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Housebreaking Your Dog Through Location Training
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How to Proceed as You Location Train Your Dog -- Continued
What to Do After You Have Your Mutt in the Can
Regardless of how you get him there, once you have your dog in the area set aside for such activities, the next thing you need to worry about is keeping him there long enough for him to do his business.
If you are training your dog to use a Pet Waste Station, you can simply use the station gates to enclose the animal in the facility. If you don't have a Waste Station, you can fence some particular part of your yard and keep your dog in by closing the gate. Or, you can simply tether the animal in that location while you are waiting for him to go. With a little luck, you may find that your dog will simply stay in that location in any case, whether or not he is confined there, just as long as you are willing to sit there with him.
At first glance, you might think that you could simply leave your dog-in-training enclosed on the Waste Station apron or tethered in the designated part of the yard, and come back after a while to see if the animal has completed the task, before making the decision whether to let him out or leave him in, depending on whether or not he has eliminated in your absence.
To be sure, you can leave your dog confined in the can, and know with great certainty that when all is said and done, the animal will come to understand that it is okay with you if he eliminates in that location. In so far as it goes, that would be a very good thing, because that knowledge constitutes a major portion of what it is that you are trying to teach your dog in this exercise.
However, simply leaving your dog to do his business alone in the can while you go off and do other things, can produce some highly undesirable side effects. For one thing, if you want your dog to use the facility from this day onward, then, you need him to have only positive experiences there, so he will feel good about that location. You most certainly do not want him to think of that spot as being a place of isolation and imprisonment, because that's not the kind of place a dog wants to go, in any sense of the word.
For that reason, throughout the training process, it is essential that you be there to encourage your dog when he eliminates in the designated location, especially when he does it for the very first time. You need to be present to ensure that doing what he should where he should becomes an immediately rewarding experience.
Showing up a while later and praising him a few minutes after he has done his business absolutely will not have the same impact on the animals future toileting behavior. In fact, if you show up and praise him a few minutes after he has eliminated, he may have no idea what it is that you are so happy about. To make reinforcement really count with your dog, it needs to be delivered immediately after the response that is being rewarded.
That being the case, you will almost certainly find the process to be quicker and easier if you just resolve to stay with your dog for the entire time that he is confined to the facility. You may be amazed how quickly the animal will learn and how smooth the process will be, if you take the time to do that.
Providing Entertainment For All Concerned
Early in the training process, after you have placed your dog in the chosen location, while you sit there with him, waiting for him to eliminate in the facility, it may be a good idea to have a book, or telephone, or some sort of computer device to help you entertain yourself while you wait. It would be nice, of course if you could have a friend keep you company, and that would also almost certainly make the process more enjoyable for your dog, since the members of that species seem to be such extremely sociable creatures.
Just don't get so caught up entertaining yourself that you forget to interact at least somewhat with your dog. After all, you want him to find his time in the facility to be enjoyable.
The more your dog grows to like being in the designated location, the easier it will be for you to get him to go there to do his business. Simply sitting with your arm or leg resting against him will often go a long way toward making a dog enjoy his stay in any given location.
Just don't overdue it by entertaining him so much and distracting him so severely that he won't have a chance to focus in on his bodily needs.
What to Do After Your Dog Eliminates in the Designated Location
The research tells us that any response your dog makes - like eliminating in a certain location - that produces a rewarding consequence, is likely to be repeated.
Therefore, during the training process, you need to see to it that being at the location designated for elimination is a rewarding experience for your dog, and you need to see to it that actually using the facility produces an even heartier dose of reinforcement.
For that reason, the instant your dog has finished relieving himself in the designated location, his life should suddenly become a lot more fun. At that point you should give him a little taste of a dog biscuit as you tell him he is a good dog, and praise him in pleasing, excited tones. After that, you should give him a quick, five-second rub down, and immediately release him from the facility, as you display an enthusiasm that would indicate to your dog that he has just done something astoundingly amazing.
Look at all the great things that happen after your dog complies with the program. He gets praised with flowing accolades. He gets fed. He gets a quick rub down, and he immediately gets released from the facility to return to the house and yard.
After that, there can be no doubt in your dog's mind that using the facility produces a very favorable consequence - and that is what is going to make him want to relieve himself in that particular spot again in the future. That, and the fact that attempting to do his business any place else never works out well, because he is always interrupted, and just trying to do it elsewhere, always produces an anxiety producing consequence.
During the training process, it will be a very good thing if you can spend five or ten minutes or so, hanging out with and entertaining your dog after he has used the facility. The danger is that if you show your dog a good time in the designated location, before he relieves himself, and then, afterward, you right away isolate him or move him into some considerably less enjoyable circumstance, he may conclude that using the facility will result in his immediate circumstance growing instantly worse. If that happens, he may choose to delay his elimination for as long as possible as a way to keep you there with him longer. You don't want that, so starting the instant after your dog eliminates, you need to make sure that he suddenly starts having a lot more fun and that it continues on for at least the first few minutes immediately after he relieves himself.
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