Once you have started training your dog to engage and
focus on you during your walks, you can really start to tackle the moments in
which your dog pulls!
Up until now we have encouraged you to work on engagement and capturing your dog’s focus during specific and short ‘training walks’. The premise of this is to introduce an incompatible behaviour to pulling. Instead of waiting for them to pull and becoming frustrated with their inattention, we advocated for a proactive training plan that works on gaining their focus and engagement quickly.
We all want a happy and engaged dog on our walks but it takes some effort to get there
To be successful in these training sessions,
structuring your walk in a specific way is helpful so that your dog does not
become reinforced by their environment – which can be in the form of any
smells, sights and other dogs that they may pull towards. This means that some
walks during this process may solely be focused on teaching behaviours and
rewarding your dog’s good choices.
An example?
If you are walking your dog and they pull you towards
a tree, gaining their focus by saying their name, and moving in the other
direction for a few steps will help your dog ‘snap out of it’ and redirect
their focus upon you. This momentum gives your dog the opportunity to re-engage
with you and offer you a behaviour you find more appealing such as eye contact,
and a loose lead. Once they offer it to you, you can easily facilitate a reward
through ‘sniffing’ the area they were curious of in the first place (such as a
fire hydrant or a tree).
Practicing this can be tricky, which is why we have created a little drill for you to try below in our video! If you are missing pylons feel free to use any visual landmark for your dog. Trees, flowerpots, chairs or benches in parks are great options and you can make the drill as easy or as challenging as you like!
For beginners, a straight line may be best to start
with and for more advanced dogs you may want a zig-zag or attempt a similar
pattern in the video.
If you have practiced focus and engagement with your dog, they should find this exercise fun, and not overly challenging in a semi-familiar environment. If you have not practiced and find this very challenging, we would recommend you go back to those previous drills for capturing focus and engagement and build up your dog’s capacity to look at you on a walk.
The premise is simple: If your dog is capable of looking at you and checking in with you, then you should have a fail safe mechanism to get your dog away from pulling you left right and centre on a walk!
Want to see how to handle pulling? Check out the video!
By practicing this set up on your outings, you set your dog and yourself up for success in multiple ways. Firstly, you start to teach your dog that pulling you towards things no longer works for them. They must ‘check in with you’ first. Second, you begin to ask for a series of behaviours consistently – focus, check ins and eye contact are helpful tools in training and the more you practice, the more your dog will understand they are a requirement of ‘outdoor’ time rather than an option. Finally, you start to change your own behaviour so that your dog succeeds. You start to bring hot dogs in your pockets, or a small treat pouch. You start to be consistent about walking and perhaps you start to enjoy it more because your dog is a little bit more manageable than a week ago, and you can see steady progress.
Teaching your dog to focus and engage with you before they pull you allows you to manage their behaviour effectively.
Ultimately, we want them to have access to the world through calm behaviours, and we want to enjoy our walks – but the only way to get there is to be consistent, realistic and follow a solid training plan.
Now that we have introduced the importance of Engagement in your loose leash walking, we can start to build other behaviours!
As mentioned previously, loose leash walking is a culmination of impulse control, handler awareness, engagement, and focus. This blog post will overview training your dog to focus on you in environments you may encounter on your walks.
Focus is all about teaching your dog to look at you or ‘check in with you’. Similarly to engagement, focus is an incompatible behaviour to pulling – if your dog is focused upon you, they cannot pull you towards distractions. Most often, dogs learn to focus quickly at home and in their yards but out in the ‘real world’ they struggle. As a result, this is where a large portion of your training for this skill will be practiced. As soon as your dog is successful in the home and around it, it should be practiced outdoors and in various environments.
Focus – can your dog look at you reliably in multiple environments?
Focus training differs from engagement because focus is ‘cued’, which means it is eventually given a verbal command – some people may use their dogs name, or “look at me” or “watch”. Regardless of your verbal cue the behavior is set up so that you ask for it in situations that may be helpful. These include when distractions walk by you and your dog, or when they are caught looking at something for too long.
The reason we advocate for engagement to be taught before focus is because engagement training lays the groundwork for our dog’s desire to work with us. Once we have encouraged motivation and a desire to work with us, teaching Focus becomes easy!
MANAGING EXPECTATIONS ON WALKS
It isn’t a realistic expectation for our dogs to solely stare at us on a walk – that would make the excursion pretty uninteresting for them. Instead of attempting to force our dogs to stare at us and ignore distractions (which is quite frankly, difficult to do!), the goal of walks should be to balance the dog’s desires to sniff and explore while also offering us appropriate and controlled behaviours.
So how do we start?
The goal of teaching focus through the exercise outlined below is to teach the dog to glance at the things they find interesting, and wait for them to offer you a moment of focus or attention. This method of training is called Capturing – which means that we are not asking for a behavior, the dog is offering it and being subsequently rewarded for it. This reinforcement history will cause the dog to repeat this skill over and over in the future.
Think of it this way: Every time your dog pulls you towards a fire hydrant and sniffs it, they are being rewarded. Not by you, but by the consequences of their actions. Sniffing and exploring are reinforcers for our dogs just as food is, which means they will continue to practice the same patterns of negative behaviour. Spotting a distraction and pulling you excitedly towards it can quickly become a pattern in walks until we start to implement alternative behaviours. If we want our dogs to learn new skills, we need to start by setting them up for success and working on gaining their focus well before we walk them close to their distractions.
The Drill
Have your dog on leash in a quiet, familiar environment and have treats in your pocket. Allow your dog to look, roam, and smell where they wish.
As soon as your dog glances in your direction, mark and reward. Allow them to return to gazing or roaming.
When they turn to you again, mark and reward.
As your dog glances at you more frequently, reward accordingly. Try ten repetitions and see how many your dog can do quickly!
Need a visual? Check out our video!
IF YOUR DOG PULLS/JUMPS TOWARDS OTHER PEOPLE/DOGS…
If you are practicing focus or engagement work with your dog and they pull or jump towards people, you are likely working too close to distractions. Try putting some distance between your dog and those distractions and try training them at that level for a period of time before making it more difficult.
It is important to note that many dogs find it challenging to walk by another dog on a busy or crowded sidewalk. Although city life has granted our dogs all the comforts of life, some dogs find on leash proximity to others dogs distressing, frustrating or too exciting. Therefore we don’t tend to recommend you allow your dog to walk too closely to another if you do not know how your dog will react, or if they are uncontrollable.
If you face big distractions on walks, move your dog out of the way and work on some focus!
Rarely do we recommend on leash meet and greets. They can be unpredictable and hard to physically manage, not to mention any interaction your dog gains through pulling can cause them to to be reinforced by the scenario. Instead, we suggest giving your dog some distance from another pup, and working on capturing your dogs calm focus and rewarding that skill.
EXTRA TIPS
– Practice these focus drills (and your engagement exercises) outside of your normal walks and activities with your dog.
– Capture your dogs focus until your dog offers you glances continuously. A good measure of success to follow is this: out of 10 repetitions, your dog should easily do 8 (this 80% average means that your dog is understanding what you want from them the majority of the time). Once they do, you may begin to cue it through a verbal marker – “Watch” or your dog’s name are good choices.
– Do not repeat your verbal cues! Keep your training clear by ensuring you are not repeating commands. This will only confuse your dog and make your training less effective overtime. Most of this training should be silent aside from your verbal marker.
Focus with distractions
Focus is a skill that is often undervalued in dog training but it is very useful! It is even more useful when you do not have to ‘nag’ or pester your dog for the behavior. By pairing this skill with engagement training, you motivate your dog to like being with you and checking in with you through direct eye contact and through capturing. This, proofed in various environments will make your walking successful!
The arrival of Spring is the perfect opportunity to head out with your dog after a long winter and explore the world…but that peaceful stroll can turn frustrating quickly if your dog pulls, strains and jumps as you hang on for dear life!
Loose leash walking is a hard skill as it involves deliberate practice and multiple components of obedience training. It can be an even bigger challenge when you factor in ‘city living’ distractions. Buses, cars, bikes and other dogs are always going to exist and pop out of nowhere on your walks and for your safety and theirs, dogs of all sizes should remain calm in the presence of them.
Is this your dog as soon as they see a squirrel?! Read on!
The most common complaint with walking is excessive pulling and excitable behaviours around distractions such as people and other dogs. These behaviours not only present a safety issue for owners, but they can also lead to less walking overall. A frustrating 30 minute walk daily can sour the relationship you have with your dog and make you less inclined to walk them. You may seek alternative methods of exercise but this is a solution we never want to see because loose leash walking is a life skill and can absolutely be taught with the correct foundations.
As we stated earlier, walking is hard and it is not a skill that can be achieved overnight. Unlike your Sits, Downs, and Targets, walking requires many layers of proofing; that is, practicing in various environments and distractions, with a consistent level of reward and structure. Despite this fact the question “what should I do when my dog pulls?” is usually the most asked in training classes.
There are many ways to interrupt pulling, but this blog post will focus instead on what to do when your dog is not pulling. By making this your primary objective and goal, you become proactive in your dog’s training. Rather than waiting for pulling to occur on a walk and training your dog then, you will anticipate their pulling and start to teach an alternative behaviour.
THE FOUNDATION OF LOOSE LEASH WALKING
The ‘secret’ to teaching your dog to walk well on leash lays in teaching solid foundation skills. These skills are a culmination of impulse control, handler awareness, management, and engagement and focus. Together, they create incompatible behaviours to pulling. If your dog has some measure of impulse control, they are less likely to pull. If your dog is aware of you and their environment, you can anticipate times when they pull. Finally if your dog can focus and redirect their attention to you willingly, you have a very useful way to structure your walk.
The assumption should always be that dogs will pull – they are animals after all. The training we want focus on is teaching the dog a measure of control that inhibits excessive pulling. So, the first step towards stopping your dog pulling is to start Engagement Training.
Most people understand focus to be your dog’s ability to direct their attention towards you (and we will touch base on this skill in our next blog!). Engagement training, however, is a relatively new concept in companion training. Engagement is your dog’s willingness to work with you (and in this case, check in with you), ideally without the obvious presence of rewards.
The premise is this: without hot dogs and cheese, will my dog Ebony still check in with me and want to do work with me? Can she do this in a new environment? Can she do this with other dogs walking by her, or people? The answer is yes, because I have built her engagement incrementally over the years. I have taught her that doing stuff with me is fun and rewarding, and something to look forward to. First, we used food and secondary rewards such as toys and then the environment. Eventually, the work itself became rewarding through repetition and practice.
Heeling – a skill based entirely on Engagement. Could I make my dog do this if she didn’t love to? Probably not.
How does this help our walking? Well, engagement is a foundation skill. If you teach your dog that checking in with you on walks and in outdoor environments are good things, you are already being proactive about where their attention is wandering before it leads to excessive pulling. When you throw in hard distractions such as another dog that your pup could potentially pull towards, you are already ahead of the game and can set up the scenario to work to your advantage.
If you have taught your dog to frequently check in with you to the point that its muscle memory and fun for the dog to perform, suddenly walking becomes more about that activity. By practicing this, you have a skill to fall back on when distractions begin to creep up on your walk. You are no longer solely dealing with ‘a dog that pulls’ – Instead, you are putting the majority of your time and effort in to teaching them better skills that help your relationship become stronger.
Engagement training differs from ‘focus work’ because it is not a cued skill, it is simply based on creating a fun dynamic between you and your dog. While Focus and Attention are excellent tools to use in your walking, building engagement lays the groundwork for those very skills to be solidified later on.
Practicing engagement for beginners will need to start outside of your walks, but in the meantime while your dog learns, you should also be practicing management!
THE ROLE OF MANAGEMENT ON WALKS
The other part of the ‘waking equation’ would entail management, and ensuring your dog is set up to succeed. If you are aware of her tendency to pull towards strangers, for example, this is a perfect opportunity to either practice your training skills or manage your dog.
If you have not brought appropriate rewards to train your dog or are unprepared for these scenarios, then you will mange the situation by stepping aside as strangers walk by (for example), or by creating distance by crossing the street. The last thing we want to do is set up our dogs to fail by attempting to walk too closely to their kryptonite and risk them practicing inappropriate behaviours. It is always best to keep your training as clear as possible for your dog and especially clear on what behaviours aren’t allowed (such as jumping up on people).
SO, IF MY DOG PULLS, WHAT DO I DO?
You start by teaching engagement in easy locations!
This is the fun part! Starting your dog on engagement drills is best in the home first and then an open area like your yard. The basic premise is that we want to reward the dog and make it fun when they ‘engage’ with us, and move with us. This can mean glancing at us, in direct or direct eye contact, looking up at us, or turning their body towards us.
To make the exercise easier, we would recommend starting this on leash but try to think of the leash as a guide rather than a preventative measure. You want your dog to choose to engage with you over the environment whether you have the leash or not in the future.
THE DRILL
Start indoors with your dog, and have a handful of rewards ready to go. Move 3-5 steps away from them, and if they follow you mark and reward them.
Try to feed them as they move with you – backwards, then forwards.
Allow them to break that focus to glance around and do whatever they like. Its important not to ‘force’ your dog to check in with you, as the power of this skill comes from the dog ‘choosing’ to do it and subsequently being reinforced for it. This means no verbal commands or cues such as their name or ‘come’
As soon as they check back in after taking a break, mark and reward again, and take a few steps backwards with your dog.
As you progress through the exercise, you should notice your dog choosing YOU over the environment more and more, and you can walk in multiple directions with their sustained engagement. This is good!
If you think about it this way – what incentive do dogs have to check in with us when the world is so exciting? Most dogs usually just want to explore the world with their senses, so its important to remember that teaching them to engage with us is a process and should involve reinforcement. The more you practice, the more progress you should see over time. We like to recommend you use a higher value reward for these drills, especially if you are working outdoors. Most dogs tend to stop eating ‘regular’ rewards in more distracting environments – this is normal and part of the learning process.
Keep your training sessions short for this exercise. Five to ten minutes of consistent reinforcement is sufficient in new environments. Remember we want to avoid flooding them and overwhelming the dog.
Moving out of the way of distractions helps control your dogs reactions to them if you are unprepared for training
IMPLEMENTING DELIBERATE PRACTICE
The main ingredient to successful loose leash walking is practice. This means that outside of your dog’s usual activity you will need to practice building their engagement.
An easy way to break the training down?
If you walk your dog 2Xa day, try to practice this drill 2X as well, before or after your walk.
Practice these drills in the yard before meal times
Grab a handful of rewards and head out to your driveway, and practice the skills there for a few minutes.
Engagement training doesn’t just help your walking! It is the foundation for every life skill you want your dog to learn and it’s the key to getting your dog to want to work with you and learn with you.
Socialization is an important aspect of raising a puppy. We all want well rounded, social dogs…but is it just the process of socializing that creates a well rounded dog, or can we do more to ensure we are creating positive associations with our dogs and how they feel about the world?
To begin, we think it is important to be clear on what socialization is. Socialization is the process by which we expose our dogs to stimulus in various environments. The purpose of this exposure is to create a positive association with the world and in doing so hopefully avoid behavioural issues. The most misunderstood part of socialization, however, is that simply exposing our dogs to things such as other dogs, people, children or cats doesn’t always lead to a confident, well adjusted dog. For example, a puppy could be well socialized to dogs when young, and later in life develop aggression or fear reactive tendencies towards other dogs. Likewise, a dog that has been around people all of its young adult life could develop fearfulness towards strangers. The point these illustrations make is that socialization does not always mean behavior will change for the better. Rather, it is the way that we go about making positive associations for our dogs that has the greatest impacts on behaviour.
We all want social, happy dogs…but this process requires training.
THE DOWNSIDE TO SOCIALIZATION
Rather than just exposing your dog to environments and people, you want socializing your dog to be a training process. You want your dog to learn to be confident in new environments and not overwhelmed by them. A good example? If you bring your dog to the local pet store for a treat, your dog will likely be very excited and less focused on you, and although you are socializing her to the sights and smells and sounds of the store, if you are not doing anything to mitigate her behavior you are also allowing poor associations to be made with the store in general. This is the downside to socializing without a plan – excitement, over stimulation and over arousal all impede learning and too much exposure to new stimuli can actually cause more damage than good – in the form of flooding.
Kingston hanging out in public calmly. This is what we want! *photo by Polaris Photography
WHAT IS FLOODING AND HOW DOES IT IMPACT TRAINING?
Flooding is a behavioural term that describes ‘information overload’ in our dogs. Flooding happens when we expose dogs to a stimulus at a very high intensity for a period of time, often causing the dog to cease responding to the stimulus (68, Barlow-Tick). In our previous example of your dog in a pet store, this would mean we would bring her into the store and keep her there until she was bored with it – which could take a while for most dogs! In between that span of time, your dog could easily urinate in the store, lunge at others, bark nonstop and steal a few treats. This is a problem!
Not only because your dog is misbehaving, but we have set up a poor environment for learning. How can she learn with all of that excitement, and even more importantly – is she enjoying and learning anything from this experience that will promote good behavior later on in life?
Flooding causes bad coping skills, which is the exact opposite of what we want. It causes poor responses because the dog is so overwhelmed that they can’t make good choices – including those that say “this is a good experience”. Often times, dogs simply ‘shut down’ and stop responding to the stimulus altogether. This may appear to some as a ‘well behaved dog’ but it is not; it is simply a dog who is overwhelmed. Alternatively you could have a dog that is fearful and shy around these environments and that would be creating an equally stressful scenario. Humans are also susceptible to flooding! Ever scroll through Netflix for an hour, trying to decide what to watch? Have you been on a vacation to Disney World and just felt overwhelmed rather than excited?
Instead of frantic excitement or uncertainty, we want to teach our dogs to be as neutral as possible – we call this trait ‘stable’. A stable dog in a new environment is curious but controlled. Not a whole lot should spook them or surprise them, and they should be confident in their environments. A good example is if you have ever seen a dog who hangs out at your local vet office, or your groomers parlor. They are likely calm and confident in the environment and don’t rush to greet every person who walks through the door.
HOW CAN WE SOCIALIZE WITH TRAINING?
Socialization should be carried out with the intention of rewarding good behavior and with boundaries in place. This means that the process shouldn’t always involve the dog interacting with every person, dog or animal they meet. There should be clear training expectations such as:
-Are they allowed to pull towards people or jump on them?
-Are they allowed to greet other animals without waiting politely first?
If not, then be prepared to manage your dog appropriately or train alternate behaviours.
We also want the dog to be confident and curious of his or her surroundings – but not so excited that they can’t think, learn or focus on us so choose your environments wisely. Start easy, such as your street or local park before building it up to the pet store or vet office.
We have created a little exercise for you to follow to make this as easy as possible!
Reward focus and calm behaviours and have fun with your dog! *Photo of Alison & dog Kingston, taken by Polaris Photography
EXERCISE
In your chosen environment, have your dog on a leash and allow her to explore the area on her own.
Let her sniff and walk where she wishes and allow her to look around. Your dog should be at a distance from people or other dogs but still able to view them. Your dog should exhibit curiosity and interest but should not be so overwhelmed they are barking, whining or pulling you, or jumping at others. They should also not continuously stare at distractions without breaks.
There is no obedience expectation in this exercise but you will reward your dog for remaining calm, and for offering you small glances or instances of focus on you. This is what you want more of later on as she grows, so you want to be sure to capture this behaviour as it happens.
When time permits and you have practiced the above exercise in locations that are close to home and quiet, take your dog to a location that is more challenging but that can still give you space to move around; an open field is a good option.
Put your dog on leash and have higher value rewards with you. Take your dog and allow her to explore the area with her senses (nose and eyesight). Once again our only goal is to ensure she does not react or freeze at sounds, and that she can return to you to receive her food reward. If she is checking in with you frequently by offering glances and eye contact, awesome! Reward that. The goal here is to have her enjoy exploring and increase her confidence in her surroundings – which will be incrementally more difficult as you practice.
WHAT TO WATCH OUT FOR
– If your dog is stressed out, panting, whining or trying to climb up your leg, end the training session and leave the scenario. Consider contacting a reputable trainer (or message us!) for help. Do not force a fearful dog into a scenario they are rejecting.
– If your dog is excited, over stimulated and uncontrollable, remove them from the scenario and gain some distance. For example, if you are at a pet store or a busy park and your dog is too close to others; move back to a more quiet location and practice this drill there.
– Keep your sessions of exposure short but frequent. The goal is to have a good response to novel objects and scenarios. Not to continue to expose the same things to the dog.
Does this mean no one can pet your dog, or your dog can’t meet another dog? Of course not. These are good experiences too, but the exercise laid out above gives your dog structure in the way they interact with the world and helps build their confidence too!
When you hire us for training services, we always start with a discussion as to what your behavioural goals are for your dog. This can be specific or general but in most cases the common answers we receive revolve around the following sentence:
We want a calm, good, family dog. A dog we can take places and trust with the kids. We want a well trained dog.
These are not unrealistic goals. They are absolutely attainable. As trainers, goals make us excited and help create a clear guideline for us to help you. Goals for your dog are a fabulous way to narrow down specific behaviours you want to achieve. What normally occurs after our goal setting discussion is an in depth chat about ways to reach that goal – through management and practice sessions.
So, you want a well trained dog?
Here is the truth that no one likes to talk about (but we will because that is why we created this blog!). Training requires work on behalf of the owner and family. Since we are influencing behaviour changes, there are no overnight fixes and no short cuts. Training a dog requires consistent, well-thought out practice. This specific type of practice is known as Deliberate Practice.
What is Deliberate Practice? Simply put it is the intentional and systematic method of improving upon a goal. While regular practice might include mindless repetitions or sessions, deliberate practice requires focused attention and a plan to improve performance over a period of time.
This applies directly to dog training. The more you practice training your dog in a specific skill the better you and your dog will be at that skill. The more ‘SITS’ you work on in your home and outside of it the more your dog will offer it readily and quickly. The more you practice teaching your dog to be calm in distracting environments, the better they will be. Think of it like any other hobby: learning to play the piano, or to play soccer or study. As time passes and the more deliberate practice you carry out, you may start to notice a funny thing: The more you work with your dog, the more they want to work with you.
I like to call that the sweet spot of training. That is where I find my joy – not only with my own dog but in my clients as well…but you have to do the work to find it.
If you train your dog frequently with the intent to improve specific skills, your dog will benefit and so will your long term goals!
So, if you want a well trained dog, understand that consistency and practiceare the largest predictors of success in reaching your goals. Do you do your homework consistently? Do you follow through on the skills we teach you in class and outside of it? Do you ask for help when you hit a roadblock in your training? Do you put in the hours of practice outside of the classroom or do you simply practice once a week in class?
As trainers, we often face high expectations and scrutiny from owners but the reality is we spend very little time with your dog. Unless they are boarding with us, the dog is rarely in our care and we do not always see them at their worst behaved. So, in order to improve upon those negative behaviors that drive you to hire us in the first place; you have to do the work.
Our job titles don’t help promote this fact. We get it. The term ‘dog trainer’ itself is a bit misleading – the title suggests we work with dogs directly and we do to a certain extent – this is often the easiest part of the process. When it comes down to it, however, what we really do is work with humans. Dog training is about coaching you how to effectively communicate and teach your dog habits that fall in line with your lifestyle. We give you the tools and knowledge, and you need to execute them consistently in order to see improvements.
The truth is although enrolling in classes or private lessons are positive steps towards bettering your dog, training extends beyond these experiences. Expecting your dog to be fully trained after eight weeks of classes is both unrealistic and unfair. Learning occurs outside of the classroom and your home, therefore so to should your training.
The bulk of your training sessions should be done in incrementally difficult environments – not just at home or in puppy class.
Sometimes, when dogs are not succeeding or ‘getting it’ in training sessions and we are frustrated, it can be easy to blame the dog for bad behaviour. Instead, when you are disappointed in your dog’s behaviour, you should ask yourself the following questions
Did I set my dog up for success?
Is my dog ready for this stage of training?
Did I expect too much of my dog, in this specific scenario?
Is everyone is my household being consistent with the training?
And most importantly…
Have I put in the effort working with my dog on this particular behaviour?
Changing your mentality to be proactive verses reactive is fundamental to changing your dog’s behaviour because ultimately we must change ours first. We must get up earlier to walk them, we must manage them appropriately and we must find time do the work.
Think of it like a partnership; as trainers we rely on you to practice the exercises we give you so that we can continuously work towards your goals. The truth of the matter is that we want you to succeed. We fully believe that you can – dogs are intelligent and constantly learning. We want to help you shape that learning into behaviours you desire. We are here to set you on the right path, with the right tools.
So, you want a well trained dog? Time to get to work.
As trainers, we often receive emails from owners with new puppies hoping for some tips and advice to speed the housebreaking process up. It can be frustrating, annoying and set backs tend to create panic for dog owners. “Will my dog ever pee outside or let me know she has to?” The answer is yes but….
The bad news with housebreaking is that there is no real way to ‘speed it up’. The learning process is entirely dependent on your dog, your routine, and your ability to manage your pup (which we will dive into in this post!). It goes without saying that you should face the reality that you will likely be cleaning up an accident or two! And that is OK. This is all a part of the house breaking experience, and I promise you once it is done, it will be a vague memory and you can move on to other behavioural goals for your dog.
Oh so cute but a lot of work goes into house breaking puppies!
What we can do to ensure success for your dog’s house training is to keep management and routines predictable and consistent.
The general rule with young puppies is that their age correlates with the length of time they can feasibly ‘hold’ their bladder for. For example, two months would correlate to two hours of bladder control for this age. As the dog matures in age, so to does their bladder control. As trainers, we tend to play this rule on the safe side and instead suggest you take your new puppy out every 30 minutes to an hour. Yes. You read that right.
Why?
It is a lot easier to ensure our dogs can hold their bladders for an hour first before trying two hours and continuously cleaning up accidents while blaming the dog. Once your puppy has gone a stretch of time with no accidents, we can build upon it.
We need to take into account how active young puppies are and how that affects their ability to hold their bladder. Dogs can easily learn to hold their bowels and bladder overnight for seven hours – because they are sleeping! Like you and I, inactivity causes their bodies to naturally slow down but this is not typical during the day when pups are active and consuming liquids/food consistently.
For this reason, we always recommend starting bathroom breaks in small increments and building your dogs bladder control slowly. To simplify the process, The Leash Rack has created a schedule for you to follow and build upon for success!
If you have a new adult dog and you have little history of the dog’s house breaking routine – this post is still helpful and the schedule can be applied easily. You can start with hourly ‘pee breaks’ or communicate directly with the adoption agency/foster home to see what their particular routine was like. It is important to note that a change in homes and routines can cause any dog who has mastered house breaking to regress. Stress and environmental factors can cause dogs to have setbacks so it is important to be forgiving and understanding as you navigate through the experience.
Here is a rough outline of what your new puppys day may look like, with potty breaks and activity built in.
7AM
– puppy wakes up, potty time
– play with your pup, train them, feed breakfast
8AM
– potty time, crate time/quiet time
If you work during the day, leave a pee pad out or have a friend or a hired dog walker help let your pup out. New dogs should not be left alone for the entire work day. We strongly recommend the use of a crate for times you’re away or an expen. Don’t know where to start? Check out our previous Crate Training Post here!
10AM
– potty time , play with puppy, train puppy, supervised quiet time
12:00-1:00PM
– potty time, play time, training time
– lunch time
– potty your dog after feeding, or within
the hour
2:00-4:00PM
– play time / train time, potty time
– quiet supervised time
4:00-5:00PM
– potty time, supervised play, a walk
– dinner followed by a potty break
6:00-8:00PM
– wind down time, chew time, potty time
9:00-10:00PM
– potty the dog and bed time
Once, a long time ago little Ebony had to master this skill too!
TIPS FROM THE PRO’S
If your dog has an accident, try to interrupt them gently and redirect them outside. If you miss it, tough luck! Clean up the mess and make note of what may have caused this accident , and resolve to manage your dog better
Clean your accident spots with a cleaner designed for dog urine – Natures Miracle is a popular product and sold at most pet stores. This cleaner breaks down the enzymes in urine that create the pattern of ‘marking’ in dogs, and it works on all types of surfaces.
Use your crate! Crate training speeds up potty training because dogs are reluctant to pee/poop where they eat and sleep. The golden rule for house breaking is if your dog cannot be directly supervised, she should be in her crate!
Manage the amount of freedom your dog has. If your dog has come inside from the yard without doing her business, then she should not be allowed to roam free in the home with a potentially full bladder
After play, exercise or exciting events (ie: meeting a new family member!) are the most overlooked times when a dog may have an accident, so after playing with your dog try to take them out as soon as possible! A helpful tip to remember this? Think of the fact that we always use the washroom after a busy activity or before bed time. The same goes for our pets.
Reward your dog for pottying outside. This is a big deal and you want to encourage this and celebrate it – but don’t celebrate too early as your pup could get excited and distracted before finishing up.
If your dog is easily distracted or hyper, try to take your dog out into your yard on a leash to encourage them to potty quickly. If you are in a condo or apartment with no yard, take your dog out on leash and heavily reward a fast potty. If your dog prefers a certain spot, take them to that spot immediately.
As your dog grows and they begin to learn their ‘bathroom’ routine, you can start to increase the amount of time they go without a potty break. For example, a dog that has had no accidents for a week and a half at a one hour interval can try holding it in for one and a half to two hours!
We get it. It is a lot of work. No one says house breaking is easy, but the more diligent you are in the beginning the better your dogs bathroom habits will be. If your dog is having many accidents, cut back the time they are ‘holding it in’ for, follow the schedule above, increase your management and make use of your crate to build it back up again!
