every dog owner. It is not surprising therefore that, every day, dogs are relinquished to shelters or euthanized for failing to abide by this rule.  Housebreaking skills are critical. But dogs don’t housebreak themselves, they have to be taught by their owners. Why do some owners have such a hard time teaching their dogs where to go to the bathroom? Perhaps because they believe things that aren’t true. Here’s a list of some common “myths” associated with housebreaking.



MYTH: Dogs go to the bathroom inside the house because they are being spiteful, jealous, stupid, dominant or lazy.
FACT: Dogs don’t care where they go to the bathroom; we do.

MYTH:  Dogs prefer one place over another for the same reasons humans do.
FACT: Although habituation, association and early substrate preferences (i.e. what their paws are touching) play a major role, for the most part dogs use their noses to decide where the bathroom is.

MYTH: The key to housebreaking is teaching a dog to ring a bell or give some other signal to go out.
FACT: Many dogs that are reliably housebroken will never learn to tell us when they need to go; instead, they will simply wait until they are let out.  In fact, putting bells on the door interferes with, rather than enhances, the housebreaking process.[i]
 

MYTH: My dog was perfectly housetrained, but when we got another dog he got jealous and started going to the bathroom in the house.
FACT: Dogs use urine (and occasionally feces) to mark territory. It is a natural instinct and has nothing to do with "jealousy."

MYTH:  Neuter your male dog and territorial marking will immediately stop.
FACT: Neuter your male dog and territorial marking tends to decrease several weeks later.

MYTH: Dogs sneak away to go to the bathroom inside the house because they know they're doing something wrong.
FACT: Dogs tend to move away from the center of activity for elimination. It's a natural instinct and has nothing to do with "being sneaky."

MYTH: Dogs “look guilty" after they’ve had an accident.
FACT: Dogs are experts at reading our body language and they easily form strong associations.

MYTH: Dogs want to please us.
FACT: Dogs are eager to follow benevolent leadership, but they do what they’ve been taught to do. Dogs are simple creatures who are not burdened by the same emotional baggage as humans.

MYTH: When you find an accident, take your dog back to the mess, stick his dog’s nose in it and hit him with a rolled up a newspaper.   
FACT: When you find an accident, clean it up, then go look in the mirror and hit yourself in the face with a rolled up newspaper (every accident is your fault).

MYTH: Most dogs are reliably housebroken at 12 weeks of age.
FACT:  Most dogs are reliably housebroken at 8 months of age.

MYTH: Some dogs cannot be housebroken.
FACT: Except for dogs with genetic temperament flaws and serious physical illnesses (both of which are rare) ANY DOG, of ANY BREED at ANY AGE can be housebroken.

MYTH: The key to housebreaking a puppy is to put down newspaper or puppy pads.
FACT: The keys to housebreaking a puppy are supervision (never out of sight) and confinement (use a kennel crate). Putting down puppy pads or newspapers is a bad idea.

MYTH: After the dog goes to the bathroom outside, call him in and reward him with a treat.
FACT: Dogs only associate a behavior with a reward when delivered quickly (within about 2 seconds).

MYTH: If a dog you adopt from a shelter was housebroken in his first home, he will bring those skills with him to your home when you adopt him.
FACT: Most adopted dogs need a refresher course in housebreaking when they arrive in their new homes.

MYTH: A dog will never go to the bathroom in his crate.
FACT: If you leave him in the crate too long, or if the crate is too big, he might have accidents in the crate.

MYTH: More time in the yard is needed for dogs who have housebreaking problems.
FACT: Less time in the yard is needed for dogs who have housebreaking problems. The dog must learn that he lives inside (that is the area to keep clean). Frequent 5 minute potty breaks (about once per hour) are much more effective than spending lots of time in the back yard.  In fact, a very common complaint among owners is, "He spends a half hour outside and then comes in and pees on my floor!" Yes, that's because you have not taught him where the bathroom is. A dog will not housetrain himself - you have to teach him where to go to the bathroom.

Quick tips:

• The keys to housebreaking are 1) supervision and 2) confinement.
• Your two best tools to help teach good housebreaking skills are a leash (always attached to you) and a crate (dog in crate when he cannot be attached to you).
• Set a strict schedule for potty breaks and stick to it – except for overnight and when crated, a 5 minute potty break every hour is about right.  
• Keep a chart of progress.
• If you catch him in the act – let him hear a  loud “NO!” and take him outside immediately.
• Clean up any messes with an enzyme cleaner.
• Feed a high quality kibble (less filler) and you will reduce the number of bowel movements.
• Monitor water intake – some dogs love “playing” in the water bowl – these dogs tend to drink more than they need.
• Be extra patient with pet shop dogs – they got a tough start because they were inappropriately confined when young, but even pet shop dogs can be housebroken.
• Dogs frequently urinating (especially in small amounts) might have a UTI – see your vet.   

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[i] The Handbook of Applied Dog Training and Behavior, Volume Three, Steven R. Lindsay, M.A.  

Top 10 Handling Errors

When I was learning to drive, the instructor beat “10 o’clock 2 o’clock” into my head  - designating where my hands should be on the steering wheel. Now they’re teaching 9 and 3. If I had to take a driving lesson today I’d have a heck of a hard time learning 9 and 3.  

Training dogs is similar. People have a hard time mastering the basics of leash work and obedience training, after having done it differently for so many years. Old habits die hard, and if you’ve been doing something a certain way for 20 or 30 years and one day you have to relearn it – it will take a lot of patience, practice and conscious effort to learn to do it a new way.

So here, in no particular order, are some of the “bad habits” that many owners - and most new trainers - often struggle to break:

1)      Holding the leash wrong. The proper way to hold a leash is to put your thumb through the loop and gather one loop of slack. It should look like  this:

              

2)      Holding your grip hand too high. If you have  the right amount of slack gathered in the loop, your leash hand should be approximately near your hipbone (on the same side of your body – left hipbone if you’re holding the leash in your left hand, right side for right hand).  If you don’t have a solid grip on the slack as shown above, the dog will gradually take the slack from you, and your hand will rise higher to compensate – that’s a no-no.

3)      Snapping your fingers at the dog when asking for a “sit” or “down.”  Finger snapping is a sure sign of an amateur handler. Your body language and tone of voice, along with clear, crisp consistently delivered command words, and the following hand signals: sit is palm up, starting parallel to the ground and rising 45 degrees. Down is either palm down toward the ground or (my personal preference) point at the ground. Either is fine – I prefer pointing because it comes in handy when teaching drop on recall. This is a potentially lifesaving command that every well-trained dog should learn. You can see it here at around 1:45 - 

4)      Tugging the leash in the wrong direction during a correction. To correct for a sit, or to re-sit a dog who got up too soon from a stay, you should tug straight up, not down or to the side.

5)      Correcting too hard or too soft.  Light pops on the leash put drive in, one hard pop takes drive out. If you confuse the two, you send the opposite message to the dog. (e.g. When doing  a recall drill multiple short tugs (correct) will get the dog to come, but one hard pull (incorrect) will shut him down. Conversely, if you’re trying to correct leash lunging and you’re not correcting hard enough you’re increasing drive instead of taking drive out). 

6)      Playing “fake out” with a dog during stay practice in phase 2 or 3.  Don't play fake out  (where the handler walks back and forth "reminding" the dog to stay). Instead, if he gets up prematurely from a stay, rush back to him and give him an upward tug  on the leash when you arrive. If he voluntarily sat when he saw you approaching, he should still get the tug/correction (tug up to correct for sit - see #4 above). Same penalty for dogs who play “creepy crawly” during a down stay. Dogs with high working intelligence are notorious for this. It’s like they’re asking, “Is it ok if I crawl around as long as I'm still sort of in a "down?" Don't fall for it!  If he leaves the spot, crawling or not, he needs a leash correction which takes him back to the original spot.

7)      Verbally signaling turns and stops. Sometimes this is almost an unconscious behavior, and the sounds are very slight. Dogs have a highly developed sense of hearing - they can hear a twig snap from 100 yards away. So they can certainly hear your little shooshing, clicking and other verbal signals – and these little signals are cheating. A well trained dog watches where the handler is going – he turns when the handler turns, stops when the handler stops, speeds up and slows down with the handler. Dog and handler function as a team ONLY when the dog has learned to watch the handler during leash work. If you cheat by making little noises, the dog is listening to you instead of watching you. Why is this important? Because the dog must learn to make the handler must the center of his focus. If the dog has been trained to listen for turns he is free to look around for other dogs, rabbits and squirrels and still keep pace with the handler. We don’t need a “heads-up heel” (dog does not need to continually look up at your face). But we do need the dog to check in frequently by keeping an eye on the handler’s leg. You will inadvertently train that out of a dog when you cheat by giving him little verbal clicks and shushes during loose leash walking. 

8)      Walking two untrained dogs at the same time.  Leash train one dog at a time. When they are both perfectly trained, you can walk both of them at the same time.  Remember, you can’t make corrective turns when you’re walking 2 or more dogs, so take your time and do things in the right order.   This is particularly true if one of the dogs is leash reactive – in this situation the reactive dog will often redirect at the other one you’re walking. If they’re large dogs it will not be easy to break up a fight with both hands occupied holding onto the leashes.

9)      Using the wrong types of leashes.  6 foot leather is for loose leash walking. 20 to 30 foot cotton is for recall drills (not nylon as it is slippery when wet, tough to grip and can cut you or the dog). Leather traffic leashes (about 14”) are handy for walking a dog through a crowd, or for jogging with 2 dogs.  Flexi-leads and chain leashes should not be used. 

10)   Attempting off leash work in an unfenced area with a dog who has not yet been thoroughly proofed.   I am guilty of this one myself. I will admit that I tend to push the envelope on this one. Trust me, there are few things more embarrassing to a professional trainer than to have their dog leave his side, take off after a Canadian Goose  and dive into the lake after it.   A trainer-friend in Florida had their dog jump into the water after an alligator and disappear below the surface! He happily emerged unscathed a minute later, but that was a close call.   Proof the dog with every conceivable distraction in a safely fenced area before trusting him off leash.