Training a Puppy

[hay101]

Hi Everyone,
I was hoping you could all offer me some advice. What training methods did you use to house train your puppy. I have been reading books By Gwen Bailey and Ian Dunbar. Has anyone used any of there techniques or just your own.
Thanks
Hayley

I found the local puppy socialising classes, which led on to the Good Citizen Dog awards.

Gwen Bailey is quite prescriptive and in parts hard going.

Look at the positive trainers and force free trainers - read Culture Clash Jean Donaldson, Karen Pryor Don't shoot the Dog to see other more modern and effective training methods.

If it's just house training you don't need a book. Take the puppy out every hour plus after every meal, sleep and any time it stops to sniff around. Go with it. Eventually it will toilet outside, and as soon as it has finished you will make the biggest squeakiest most excited fuss ever and give it yummy treats. Repeat for a few days. Many puppies will click quickly.

If you develop a routine of feeding and playing at set times then it will become easy to predict when it toilets.

Clean any indoor accidents up quickly with biological washing powder, but put the puppy in another room first. Do not scold or punish for accidents - ignore them completely.

Good luck :)

We got our lab pup (now 9 months) at the start of the school holiday so we were at home constantly with him.

Basically had him outside on a lead constantly regularly and made a massive fuss and treated every time we had success. If he did it indoors, picked him up while ignoring him and popped him in his crate (so he didn't run about in it while we were cleaning up). We had the time and the weather was good outside so we never used training pads.

We crated at night, and got up once a night for the first 3-4 nights and took outside, but he didn't do anything so left him all night after that.

He got it really quickly and we only ever had 2 poos and 1/2 a dozen pees indoors, but think that was because he was more mature as we didn't get him until he was 12 weeks and the breeder might have done some of the ground work for us.