City Dog Housetraining (Part 2): Graduating From Paper Training To Pottying Outside

Paper training is the best option for those of you enjoying the big city lifestyle, but living in close quarters inside a plush apartment. It just works, and works well. But once your pup is going to the bathroom on the paper pile each and every time, shouldn't you move onto training him to go outside?

Some people may choose to allow their dogs to go on papers for a longer time. For a small dog you can absolutely use paper training on a permanent basis. In fact, when you teach a pup to use the papers on cue, it makes traveling outside the home much easier.

Determine up front whether having your dog potty inside will be acceptable for the life of your dog before you commit to litter boxes and pee pads, because sustained use is often difficult to alter down the road.

High-rise puppies can develop a surface preference very early on. They usually prefer porous surfaces, such as carpets, rugs and beds. And if a puppy doesn't like the surface, he's not going to want to use it as a toilet.

Be careful what you train on. One little Toy American Eskimo had been trained by his breeder to go on bed sheets. The breeder didn't want the pups (which have nice white, fluffy coats) to get newsprint on themselves. And laundry became a mess; the pup was going on anything fabric - beds, laundry, furniture. They owners had to completely redo the training, which is a hundred times harder than starting from scratch.

The best advice is to make the effort to teach your puppy to go potty on lots of different surfaces, including concrete, grass, gravel, dirt, and even sawdust.

Outdoor Etiquette

After paper training, it's time to start more in-depth outdoor housetraining, if you want to use this method. Outdoor housetraining sounds easy, right? But when you live in an apartment building, how do you finagle your pup into the hallway, down the elevator or stairs, and across the lobby without having him relieve himself inside?

The time factor is a problem. Bringing a puppy down 10 floors in an elevator when he has to go NOW is going to be difficult. The less convenient the toilet is to get to, the more difficult it may be to housetrain your pup.

Here's the key: Immediately upon taking your pup out of the crate, pick him up and carry him out to the street. An airborne pup is much less likely to eliminate, unless his bladder is really full.

For small or medium-sized pups, keeping his feet off the ground is a breeze. For larger puppies or less-muscular owners, you might want to use dog or baby carry packs to haul your pet.

Whether the worry is to teach your dog or pass on an individuality to it, dog collars and straps represent a vital role. Dog collars are available in a selection of forms, dimensions and fashions, and are much of a style statement these days. A dog collar may well be a reprieve for your puppy if, God forbid, it runs away from your home.

With such an extensive selection of dog collars to be had, opting for the appropriate one for your puppy can be to a certain extent nerve racking. The collar ought to be chosen depending upon your choices and your puppy's behavior. For a rather docile puppy, a collar made up of soft cloth is fairly suitable. On the other hand, a stubborn puppy has to be restricted by a fast jerk of a spiked collar. A dog trainer may give you a hand in making the appropriate selection of a dog collar for your loyal canine buddy.

The buckle range is mainly the regular sort of dog collar. A broad selection of cloth may be used to make up a buckle collar, featuring a variety of colors and designs. Your puppy's name may be stitched on top of the collar for recognition reasons. Buckle collar is made up of a sequence of spaced holes, and the buckle is fixed firmly to arrive at the desired size.

Buckle collar is the most standard type, which can be improved to make sure of additional protection for the puppy. For example, breakaway collars are planned to pull to pieces under excessive trauma. A few collar styles are set with discharge flaps that make sure of a quick taking away of the collar, comparative to the usual buckle style. Such differences may perhaps help out to avoid your puppy from gasping in unexpected state of affairs.

One more collar style is a prong collar, which is fairly of assistance if your puppy is to a certain extent stiff and usually pulls hard while on leash. A prong collar has vertical metal prongs that are spaced in an even way in the region of the inside of the collar. Upon tugging the attached strap, the prongs poke your puppy's neck, in this manner slowing down its disorderly actions. The expression "prong collar" does sound as a bit unsafe for your canine. Nevertheless, when used properly, prong collars by no means cause any harm to the puppy, and are a great deal safer than even other styles of dog collars.

Chewing & Nipping: How To Curb Your Puppy From These 2 Annoying Behaviors

We all love our puppies, especially when they are being cute and well behaved. We also adore them even when they are acting out in bad ways with annoying habits.

These annoying habits, however, are based on our standards of how they should behave. To our puppies, they are only acting like - well - dogs! But in order to keep the household a safe and peaceful place, they must learn to behave in the human world, and it is our job as their owners to make that happen.

With proper training, any puppy can learn to stop unpleasant habits such as the ones discussed below:

Nipping: Nipping during playtime is natural for all puppies, especially when they get excited. But regardless of how adorable your puppy looks or how harmless it may seem, nipping is a bad habit that needs to be stopped right away. Your puppy needs to learn that, even in play, his teeth should not touch human skin. Curbing this behavior now will greatly lessen the odds of your puppy growing up and biting someone in the future.

When your puppy starts to nip, turn his biting habit into focus on his toys instead of your hands. Have toys that are inviting to his mouth like chewy, rubber toys, especially those that come with treats inside, and soft, colorful plush toys that will peak his interest.

You do not have to wait for your puppy to get older before you start to train him. Even puppies as young as 8 weeks can learn to understand that nipping is not allowed. When he starts to bite during play, say "ouch" and back away for a few seconds. If he starts to bite again, walk away, go to a different room and close the door, but do not leave him alone for any longer than one minute.

Leaving him and going to another room with the door shut teaches him that biting hard "makes the fun go away." He will eventually learn to control the pressure of his nipping. Once he learns to nip gently, raise the bar and say "ouch" to the gentle bites until he completely learns to stop altogether.

Chewing: Another annoying habit that frustrates us dog owners is when these cute little creatures chew on our stuff (especially those brand new shoes). Puppies have an insatiable urge to chew, mainly to soothe their aching gums as they go through their teething stage. It would be cruel to stop your puppy from trying to soothe his pain, but you can redirect his chewing to his toys instead of your shoes, clothes, books, etc.

Always have plenty of toys available for him to chew on. Get him used to chewing on these toys by having them around with him at all times while he's still young.

Make sure to place these items in a confined area with your puppy so that he doesn't focus his attention on other stuff around the house. If you see him chewing on something he's not supposed to, say "no chew" and quickly replace the item with his chew toy. Make sure to praise him when he starts to chew on his toy.

On the second day of training your dog not to chase cars and other moving objects, the exact sequence should be repeated as day one - with the dog dragging the thirty-five foot line. In each instance where an automobile passes without the dog yielding to temptation, he earns your praise; genuine, enthusiastic praise!

Let him get started with his charge before you make a grab for the end of the line. If he detects you moving for the line and breaks off the charge, you must follow through with the sequence just as if he had gone all the way through the chase behavior. Any dog smart enough to sense a correction coming, and modify his actions accordingly, soon will be playing a game of "catch me if you can."

Your dog must know that any infraction, however slight, automatically brings the full force of the correction. At the conclusion of the day's lesson, confine the dog away from temptation as before.

Day 3

By the time the third day rolls around, your dog will be getting the idea that you don't want him chasing cars, that his actions in doing so displeases you greatly and causes you to get angry.

So far, you have made the first breakthrough in communications with education. On the third day, you must broaden this education to include the automobile as an object of displeasure, and tied this in with your displeasure.

You will need the assistance of a friend or neighbor on the third day, who will volunteer to drive their car. You will also need a few additional training aids. Three or four tin cans tied together on a string should be in the front seat beside the driver, along with an empty aluminum soda can with about 10 or so pennies inside, and maybe a few water balloons.

Allow your dog to drag the line around the yard while you go inside and out of sight. Watch your pet from a concealed vantage point. As the dog charges the car, the driver should let go of the tin cans (without slowing down). You don't want the cans to actually strike your dog, but rather scare the animal by the loud clinking noises.

This action is followed immediately you, the dog owner, emerging from your place of concealment, grabbing the line, and reeling the dog in for a good shaking and a verbal chewing out.

Meanwhile, the driver circles the block and you should retreat back into the house, leaving the dog alone for the next pass of the automobile. On the second pass, and each succeeding pass where the dog makes no attempt to charge the car, you should emerge enthusiastically, and give your dog an over-abundance of praise.

If the dog chooses to charge the car, the driver should let go with another shocking training aid. Four or five such passes should be all that is necessary. Even if the dog starts to charge, but aborts his goal before he gets close enough for the driver to let go with the tin cans or water balloons, you must emerge from the house, grab the line, and verbally chew out the dog once more.

You may be asking why should the dog be corrected if he changes his mind in the middle of the charge. In the mind of a dog, things are either black or white. There are no gray areas in between. To a dog, and owner who is willing to compromise is an owner who is willing to surrender unconditionally. Therefore, the dog must be corrected for any overt movement toward passing cars, so that he eventually comes to realize the necessity of ignoring the car altogether.