POTTY TRAINING OF DOGS

One of the first things that a puppy must be taught is to poop at the right place. Potty training is an important part of management as a poorly trained dog will be a great hassle later.

For appropriate potty training the owner must donate their

1) Time

2) Patience

3) Supervision

4) Consistency

A) Understand when your puppy will poop. Usually puppies poop immediately after a meal or within 1/2 an hour of a meal. Make sure to train them in these hours. Puppies below 3 months of age eat 4 times a day, 4-5 hours apart. Therefore they will poop atleast 4 times a day.

B) The second step is to identify the subtle signs of pooping. Once you know that your puppy 'needs to go', you can take the necessary measures.

C) Third step is choosing an area for potty training. Before your puppy has received all its shots, it is generally not recommended to take them outside for pooping. Therefore prior to 3 months, it is advisable to choose a balcony or an area isolated from the main house. The puppy must understand that it should not poop inside the house and a balcony is best to inculcate this thought in puppies. If you are using a crate for your puppy, that becomes its "house" and you must train them not to poop in the crate. For that purpose your crate should not be too big and it should be wide enough to allow your puppy to sleep and stand without hassle.

D) Understanding your puppy's mentality. Two factors are important for their cognition:

a) Sense of smell

b) Texture of pooping area

a) Puppies are easily distracted by unique odours and they will preferably poop in and around such odours. For example, plant and soil odours are naturally attractive spots for puppies. Similarly artificial odours such as strong floor cleaners (Domex, Lysol etc.) will seem unique to puppies and they will poop around such odours. Hence accidental pooping inside the house should be cleaned with a mild detergent which we use for washing clothes. The puppies will confuse this odour with your clothes and hence will avoid pooping in that area. As far as possible, keep natural odours in the pooping area which will help you extrapolate the same odour outside the house when you start taking your dog out for walks. Accidental poops inside the house can be picked up with a tissue, the extra poop can be discarded and some residual poop along with the tissue can be kept in the pooping area to attract puppies but this method will also attract flies and can be at times unhygienic.

b) Puppies develop acquaintance with a particular texture. For example, if you use pooping pads to train them, they will prefer soft surfaces for pooping later such as bedsheets, floor mats etc. Therefore you can use artificial sand or something with grainy texture to train your puppy in the pooping area/balcony.

E) Supervision of your pet is the next step. As soon as you read those signs of pooping, take your puppy out into the pooping area/balcony. Immediately after a meal, you should take your puppy out into the pooping area and bring it back once finished pooping. If at any time, the puppy accidentally poops inside the house, let the puppy know 'in the moment'. The puppy must understand what it has done 'in the moment' itself. If the moment passes, the puppy will get distracted and will not understand why it is being pointed out. To make the puppy realize its mistake you can make a sound like "uh-uh" or "hey" or "no". A bell sound can also be used for this purpose. Puppies should not be given access to bedrooms. The soft texture of mattresses and bedsheets might hinder the process of training.

F) Using positive reinforcement is the next and last step. When the puppy poops inside the house, do not use negative reinforcement or violence. This will make the puppy think that pooping in front of the owner is not allowed. They will poop inside the house in the owner's absence which is more of an issue. We want them to learn that pooping inside the house is wrong. On the contrary, when they poop in the right place you can praise them with "good boy" or "good girl". If your puppy is big enough, you can reward him with a treat.

REGARDLESS OF THE METHOD, THE KEY TO SUCCESSFUL TRAINING IS CONSISTENCY.