Hi there Melissa,
Thank you for your post regarding your Papillion puppy. It sounds like you're having a lot of fun with her already which is great! You didn't say how old you puppy is, so this does limit me a little. Please let me know when you get a chance
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First and foremost - toilet training. In order to help maximize the training of your puppy, it is important to understand when a puppy is most likely to urinate (pee) or defecate (poo). Typically, this can be divided into four categories:
1. A puppy usually eliminates (urinates or defecates) soon after it wakes up, since during sleep urine production continues to fill the bladder. It is important to remember that puppies sleep several times a day and so have several waking periods.
2. After eating a meal a puppy is likely to defecate within ten to twenty minutes. This is due to a physiological function called the gastro-colic response which is, in more simple terms, a bodily response produced after eating that causes a dog’s bowels to move leading to defecation. Since young puppies are generally fed at around three to four times daily, they will also need to be taken outside, or to paper (depending on your training method) after being fed.
3. If a puppy has been highly active at one time, it is likely to eliminate soon after.
4. In general puppies usually also eliminate before sleeping each night.
As you can see, there are many times throughout a single day that a puppy may eliminate. It is important to remember that, as well as these general categories, a puppy may eliminate at any time and thus you need to be aware that accidents will happen. They are bound to occur no matter how prepared or organized you are since:
The muscles in a puppy bladder are still developing resulting in less control
The smaller size of the bladder results in more frequent urination of small volumes.
You can help regulate the elimination process with well controlled schedules and a frequent regime of resting, eating and playing. At times when this schedule is changed by other family members having other separate activities with the puppy, her schedule and need to eliminate will change as well. A common mistake made by many owners when they get their new puppy and bring them home for the first time is to allow free run of the house. Allowing the puppy a free run will interrupt and set the training process back several weeks. This setback happens because the puppy will most likely ‘accidentally’ eliminate in several areas of the house. As a result of the odor and her familiarity of the area, she may remember these areas as being those at which she can go back to in order to eliminate again. Unless these areas are scrubbed and deodorized the problem will worsen.
Supervision of the puppy must be carried out at all times at this early stage. Not only does this ensure your puppy cannot cause trouble, but it also greatly aids the training process. In circumstances where it is not possible to devote all this time to supervision, crate training could be used as it sounds as though you have been doing. Because a puppy will generally eliminate in an area they have previously urinated or defecated, it is important to remove and neutralize any area that has been affected. This is a very important aspect of house training both puppies and adult dogs.
By making set times during the day when someone in the family is able to feed and then supervise your puppy you will be able to help her in getting to the area you have chosen to train her to eliminate in. In general a puppy should be fed three to four times per day. The day should therefore be arranged such the puppy can be fed on three to four separate occasions with supervision. It also needs to be arranged so that when the puppy awakes from sleep, someone is available to take her outside to the toilet.
Whether it’s the middle of the night, early morning or after a day-nap, an awakening puppy needs to be taken outside to urinate and/or defecate. As stated earlier, puppies are generally fed three to four smaller meals per day. Elimination after a period of activity or exercise is also common, so you should wait with her outside and encourage her to urinate/defecate before letting her back into the house.
By following the guidelines above, you should have more control over your puppy’s house training problem. Puppies generally do not give you much warning that they need to go out, because they haven’t yet learnt that they HAVE to go out! For this reason following the guidelines above will give you the best idea of when your puppy will most likely be feeling like urinating or defecating. If you catch her about to toilet inside, quickly run and pick her up to carry her outside. Sometimes she will end up urinating or defecating in your arms, but this is just something you will have to put up with for the next little while until she is properly trained. If you are too late to pick her up, but she is still in the act or it is definitely only seconds after the event, you can reprimand her with a guttural growl “AAAAH” and a clap of the hands so that she knows what she has done is wrong. Doing so after the event, be it more than 10 seconds will be pointless and only confuse your dog as well as potentially giving her a submissive complex later in life.
The leash training should be done slowly and in such a way that your puppy is not frightened or scared of the collar or leash. Again, I'm not sure of how old your puppy is and this is quite important as type of leash training and how you introduce it is definitely dependant on the dog's age. The key is to first get them used to wearing the collar. You can put this on for several days without introducing the leash at all so they get used to it. Be sure to buy the appropriate size and preferably one that your dog will be comfortable with - i.e. nice fitting and a nice material. Then after several days of wearing and getting used to the collar, you can attach a long piece of string for some time and try gently leading your dog around. It will of course be helpful to incorportate training at this time and I would urge to you to look in the relevant section of SitStayFetch for this. You would usually introduce the leash slowly, however I am not sure if you have done this in this instance. I would be great if you told me how you introduced the leash and collar and what age you started this.
I would encourage you, and any other family members, to read the bonus book "Secrets to becoming the Alpha Dog". This book will give you a good understanding of the hierarchical nature and behavior of your dog. Follow the tips in this book as much as possible and you should get good results within a couple of months. If you treat your dog as an equal it may well see it as an opportunity to challenge your position. For example, be aware that allowing your dog onto the couch, bed, etc will give it the leeway that it needs to be able to challenge your position as the alpha dog in the relationship. This behavior change may occur quite gradually, without you even
noticing it, until your dog starts showing aggressive tendencies when you try to move it!
Please ensure you undertake the following techniques to reinforce your
status as alpha dog over your Papillion puppy:
If you come across your dog while she is sleeping or lying on the
floor then you can reinforce your position as alpha dog by making her
move so that you can pass by.
• Generally I do not recommend people give their dogs bones as this
encourages the aggression, because in the wild the alpha dog would be
the only one to have the privilege of chewing the bones. The reason
your dog growls at you when you approach it with a bone is because it
believes that it has the right to the bone and is trying to discipline
you for challenging your dog for its dominant role.
• Make sure that you always go through doorways first. A good method
to reinforce your position as alpha dog is to walk your dog around the
house on the leash, making your dog wait while you walk through
doorways first.
• At mealtimes make sure that your dog or dogs eat after all of the humans have.
• Do not feed your dog tidbits or let it pester you at the table. Save
the morsels and tidbits for training sessions instead.
• Do not greet your dog straightaway when you arrive home. Make it
wait until you are ready and then call it to you.
• When your dog wants to go outside for a walk, make it sit and wait
until you are ready to go. Note that this technique doesn't apply when
house breaking.
• When you give a command make sure that you are in a position to
enforce the action that you require from your dog, especially in the
initial stages of Alpha Dog training. Also, use the Alarm-No-Command
technique as described in the Alpha Dog bonus book to reprimand your
dog if it does not obey your command.
• It is vitally important that your dog has good all-round obedience
skills. Regular training sessions are key to improving your dog's
obedience responses and keeping it used to answering your commands.
Concentrate on the sit and stay, down and stay, heel and wait
commands.
• Do not inadvertently reinforce poor behavior from your dog. You must
be consistent in your attitude to your dog. For example, if your dog
is allowed to jump on you when you are playing with it but is not
allowed to jump up at any other time then how is it meant to know the
difference?
Do you have further questions? It sounds as though overall you are doing great with your puppy. Please let us know how you progress. Best of luck and hear from you soon with further information.
Kind Regards,
Mark Edwards
Kingdom of Pets Team