Articles Dr. Brenneman
Has Written for the Lima News:
By James B. Brenneman D.V.M.
Shakespeare not withstanding, the question of where a new puppy pees
and poops if it is intended to be a housedog is very important. There
are a lot of myths and “old wives tales” that will actually interfere
with house training a new puppy. I’m going to try to give a few of the
do’s and don’ts of house training, and hopefully make the potty
training of an new puppy less of a hassle. I thought that this article should be
revisited since there has been a large influx of new puppies from
the holiday seasons.
Don’t’s first:
Don’t get mad at the puppy! If you feel yourself becoming angry, stop whatever you are doing with the puppy, put the puppy in a cage or a room away from you and cool off!
Don’t shove the puppy’s nose into a puddle of urine, or a pile of poop. The puppy only fights because it doesn’t like to have its face pushed into the floor and it wants to continue to breathe. Puppies are not horrified by poop or pee, and will often eat their own poop, and since they don’t use toilet tissue, they use their tongue to clean the inguinal and anal area. This is NORMAL.
Don’t paper train a puppy if you hope to teach it to potty outside. Just about the time the puppy becomes comfortable with using the papers, most people start training them to go outside, confusing them more. Once a puppy is paper trained, it is unfair to get mad at them if they go to the bathroom on your newspaper wherever you have dropped it, because you have paper trained it.
Don’t give a treat when you bring the puppy inside from going to the potty unless you want to reward it for coming in the house.
Don’t clean up a puddle or a
pile in front of the puppy. Mom used to lick the puppy’s poop or pee up
from the floor, so if the puppy sees you cleaning it up, you are in
essence saying that it is alright to go there.
Don’t hit or physically correct the puppy if it uses the floor for its bathroom. The puppy doesn’t understand English. You can’t explain to the puppy where to go to the bathroom and have the puppy understand! If the puppy can’t understand, physical punishment is totally worthless, even harmful and confusing.
Don’t expect the puppy to hold its poop or pee for 8 hours or longer while you go to work. A puppy can’t concentrate its urine well until it is 6 months old. A puppy can’t hold its poop forever either. If you must be gone, have someone come in and take the puppy outside for you.
Do’s next:
Do reward the puppy for going to the bathroom outside. Just make sure you do it immediately!!! Small treats given as soon as the puppy goes to the bathroom will encourage the puppy in a language it can understand-food. Also use a happy voice to praise the puppy. Eventually food rewards will be given intermittently after the puppy is trained, but the praise will continue indefinitely.
Do watch the puppy closely until it realizes that it has to tell you it needs to go to the potty. A puppy that is playing or resting, but suddenly stops to start sniffing the floor is probably a puppy that needs to go to the bathroom. Grab the treats on the way outside!
Do clean up a mess with toilet tissue after the puppy has been verbally chastised (YOU BAD DOG in a growlly voice) and removed from the area. Take the toilet tissue outside to the part of the yard you want the puppy to use for its bathroom, and drop the poop or urine filled tissue on the ground. The next time you take the puppy outside, take it to the tissue. The puppy will smell its own poop and/or pee and be more likely to go there. Remember to reward the puppy with a SMALL food treat and a happy praising voice immediately after it goes to the bathroom. Do remember to deodorize and clean the area of the floor that the puppy went on, so the puppy is less likely to return there.
Do remember that a puppy will have to pee within 5 minutes of drinking, and poop within 10 minutes of eating. Take it outside as soon as it finishes eating or drinking. Stay with the puppy. Take the puppy to an area your children do not play in, and you do not picnic in. Poop odor is usually not stimulating to the appetite. Choose the bathroom site carefully.
Do crate train your puppy. This is similar to having a playpen for your baby so the baby doesn’t pull a lamp off the table onto its head. Puppies do not like to sleep where they poop and pee normally, but can be “taught” to go to the bathroom in the crate if they are confined too long. An alternative to crate training is to have an outdoor fenced run with a doghouse or access to a weather protected area when you have to leave for an extended period of time.
Do have clothes ready to go outside with the puppy—RAIN OR SHINE! The puppy is a baby and needs moral support. Have boots and coats and umbrellas ready, along with treats. If the puppy is small, you may need to shovel snow, or cut the grass extra short in the potty area.
Finally, do enjoy your puppy. Do take it to be examined and vaccinated and checked for worms etc..
Dr. Brenneman graduated from The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine in 1975 and has been practicing in the Lima area since 1976.