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Homebreaking your pet

March 2007 - Cindy Boykin

A well-behaved dog is a better family member

What’s this? Dog training tips in a Home Matters article? Most definitely. If you own a dog, your house is ground zero for matters of serious consequence. In fact, it is safe to say that once you get a dog, your home will never be the same. And if all goes well, neither will you.

When it comes to dog training, like child rearing, there are several schools of thought espousing different approaches. Tough love. Establishing dominance. Compulsory training. Reward-based training. Positive reinforcement. Let sleeping dogs lie.

Lucky for us, our communities have superb dog training facilities (see pages 38-39), not to mention libraries and bookstores replete with expert advice. To get a brief overview of the increasingly popular reward-based training, we asked Dog’s Play owner Susan Geib to explain what this method entails. It might be the right approach for your dog.

Compulsion vs. reward training

Jessica Martin enjoys working with her 3-year-old American pit bull dog, Seven, at Dog’s Play. She adopted Seven as an 11-month-old pup from the Dallas SPCA a couple of years ago. When asked about the unusual name, Jessica explained, “We were told that most likely she was named Seven because she was the seventh unnamed dog that was rescued from the same place. We think she was either going to be trained to fight or used as bait.”

Jessica learned quickly that the appropriate training for Seven was reward-based training. “Initially when I got Seven, I was using a choke chain on her. The second time we started to take her for a walk, I pulled out the leash and she cowered in the corner and urinated. She was really afraid. I’ve trained dogs my whole life, my parents have had many, many dogs that were beautifully trained [using the compulsory method], but I had to ask myself, Is this worth it? Especially for a dog as sensitive as she is.”

She met Susan at Dog’s Play, and in doing so, found a training program that has worked very well for Seven.

Susan added her thoughts. “It’s not that compulsion training doesn’t work, because there are a lot of very well-behaved dogs that were punishment-based trained. But typically they are afraid to offer anything on their own because they think they could get punished if they offer a behavior they’re not taught. Positive training encourages your dog to work with you. They choose to do the right things.”

They’re dogs, naturally

“The three most common complaints I hear are dogs jumping up on guests, chewing inappropriate things, and housebreaking,” Susan said. “But,” she added confidently, “all three behaviors are so easy to address ... depending on what you put into it. You have to manage and supervise your dog.

“It’s very similar to having a 2-year-old toddler in your house. They’re too young to know what to do correctly. They’re not out to ‘getcha’ or to be vindictive, they just don’t know any better.

“It’s the same for dogs. They do things that are natural for them, so you have to manage their behavior. If you don’t want your shoes chewed up, don’t leave them out!” she laughed. “You have to dog-proof your house in those early training phases.”

Rewarding behavior

“Basically, our training philosophy is to ignore what you don’t like – which isn’t always the easiest thing to do – then really, really reward them for the things they are doing right,” Susan explained. “Positive training is not permissive training. It’s just that we’re asking them to live in our world, so we have to show them what we want them to do.”

How would Susan react to a dog jumping on a guest?

“The first thing you do is ignore the jumping. You cannot look at them, you cannot talk to them, you cannot push them away, because all three of those things are positives for a dog.

“You’re going to teach an alternate behavior. I would turn away, then I would be ready with some goodies in the beginning to put in his face, lure him into a seated position, reward him for that, and I would do that several times in a row.

“The dog starts to learn that jumping up doesn’t get him anything – it doesn’t get him punished – it just doesn’t get him anything. But when the dog sits, he realizes, ‘Hmm, I get her to turn around, she gives me a treat, she pets me, she talks to me. ...”

What about chewing?

“If you think about punishment, it really doesn’t teach much. If a 6-year-old child comes home from school and says 2+2=5, rolling up a newspaper and smacking him across the nose will never teach him that 2+2=4. It tells him he’s wrong, but it never ultimately teaches him the right answer.

“When it comes to chewing, punishment really isn’t fair because the dog is just doing what comes naturally, which is to put things in his mouth. So what you have to do is make sure that you are giving the dog plenty of exercise (because a tired dog is a well-behaved dog!) and make sure you’ve provided something for him to chew on. Chewing is very important to a dog.”

During those times when you can’t watch your dog, like when you are cooking dinner, put him in a properly confined area, again like a toddler. Susan reassures that usually between a year or two, depending on the breed, the dog can safely roam the house unsupervised.

And last, but by no means least, how does one housebreak a dog, positively?

“You need to set up a nice routine and confine your dog to smaller areas of the house,” Susan said. “You cannot let him have the whole house too soon.”

There are three basic times your dog must be taken outside: upon waking, after playing, and after eating and drinking. Also watch for certain body language, like sniffing or whining. Take goodies outside with you and give the dog a treat immediately upon eliminating. Don’t wait until you are back inside.

Susan said it is helpful to name the deed and offer praise, like “good potty,” because you can teach the dog to eliminate on command. “That’s a beautiful thing because you don’t have to stand out in the rain for 20 minutes to get your dog to go to the bathroom!”

Again, as with chewing, you must keep an eye on your dog constantly until he is adequately trained.

Who’s the alpha dog?

Susan does not demand to be the alpha dog at her house. “I’m a benevolent leader,” she laughed. “To me, it’s about a partnership. I’m the one who brings home the bacon, but they also provide a lot for me as well.

“You should work as a team with your dog. You don’t want him to be afraid to do something and stand there frozen like, ‘I’m just going to stand here and wait for you to tell me what to do.’ To me, that’s a boring relationship.”

Jessica offered this observation: “You don’t have to yell at your dog. You don’t shove their nose in a pile. You make it easy for them to live in your household and they will give you so much in return.”

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