Puppies are the cutest little things in the world. Then they eat the couch. Need help?

Find out how to guarantee that your puppy will be a veritable Lassie among puppies, the star of the dog park, a Rover who never roves, a non-eater of couches. And don't believe the myth that you can't train a puppy. Puppies learn things from the moment they open their eyes, and you can and should teach your new family member how to adapt to life in a human pack from the moment you bring him or her home.

Attention, Please!
 

Besides club classes, there may be other training businesses in your area. Dog trainers are not licensed, and you certainly don't want to take your dog to a situation that would cause harm. Your veterinarian may be able to recommend reputable classes. A veterinary behavior specialist in the area would be an excellent expert to ask about the reliable professional trainers near you.

Following are instructions on how to get and keep your dog's attention around distractions such as other dogs.

Dog Attention, Control around Other Dogs

For handling your dog around other dogs, an excellent method comes from Linda O'Hare Newsome. This moving exercise works better than standing still. You teach the dog to give you eye contact when you say the dog's name. Very soon, you can get and hold the dog's attention anytime you wish. With attention--eye contact and movement--on you, the dog simply has no ability to pay attention to anything else at the same time.

Here's how you do it.

1. Have treats on your person (later you may use a toy instead, but it helps to start with tiny, tempting treats, lots of tiny pieces), but keep them out of the dog's sight. To initiate the attention sequence, say "[Dog's Name]!" and YOU MOVE ABRUPTLY away. If you want to say "Heel" or "Come" or "Front" or "By Me," that's fine too. The main thing is, say the name--this is going to become the word on which the dog will learn to look at you--then MOVE. 
    
2. When the dog moves with you, quickly PRAISE. This is where you would use a clicker if you wish to use that method, but a word of praise is fine, too. Then instantly whip out a treat and give it. Do not show the treats until you are ready to give one. This prevents the treat from becoming, in the dog's mind, an actual part of the command--or a bribe. Each time you give a treat, align it between the dog's eyes and yours. You want eye contact with that treat. Soon you will find the dog seeking your eye contact. Always praise that action, and it's fine to give the dog a "free" treat for doing it.
    
3. Okay, you're not done. When you do this sequence, always do at least 3 to 5 in a row. That means each time you 1) say the name, 2) move, 3) praise, 4) whip out a treat, and 5) give it. This doesn't necessarily take up a bunch of space, since you want it all to happen very fast. The movement is not over a great distance. You can move one direction the first time, back the other way the second time, etc. But always do at least 3 to 5 repetitions in a row before you release the dog's attention. This is what teaches a dog to SUSTAIN that attention on you until you release it. 
    
4. Practice this exercise everywhere, including at obedience class. You can do this with a toy, especially once you have taught it to the dog. But don't rush to get away from the food. Food is the easiest thing to deliver with this split-second timing, and will greatly help you in establishing the pattern of attention. 
    
5. By always praising before you give the treat, you are also building up your praise in the dog's mind. This will allow you later to praise at that correct moment, and be able to deliver the treat (or toy) a bit later (when you have to walk across the room to get one, for example) while the praise maintains the continuity in the dog's mind between the action and the reward.

This ability to get the dog's attention any time you want it will serve you when working around other dogs. Not only will you be able to control your dog, but if you are consistent about bringing your dog's attention to you and away from other dogs at the first sign of getting too interested, you will find that the sight of another dog will start causing yours to look at you! Praise this, of course!

Many people believe that socializing a dog with other dogs is for the goal of creating a dog who can just play with any dog, anywhere, anytime. This is not a realistic goal for many dogs, especially after maturity. A much more reasonable goal is to teach your dog to pay attention to you when working around other dogs, and to ignore them. You'll notice at dog shows that this is how the experienced handlers manage their dogs. It's not like a big dog park with all the dogs playing together.

The attention exercise is not extremely time-consuming. Just take a few moments and do it in every location where you go together. It's surprising how quickly it becomes habit for the dog to look at you when you say his or her name--and equally habit for you to positively reinforce this response every time. People will comment on how much your dog loves you and the obvious bond between the two of you--and they'll be right!
 
Crate Training Puppies

Every puppy needs to learn the skill of resting calmly in a crate. This skill will be needed at the veterinary hospital, for traveling, and for restricted activity due to illness. It's also a lifesaver for many young dogs during the destructive chewing stage that starts at several months of age and can last until age 2 to 3 years in some breeds.

After a dog has become trained and reliable in the house, the crate will often be needed only for specific reasons rather than everyday use. One critical situation that can call for bringing out the crate again is separation anxiety. The ability to relax in a crate can save a dog's life during this crisis.

Usually it works best to crate the puppy in your bedroom when you're sleeping. If you want the dog to share your bed, wait until the adult temperament emerges. Then if it turns out the temperament is not suited to bed privileges, you will not have the difficult job of teaching the dog to stay off the bed. Teaching a puppy to stay off the bed from the beginning is much easier, both for you and for the pup.

People tend to make the mistake of giving the puppy attention for making noise in the crate. When you do this, you confirm the puppy's instinct that being alone is death (it would be, in the wild), and that calling for help will bring someone. Having the crate in your bedroom for sleeping tends to help because the puppy can hear, smell and possibly see you. Not being alone, the puppy usually finds it easier to get used to the crate. Your sleeping helps set the scene for the puppy to sleep, too.

Keep the puppy on a good schedule of food, water and outings so the puppy's body will have the best chance of making it through the night without a bathroom break. If the pup does need a break, make it very low-key with dim lights and soft voices and no playtime. If you completely avoid going to the puppy when the puppy is making noise, problems usually pass quickly. But make no mistake, lost sleep comes with the puppy-adoption territory! Don't miss the chance to start your puppy off right, or you will lose a lot more sleep over a longer period of time, because crate-training will take much longer.

The worst thing to do is let the puppy yell for a long time, and then go to the puppy. Doing that teaches the puppy to persistently make noise in the crate. It communicates to the pup that you want to be notified with lots and lots of noise! It also causes the puppy enormous stress that can become a lifelong response to being confined in a crate. Adult dogs in this stressed state can break out of crates and badly injure themselves. This is not the future you want for your puppy.

What you want the puppy to discover is that nothing bad happens from being alone in a crate. You also want the puppy to learn that it's okay to let you know of a need, but you will not come in response to loud racket. Check on the puppy after the puppy has become quiet again.

If your puppy isn't making it through the night without a potty break, schedule it so that the puppy doesn't have to wake you up and ask. Realize, too, that the puppy's body will awaken and need to potty whenever someone in the household gets up. That person or someone else will need to give the pup a potty break.

Don't trick a puppy about the crate. Give a treat when the pup goes in, but don't be sneaky about shutting the door. Don't put the puppy into the crate when the puppy is sound asleep, to wake up trapped in a crate. That can cause the puppy to distrust both you and the crate.

Be careful not to abuse the crate. When you are at home and awake, supervise the puppy in person rather than using the crate. Puppies need exercise, mental stimulation and guidance from you in order to grow up healthy and happy. Too much crate time is not humane. Puppies sleep 14 hours a day or so. If the crate time is scheduled so the pup can use it for sleeping, that's ideal.

Make the crate a pleasant place to rest. A few safe chew toys and a treat can help the puppy relax and drift off to dreamland. Everyone in the household can sleep better with a crate-trained puppy.
Crate Training Puppies

Make the crate a pleasant place to rest. A few safe chew toys and a treat can help the puppy relax and drift off to dreamland. Everyone in the household can sleep better with a crate-trained puppy.

Housetraining Basics

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1) Keep the dog in a safe place when you are not home or are asleep. A crate just large enough that he can lie down and stand fully erect is usually ideal for this. A small room with a baby-gate rather than a closed door will also work, provided this safe place is a place where the particular dog will not use the bathroom. You are trying to help the dog develop control.

2) When you are able to watch the pup, keep pup always in the same room with you. If you see pup start to have an accident, say "No, Outside" at the very same time you scoop up the puppy and run outside. For a dog you cannot carry, use a leash. No punishment, EVER. That doesn't work for housetraining, and can cause nasty complications.

3) When you are outside in the right place for pup to relieve, use a cue phrase, such as "Go Potty." This is only used at the time and the place where you want pup to do it now. Never say it before you take the puppy outside. While you're still in the house, only use the word "Outside."

4) When pup relieves outside, praise sincerely. If pup likes a treat, you might have some hidden on your person, and whip one out to give at that moment. If pup likes to play outside, allow a little playtime after pup relieves. If your puppy wants to get right back inside, reward the pup by going right back inside.

5) Every time pup has an accident in the house, it confuses the puppy. Therefore, you need to supervise or confine your pup 100% of the time. If necessary to keep you watching the puppy, sometimes you can fasten yourself to the puppy with a leash at your waist.

6) If you find an accident the puppy has had in the house that you did not see happen, that is more your mistake than the puppy's! Whatever you do, never punish your dog for this.

7) Before using any other cleaning agents, treat the spot deeply and thoroughly with a bacterial enzyme odor eliminator product such as Nature's Miracle. Nothing else has been proven to really work on getting rid of the scent. If you don't get rid of the scent, it will draw the dog's instincts to use the spot again. Other cleaning products used before the the bacterial enzyme product can cause it to be unable to work. They can literally kill the little bacteria before they have a chance to deal with the odor.

8) Make sure your puppy is on a top-quality dog food, and is free of intestinal parasites such as roundworms, hookworms, coccidia, giardia. Any of these things can sabotage housetraining efforts. If the puppy ever seems to be urinating abnormally often, take a urine specimen to the veterinarian for analysis.

9) Schedule food and water. Give water whenever you can, but not in the crate, and not right before the dog is going to have to wait in the crate for some time. Modify this, of course, if the vet recommends it for your puppy or your situation. Feed at least twice a day, the best dog food you can get (cheap dog foods cause housetraining problems, as well as many other problems), and keep the food to a careful schedule. Scheduled food going IN leads to scheduled poop coming OUT, and that is very important for housetraining.

10) When you are at home and awake, take the pup outside about once per hour. As time goes by, you will be able to tell just how often your dog needs to go. During housetraining, you must go with the puppy, not put your puppy outside without you. That way you are there to praise, and you also know when the puppy relieved, and when the puppy did not relieve.

11) Puppies generally are not mature enough for full bladder and bowel control until at least 16 weeks of age.

12) With a small dog, you also have the problem that the dog sees the house as very large. Relieving off in a corner of a quiet room can seem to the small dog's instincts to be far enough away from the pack. A larger dog will more naturally prefer to go outside. That's one reason this process can take longer with small dogs. Small male dogs may be stimulated by instincts to mark territory in your house, while larger male dogs would rather mark a larger territory, outside the house. It can be helpful to expand your small dog's freedom in the house more slowly. Remember, any mistakes that you do not see and correct by taking the dog outside right then will confuse your dog, and make housetraining take longer.

13) One thing that frequently confuses people is that the dog can hold it for 8 hours during the night or when they are away at work. That makes them think 8 hours is reasonable to ask of the dog at other times, too. However, during sleep, the body quiets the bladder and bowels, to allow this longer period of time. When you're gone, the dog likely sleeps a lot, too, since dogs sleep about 14 hours a day. When the body has had to hold it like this, then it has to catch up. That makes going out every hour even more important. Take your puppy out at least twice in the morning before you leave for work, too.

14) Some spayed female dogs will develop a problem as they age with bladder incontinence. This is not a housetraining problem, and will normally be noticed as loss of urine where the dog is resting--the dog may not even be aware when it happens. This problem is easily controlled with inexpensive medication from your veterinarian. The medication may need a bit of adjustment, and there is more than one type of medication that works, so be sure to keep working with the vet until the right medication at the right dosage is found. Then, no more accidents!

15) Most every dog can be housetrained, if you do it right. However, some take longer than others. If you are minimizing the accidents by providing the proper supervision, and if you are treating any accident spots correctly, having a dog who takes longer to housetrain will not result in your having a smelly house or a ruined carpet
Reprinted from VetPartners.com