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Housebreaking Your Dog Through Location Training
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How to Proceed as You Location Train Your Dog
Two Things to Remember
Essentially, location training consists of making sure that your dog always eliminates where he should and, in contrast, making sure that he never has the chance to eliminate where he shouldn't without being rudely interrupted. All you have to do is keep that up for a shot period of time, and you will find that your dog will very quickly learn what is expected.
To guarantee that your dog will actually want to follow the program, you will need to make sure that frequenting the designated location is as rewarding for him as it is distressing for him every time he begins to eliminate in some forbidden location.
There are two things you need to do then:
- Make sure that during training, your dog only eliminates where he should and that he never has a chance to do any more than to attempt to eliminate where he shouldn't.
- Without exception, throughout the training process, you should see to it that it is rewarding for your dog every time he does his business where he is supposed to, and you should also make it a point to make him feel fleetingly upset, every time he attempts to do his business where he shouldn't.
Watching For the Telltale Signs
To ensure that while in training, your dog will never have the chance to eliminate where he should not, you should resign yourself to spending some time with the animal as you make it a point keep him nearby and in the corner of your eye, until the process is complete.
If you watch for it, you will see that just before your dog is ready to eliminate, he will begin to squat or lift a leg, or give some other hint of what he is about to do. That is the instant at which you need to intervene.
When you see your dog adopt that telltale, I'm ready to eliminate posture, you need to immediately spring into action and do whatever is necessary to interrupt him and escort him over to the chosen location before he has a chance to eliminate.
Moving Your Dog From Here to There
You want your dog to come to associate eliminating in the wrong place with emotional distress. Therefore, when the animal gives you some clue that he is about to eliminate, you should immediately and without an instant's hesitation rush to where he is. Do not call him to you. Rather, you should rush toward him in an agitated fashion that is sure to engender anxiety, all the while repeating the word no in a perturbed tone of voice.
When you rush toward your dog for the purpose of interrupting his act of toileting, your demeanor should be intense enough to make the animal anxious to the point of mild upset, but you don't want to frighten him so much that he will lapse into terror or run away in fright.
When you arrive at your dog's location, you should immediately stop speaking to him. At that point you should pick him up or lead him along, or in general, do whatever is necessary to get him quickly over to the facility.
You may find that moving quickly toward your dog makes him run away from you. There should be a balanced point in which you are able to approach the animal quickly enough to interrupt him before he has a chance to eliminate, and aggressively enough to make him feel anxious, without frightening him so badly that he will run away from you.
If you find that there is no way that you can find a balance wherein you are able to rush toward your dog in an anxiety provoking fashion, without making him so anxious that he will run away, then, you may need to tether the animal during the training period.
Location training a tethered dog is almost exactly like training one who is walking loose. You just need to attach the cord to his halter, and then, let him roam. That way, when it looks like he is about to eliminate in a forbidden location, you can simply reel him in and lead or carry him over to the facility, where such things are allowed.
Please note that a tethered dog should never be left unattended, because of the danger that he could strangle or otherwise become dangerously entangled in the cord.
Regardless of what it is you do to get him there, the very second your dog enters the area you have set aside for his elimination, you should immediately switch over to a loving demeanor and a warm tone of voice, so he will begin to understand that attempting to eliminate elsewhere makes you agitated and unpleasant to be with, while going to and eliminating at the chosen location makes you affectionate and wonderful to be around.
Maddeningly, after interrupting your dog's act of elimination and rushing him over to the designated location, you are likely to find that he will be so taken aback by the way you interrupted him and hurried him along, that once in the facility, he will seem to have forgotten about what it was he was about to do. If that happens to you, you can either release your dog back into the house or yard, and watch him carefully for signs that it is time to rush him back to the facility, or, you can simply leave him there for a while first, to see if he does his business.
Pre-Positioning Your Dog For the Task at Hand
The obvious alternative to rushing your dog over to the designated spot at the last instant would be to place the animal at the toileting spot before he shows any sign of being about to eliminate.
That approach will work particularly well when you are dealing with a dog who tends to eliminate in a regular fashion. For example, you may find that your dog relieves himself soon after he eats, or immediately after he wakes up in the morning.
If your dog is regular enough for you to be able to predict when he is about to go, then you can simply move him to the desired location just before he is ready, as a means of ensuring that he will be at the designated spot when nature overtakes him.