There are many ways in life to achieve the same desired results. Of them, there are hard ways and easy ways, right ways and wrong ways.
The best course is to combine the easy way with the right way and get the best results. This requires a lot of supervision and positive reinforcement. Let’s see how best to achieve what we want in order to housetrain our Chow Chow.
Where to begin: To get the kind of behavior you desire, you must:
Allocate an area for elimination outside the house
Show him the way to this spot
Praise him generously after he finishes If you praise and reward him immediately after he finishes his job, it encourages him to eliminate in that area alone. The odor of his urine that he leaves behind this time will linger till his next visit and he will soon mark that area as his sole place to do his business.
Time it right: At age six to eight weeks, your Chow Chow should go out to eliminate every couple of hours, though as he grows older, he can go out fewer times. In puppyhood, take him out at the following times of the day:
1 Upon waking in the morning
2 After naps
3 After each meal
4 After playing or a training session
5 After being left alone for a while
6 Just before bedtime
1. “Hurry up” or “Potty”—he power of your command: To hasten spend time watching TV there or reading as he gets busy with chewing a toy. If he is there all by himself, he begins to associate the area with isolation and may resist being there at all. To make this experience pleasurable, play with him there or a time, by throwing bits of kibble in to the crate and making him search for it. This is one way of making a game of his training.
Begin the dog’s potty time, teach him to eliminate when you give the command for it. So, say “hurry up” or “potty” in an encouraging tone just when he gets the urge to “go”. He will soon learn that when you say the command, he will begin to sniff, circle and then get down to business. Once he’s done, praise him lavishly.
2. Crate training: To give your pet a safe confinement during housetraining, he needs to be crate trained. If you introduce the crate to him in a fun way, your pup will take to crate confinement quickly and without fuss. And there’s more you can do too, such as:
Begin crate training at dinnertime. Give him his feed, one piece at returns he can play with them. To surprise him, hide a biscuit in the crate—even that’s fun!
If you pick up his toys, replace them in the crate, so that when he or defecate. If you are gone for long periods each day, why not consider a larger confinement area such as an exercise pen or small room?
Don’t crate him for longer than he can hold the urge to eliminate do it away from his crate space, say about 15-30 square feet. If he finds a particular spot eliminate, cover it with paper for easier cleaning.
If you give him a large area to eliminate in your absence, he can Excuse him his mistakes: If you leave him to himself, he’s bound to make mistakes. He needs to be supervised, so be with him at this time. Until he goes through four weeks of not eliminating in the house, don’t consider him housetrained. If he’s older, this should be a longer period.
Until then:
1. Keep a constant vigil over him
2. Set up baby gates to control his movements in the house
3. When unsupervised, confine him to his crate
4 Does he wet himself? If he squats and urinates when he greets you in puppyhood, he may probably suffer from submissive urination. Such dogs are hypersensitive and should not be scolded for this behavior, since punishment only worsens the problem. However, as he grows older, he will no longer do this if you are calm and quiet. Or you could ask him to sit down for a tasty treat till someone greets him.
5. Once he has made a mess:
6. Remove all urine and fecal odor so that your Chow Chow does not return to the same spot in your house where he made a mess.
7. Use a good deodorizer for doggy odors.
8. If he’s urinated on a carpet, saturate it with a cleaning agent.
9. Shut off all those rooms in your house where your Chow Chow has made frequent mistakes. Let him enter here only when accompanied by a family member.
Correcting his “mistakes”: It’s quite natural for a dog to make a mess during the housetraining period. This is why you need t be ready to handle these problems.
Here’s how:
Don’t punish him sternly when he makes a mistake as this only delays training. In order to correct his behavior, make a startling sound, a sharp noise or say “No” loudly. Do this when you catch him red-handed, but be sure not to be too loud or he will eliminate in front of you or perhaps even outdoors. Be patient. Don’t scold him after he has stopped soiling the area. Once he finishes, take him into the yard where he can finish in the area he has marked and when he finishes, praise him.
Don’t rub his nose into his mess. This will not teach him not to repeat it and will only end up making him frightened of you.
Please note: This article is part of a collection of dog-related content that we purchased the rights to. Opinions expressed may or may not agree with those espoused by Master Dog Trainer Adam G. Katz. When in doubt, please refer to the advice given in Adam’s dog training book. This article is provided for your enjoyment, only. It’s relevance to real world working dog training may be limited.