Puppy training tips?

[Cuda1447]

So I'm pretty good with dogs. I'm curious if anyone has any other suggestions that they have experienced work really well.


We just got a new baby mini-dachshund. I'll put up some pics later, she's cute. Anyways, she's 8 weeks old (ish). We are already trying to house train her. Figure its not to early to start, but not expecting results right away. Anytime she starts to sniff around we are picking her up and putting her on some newspaper next to the litter box we eventually want her to use (she isn't big enough to easily get in the litter box yet we don't think).

If she pee's on the floor we try to catch her in the act and move her to the newspaper. We don't yell at her, but after she goes on the paper we praise her. If we don't catch her in the act we just clean it up. I hear you aren't supposed to let the pups watch you clean up their mess though as they like that (is that true?).


Anyways, thats our strategy thus far. Anyone have some tips/recommendations for speeding up the process?


My sister said something about some 'natural spray' or something that seems to smell that makes the dog want to pee in that area. Anyone know what she might be talking about? I can't see to google anything along those lines.

 

[RKS]

Text

 

[Mide]

When I got my puppy Welsh Corgi this is what I did: I kept her in a crate near my bed when I went to sleep. If she would start making noise at night time I would coax her to follow me to the doggie door, push her through, and then praise her when she started doing her business. At first it sucked because she would sometimes not make it to the doggie door. If I saw her sniffing around I would immediately grab her and manually push her through the door. Every morning I would do the same thing. If I was home I would do what you're talking about...watch the dog until she started sniffing. I'm sure it also helped that there was another dog in the house that was already housebroken. Puppies tend to follow the older dog around and thus they learn from example. Yes, if I was unable to "catch" her in the act of pissing, I would bring her over to the piss, have her smell it, say no, pick her up, and drop her off outside. I don't really know what actually ended up "working" for her but in under a month she was going to the bathroom outside.

 

[lizardth]

Sounds like you have the right idea so far! The major problems I usually see are people who are inconsistent with their training, so be consistent with whatever you do. You might also do some research into N.I.L.F. (Nothing In Life is Free) I have found it is an excellent guideline to follow.

 

[Descartes]

We just got a puppy as well.

We are crate training her. Google around for resources on that. She's made a few mistakes since we've had her, but overall not many. We're not using puppy pads since we don't want to encourage her to go in the house at all. From what we've learned, here are some tips:

1) If you catch her, clap your hands or something and tell her NO immediately. If you don't catch her, then there's nothing you can do.
2) Take her to the same spot outside.
3) Associate a word with her business and tell her when you go outside. Also tell her when she starts to go. Get her to associate that word with her business.
4) When you take her outside to go, if she doesn't then take her back inside. Don't let her always associate outdoors with playtime.
5) Take her to the same door to go outside and let her know by associating a word with it. We just say "outside." Simple enough.
6) Keep her constrained to a room or two. Don't give her free reign. If you do give her free reign, then show her a path to the same door so that she knows where to go.
7) Depending on how well she gets trained, start paying attention to her actions. If she looks at the door, starts sniffing, etc. then take her out.

That's all that immediately comes to mind. Our puppy is fairly trained after about 2 weeks. She has peed in the house twice in a week, but that's to be expected.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Are you planning on house training or paper training? If house training, don't paper train too.

 

[Cuda1447]

She is to small to go outside right now, so we are doing paper training.

 

[*kjm]

Descartes not only hit the nail on the head he also has a great looking dog

Number two on his list is very important! I took my Jake (black lab) to the garden as a pup to pee and poop and that is the only place he goes now (3years old). If you dont want to end up waking through it and cleaning it up all summer this is time well spent. If you dont have a garden you could start a small one or use a tree, bush ect. and you will just have to watch it around that area.

As for inside training I dont belive in it... I feel they have to know from the get go that it is never right to go in the house. Remember in the end they have to feel like your house is there den and dogs will never go in their den. Jake only went in the house one time and I stoped him and he never did it again. It takes a ton of work but it pays off fast!

 

[Cuda1447]

How can you teach a dog so little to go outside. She doesn't even realize how to get outside yet. If we were to take her I'd have to pick her up and carry her, she couldn't follow me outside.

 

[*kjm]

Originally posted by: Cuda1447
How can you teach a dog so little to go outside. She doesn't even realize how to get outside yet. If we were to take her I'd have to pick her up and carry her, she couldn't follow me outside.

Thats what I did with Jake (picked him up). They will get the stairs down pat soon enough just remember your teaching your pet one thing at a time and potty training is the first on the list in and out of the house comes down the road.

 

[Megatomic]

We outside trained our chihuahua, she's just about 5lbs. soaking wet at 2 years old. Your mini daschund (sp?) should be able to potty outside too. A side note: our biggest hindrance to training her was red tailed hawks and owls. We are constantly watching out for them, she'd be a perfect meal for one of them.

 

[Capt Caveman]

My mini-dachshund rescue I believe was litter-box trained before I got him. But I never let him go inside and he will bark or scratch at the back door when he needs to go out.

 

[onlyCOpunk]

When we trained our dogs, we simply took them outside every 2 hours or so and said the command "do your business." None of this paper training business. That only trains them to pee on paper.

It's great having dogs that will go to the bathroom on command, really speeds up the process. But that's what you get when you raise Guide Dogs.

 

[RKS]

Keep them in a crate that is too small for them to get away from their waste or even inside keep him on a leash tied up close to you so you can keep an eye on him. Take him out after breakfast and dinner and a couple times each night for the first few weeks.

We had a couple accidents with our pup at first but it was our fault. Now at night I open the garage door; tell the dog to go pee and if it bad weather I go inside. He usually disappears for about 5 minutes (sometimes I can hear him pee but can't see him) and them strolls back to the door and waits for me to open it. :laugh: