Crate Training Your Puppy or Adult Dog

Most dog trainers, veterinarians and other pet professionals agree that crate training is, hands-down, the most effective way to housebreak Fido if you're teaching him to relieve himself outside. It is can also be a helpful part of an indoor potty training program for dogs who will be papertrained or litter box trained.

Crate training is a method of teaching Fido hold his bladder and bowels by confining him in a cage or airline kennel, also known as a crate, when he is unsupervised. This allows you to prevent him from having accidents by taking advantage of his natural instinct to avoid soiling where he sleeps.

Crate training is a good choice for just about any dog owner. The only people who shouldn't choose this method are those that have very young puppies and are away from home all day or those that have unusually long work hours and can't come home during the day to let the dog potty on a reasonable schedule. Occasionally, certain dogs will panic in the crate, even after the proper steps are taken to acclimate the dog to the crate (this is very rare). These dogs, obviously, are also not good candidates for crate training and should be trained using another method like umbilical cord training or dog door training, if possible.

DOG FIDO - THOU SHALT SUPERVISE FIDO'S FREE TIME IN THE HOUSE

If Fido is not housebroken, he should not have unsupervised time in your house. It takes only seconds for him to have an accident, so, in the early stages of your housebreaking program, he must be directly supervised the entire time he is in the house.

Direct supervision guarantees that if Fido is about to make a mistake, you're able to catch him, correct him, and guide him into doing the right thing. If he attempts to have an accident in the house, don't panic... as long as you catch him, it's a learning opportunity. You can teach him at that moment that going potty in the house doesn't feel as good as going outside.

It's always discouraging when Fido has an accident in the house, but there's a big difference between the accidents you catch and the accidents you don't. If Fido has an accident and there's nobody there to let him know it's wrong, it actually works out pretty well for him... he's uncomfortable because his bowels or bladder feel full and he gets relief when he lets loose on your nice, expensive rug. If he gets the same relief from pottying inside as he does from pottying outside, why should he wait? The accidents you don't catch Fido having prevent him from becoming housebroken, so the immediate goal of your housebreaking program is to catch and correct all of Fido's attempts to go potty in the house... starting NOW.

Umbilical Cord Housebreaking Method

Umbilical Cord Training is a housebreaking method that's pretty much what it sounds like... your dog is attached to you with a cord (his leash) throughout the day. It is a supervision-based program that requires vigilance but yields excellent results with just about every dog or puppy. This method works well in conjunction with other methods, such as crate training or indoor potty training. It is also an excellent alternative for those who spend a lot of time at home and prefer not to use a confinement method like crate training.

This method is an excellent choice for preventing accidents, since your dog never has the opportunity to wander off to have an accident in the house. You'll also be right there to correct him if he tries to have an accident, which is a great opportunity to teach him where you don't want him to go and to get him promptly to the right spot to finish up.

Most people prefer to use a 6 foot leash for umbilical cord training. This gives Fido a bit of room to move around, but he can't get so far away from you that you lose track of what he's doing. You will have Fido on his leash with you at all times when you're in the house with him. You can hold it, put the loop around your wrist, sit on the end of it or tie it to your beltloop. You can also tether Fido to a nearby object, like the leg of your chair or coffee table or a door handle. Make sure that whatever you tie him to is not likely to follow him when he pulls. If you choose to do this, be sure you don't walk away from him, leaving him unsupervised. Remember, the whole point of umbilical cord training is to have Fido right there with you at all times.

Dog : Which Indoor Potty Option Should You Choose?

Which Indoor Potty Option Should You Choose?There are many different choices for indoor potty areas. The old stand-by is newspapers, but there are now also products designed specifically for dogs, including potty pads, dog litter boxes and turf pads. In this article we list some pros and cons to help you choose the best option for you and your dog.

Newspapers

Pros:

Great for people who read a lot of newspapers and don't know what to do with themCheap, especially if you start gathering newspapers from your friends and family (after they've read them, not off the front lawn before the sun comes up!)

If Fido can read, he'll have something to do while you're gone

Dog Indoor Potty Training

Dog Indoor Potty Training
Although most dogs are trained to relieve themselves outdoors, it sometimes makes sense to teach your dog to have an indoor potty area. This method is most commonly used by people with very small dogs, people who are unable to get outside easily due to health issues or living in a high rise and people who work such long hours that their dog can't reasonably be expected to hold it and wait to go outside.

Generally, we recommend indoor potty training only for owners whose dogs will permanently be trained to go indoors, since it can be difficult to train your dog to go outside once he's been taught that he's supposed to go indoors. If you work all day and can't get home to let your young puppy out, you may be forced to do temporary indoor potty training, or at least partial indoor potty training, until your puppy is old enough to hold it for the full day. We don't want to force him to have an accident, so we'll give him an indoor option that he can use while you're at work, but you should be sure to work diligently on his outdoor housebreaking program at all times when you're at home and able to get him outside.

There are several options for creating an indoor potty area for your dog. The old standby is just several sheets of newspaper laid out on the floor, or you can use absorbent potty pads from the pet store. You can also use a dog litter box or a tray lined with artificial turf. The pros and cons of each are discussed in the article "Indoor Potty Options". The general rules for training using any of these options are the same, so in the instructions we'll just use the term "potty area" to mean newspapers, potty pads, litter box or turf pad.

Should You Use Pee Pads with Your Dog

Should You Use Pee Pads with Your Dog

You might call this my Supplementary Housetraining Edition, because it takes up three of the most common housetraining questions after the big “Why can’t I housetrain my puppy?” One, “Can I / Should I use pee pads?” Two, “What about using a dog door?” and three, “How do I teach my dog to let me know when she wants to go out?” 

The podcast version of this article was sponsored by Go to Meeting. With this meeting service, you can hold your meetings over the Internet and give presentations, product demos, and training sessions right from your PC. Visit gotomeeting.com, click the try it free button and use promo codePodcast.

And one, two, three, here we go.

Should You Use Pee Pads with Your Dog?

Pee pads are not the spawn of Satan. Climate change notwithstanding, winters in much of the world remain cold enough that many tiny little dogscannot comfortably walk outdoors no matter how well insulated those adorable coats and booties are. By all means, teach your shivering Chihuahua to relieve himself on pee pads in the wintertime.

Question about Dog pee pads

I just adopted a small dog with special needs. Because of her health problems, she cannot be walked regularly and thus has come to rely on wee-wee pads to relieve herself at home. But throwing them out and replacing them every day (even the ones made of recycled materials) seems wasteful and breaks my heart every time. Can you suggest a more sustainable solution?

Until your question arrived, I had not given much thought to the “wee-wee pad” issue. My personal experience with the world of wee-wee pads is (thankfully) limited, so I hope your fellow dog owners will chime in here.

The way I see it, this problem is akin to the diaper debate: Should you use disposables, which add heaps of non-biodegradable, plasticky waste to our landfills, or reusables, which require heaps of water and energy to clean? In fact, with 4 million babies born each year in America and about the same number of puppies, we have ourselves a startling parallel. Factor in dogs with special needs and others left indoors to do their business for various reasons, and we might be looking at a full-on wee-wee crisis.

Indestructible Dog Toys

Indestructible dog toys, is there really such an item in existence? One geared to withstand the onslaught of an animal with teeth equipped to chew, tear, cut and grind whatever is before him. I set out to find the answer; My dog toy tester, my six year old German Shepherd (Kenai).

The Mighty Kong: Introduced in 1976 this toy established the standard in the dog toy industry for durability. Enthusiastically endorsed by veterinarians, dog breeders, and dog trainers, Kong leads the market in dog toys. Able too last through years of vigorous play and action, Kong was created by a dog owner whose German Shepherd (Fritz) loved to chew on rocks. The rock chewing created wear- and- tear on Fritz’s teeth.

How to Choose the Best Dog Chew Toys

How to Choose the Best Dog Chew Toys 

Chewing is a natural behavior for dogs and you need safe dog chew toys to direct this behavior to appropriate items (and not your shoes or furniture!) Here are some tips to help you choose the safest and best dog chew toys.

Desirable Features in Dog Chew Toys

• Size – large enough that your dog can't “swallow”
• Safe
• Durable
• Easy to clean/wash
• Guaranteed 

Veterinarians Unleash Probiotics to Ease Doggie Discomfort

A growing number of veterinarians are prescribing supplements of friendly bacteria for dogs, but is there enough scientific evidence to justify it?

All dog owners who have had to clean up after their beloved pooches know that people aren't the only ones who experience gastrointestinal disorders. Many animals, including man's best friend, also suffer from both short-lived and chronic digestive woes. As a result, some veterinarians have begun prescribing supplements containing friendly bacteria, or "probiotics," to ease related symptoms such as diarrhea, vomiting, gas and bloating. But some animal experts say there is little solid evidence that the supplements are effective.

Gastrointestinal (GI) issues are the second-most common health problem in dogs after skin diseases, according to Richard Hill, a small-animal internist and clinical nutritionist at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine in Gainesville. He notes that common causes include parasites such as hookworm, whipworm and giardia as well as "dietary indiscretion," which could mean anything from gorging on table scraps to drinking from the toilet to raiding the garbage.