Expert: Alan J Turner, SATS LL1 - 5/31/2007

Question
I have a two year old female Chihuahua.  She is not house trained.  I have tried everything and nothing works.  She constantly pees and poops in the house in any room.  She has completely destroyed my carpet in 6 rooms in the house.  I take her outside for hours at a time and she doesn't do anything.  As soon as I take her inside, she uses the bathroom in the house.

I can not keep up with all of her accidents.  She is very sneaky.  I can not keep her if this continues and she is truly a wonderful dog...except for the accidents.  

I work all day.  While I am at work, I crate her.  When I get home, I put her outside.  When she comes in the house, she immediately pees or poops in the house.

Is there anything I can do?  Please help me!

Answer
Dear Erin,

Thanks for the question. There's nothing like an UN-Housetrained dog to take the fun out of ownership. You are not alone. Here are some tips and a piece of an article I wrote for the introduction to my booklet about housetraining and crate training. It will sell for 14.95 USD. In a month or so I will make the instructions available for purchase.

Good Luck!
AT
http://howsbentley.com

House Training
You can house train recently acquired adult dogs or puppies by following these instructions.
The words outdoors, outside, out, indoors, in, inside are used throughout these instructions. For the purpose of this guide, outside refers to a desired location and inside refers to an undesired location. If your ultimate goal is to teach your dog to use a litter box or pads, the same principles apply.

Quick Start Guide

Follow these instructions regardless of your dog’s age.
1.   Get a clean bill-of-health from your veterinarian.
2.   The dog must be confined or constantly supervised at all times while inside.
3.   If you will be gone for periods longer than the dog can wait, set up a confinement area (or larger crate) with a bathroom. Read the Confinement Training Section for instructions.
4.   Use a crate or confinement area to keep your puppy and your house safe anytime you cannot supervise him.
5.   Methodically introduce your dog to the crate and the concept of alone time.
6.   When you are inside and your pup is not crated or confined, use a tether to keep your pup nearby.
7.   Never ever provide your dog with opportunities to soil your house.
8.   Always provide your dog with adequate access to use a specific potty area.
9.   Keep a log of feeding and elimination.
10.   Go out with your dog and lead him to the area.
11.   Teach your dog cues for defecating and urinating on command.
12.   Teach your dog that any rewards are for eliminating outside.
13.   Pay your dog for eliminating outside.
14.   Don’t use interrupters or punishers when you catch him in the act.
15.   Never scold or punish your dog for any potty accidents.
16.   Clean soiled, inside areas with cleaners containing pet odor neutralizers.
17.   When your dog becomes more reliable, gradually grant him supervised access to more and more areas of the house.  

Discussion
I’m not quite sure why people think they automatically know how to housetrain a dog, but I was no different. Years ago, I made all the same errors as my clients. I thought scolding and punishment were necessary. I suppose this is in part because for years the process was commonly referred to as house breaking.

Even today, many people call me and ask for tips on how to housebreak their dog or how to “break” their dog from performing all sorts of unwanted behaviors. I avoid the use of the word break. The word paints a mental picture of something splitting into pieces. I only know a few methods to intentionally crack anything. The methods employ some version of excessive energy! YUK! . . . . bad idea for communicating concepts to any animal and a truly costly mistake when house training. I blame the most common house training mistakes on whoever first used the word housebreak!

Housetraining is a topic that I address very often. It’s unfortunate that I am contacted so late in the process. In 75% of the cases, the resolutions involve “undoing” mistakes.

Years ago, I wrote and distributed a house training guide. I approached the subject with a very polite “do this” attitude. In the guide I did not address common mistakes and misconceptions. The clients were excited to have accurate information, but yet, many ignored my suggestions and followed what they believed to be the right path to success. They failed to successfully house train their dogs because I failed to educate them.

I was perplexed. The people could read, yet it seemed as if they did not comprehend what they read. When I spoke with them later, we discussed their strategies. I found myself spending most of the interview dispelling misconceptions.

After many discussions with clients, I realized that house training is a very misunderstood process.

I learned that the same misconceptions that once filled my brain were prevalent in the masses. More importantly, I realized that providing specific instructions is not enough. People cannot absorb new information unless they are purged of flawed concepts they believe to be accurate.

To remedy this situation I wrote this new guide. In addition to accurate instructions, this guide includes short discussions about misconceptions. As I so often did in the interviews, I’ve included explanations of why and how dogs learn about house training. I sincerely hope this will prove to be more effective than straightforward instructions.


Potty-Area-Conditioning
Contrary to popular beliefs, the process of housetraining is largely governed by a natural occurring, classical conditioning process. I propose we assign a more accurate, 21st century, label for house training. Let’s name it pottyarea-conditioning!

All of your actions will alter the natural process of pottyarea-conditioning.  It’s your choice. You can hasten the process, delay the process or unknowingly teach (condition) your dog to eliminate inside.

If one always provides their dog the opportunity to eliminate in desired locations and never ever gives the pup access to eliminate in undesirable locations, potty-area -conditioning will occur without any other input from people. The dog will associate the desirable areas with the internal relief gained by elimination. The dog will naturally seek out the desired location .

The type of flooring or ground cover is an important dynamic for potty-area- conditioning. Many people report their dogs often choose to eliminate on a specific types of ground coverings.  This is because a “conditioned” dog automatically seeks out the same type of area that has been used most often in the past.

For example, if your pup was always led to a gravel parking lot, he will seek out gravel-like surfaces whenever he feels the pressures associated with the need to eliminate. If he was always led to grassy areas, he will develop a natural preference for grassy areas. An unsupervised dog that eliminates inside your house will naturally form associations with the soiled areas. He will return there to eliminate next time he feels the pressure. Yikes!

Strategies and Misunderstandings
I’m sure you’ve noticed. There are many different, popular strategies for house training. There are just as many misunderstandings about why dogs eliminate inside.   

I’ve heard families claim that their dogs defecate inside to “get back” at them for leaving. These families rarely consider any other explanations.

Well, actually nobody knows what an animal might be thinking. Some argue that animals don’t think at all. I know this, I’ve seen dogs squat in front of their people and then look right up as if to say, Hey, pay attention to me!” After a short round of questions, the analytical process leads me to believe it’s an attention-seeking behavior. Therefore, I’ll accept that perhaps some dogs do defecate in front of their people to get attention, but in my opinion, logic is out the window if we don’t consider more likely, alternate explanations for defecation in our absence.

Maybe the dog needed to go and couldn’t wait. Maybe the dog was anxious and the defection was stress induced.

About half of all dogs I’ve met eat feces at some point in their lives. They like it! Wouldn’t it be as logical to assume that dogs who defecate inside are presenting us with welcome home gifts?  

Popular strategies range from using food rewards to using punishment. Rewards can be very effective, but many of us don’t quite understand how to effectively use rewards.  

For example, some people open the door and release their pups outside, alone. After several minutes the people return to the door and see their puppy waiting by the door. (The pup is by the door so he must be finished eliminating, right?)  They open the door, praise their pup and deliver a food treat. This common sequence does not really teach pups about choices of potty area. It teaches puppies to hang out at the back door, for that is where the treats happen! These pups come inside, finish their treat and then eliminate in the house. Yikes!

Food treats may hasten the process and motivate some dogs to want to go outside and eliminate. But first, the dog must recognize that eliminating outside is the reason for the treat. Most owners don’t know how to communicate this concept so they skip this important step.  

Scolding and punishment are common topics for discussions. Owners that scold their dogs well after the incident are teaching their dogs that people become unpredictable and might attack at any time without warnings. At best, the dogs learn to avoid soiled areas and to display submissive behaviors. Common submissive behaviors include a lowered head and body and a tucked tail. Dogs (that have been scolded in the past) often exhibit submissive behaviors when the owners come home (or when the owners approach soiled areas). These behaviors are usually mistaken for an admission of guilt.

Dogs do not lower their heads to communicate shame or guilt, humans do!
Submissive behaviors are a threatened dog’s way of communicating “Please cease your attack. I do not want to fight you”, nothing more, nothing less.

Some families recognize the pitfalls of using punishment after the fact. These people choose to punish their dogs only when they catch them in the act. The dog does learn a valuable lesson. He learns it is not safe to eliminate near its people. Now the dogs will “hold it” during outings with their people. These guys will sneak off into a back room to eliminate-right after their walk!

Misconceptions and faulty strategies prevail because people attribute successful housetraining to their methods. People never consider that success should be rightfully attributed to the natural process of classical conditioning. Their dogs become house trained because, over time, the dogs use an outside location much more often than an inside location. The natural process usually wins out!

Good Luck!
AT
http://howsbentley.com