The scenario:
Your puppy is more than 6 months old, is good-natured, enjoys
attention, but has a problem of sneaking off to pee/poop somewhere indoors instead of
outside. The family is growing intolerant of this activity. The pup is given many
opportunities throughout the day to relieve himself (herself) outside, but despite all,
still eliminates in the house.
The problem:
To begin with, you probably praised your puppy whenever he did his
thing outside. You are probably not praising him anymore, because you have begun to take
it for granted. Meanwhile, the puppy has discovered that he captures quite a bit of your
attention when "he does it in the house". Well, attention is what he
craves, so guess what? He increases the number of times he potties indoors, and
low-and-behold, he gets more attention!
The four-step solution:
- Everyone who is with the puppy when he eliminates outside should praise him lavishly and
have treats in their pockets to reward him.
- You should teach him to eliminate on command, so that you can get him to attend to both
functions when required. Do this by giving him a one word command for each function. Say
the magic words every time you see him in the act and outdoors. In the beginning, you will
give the command just as soon as he is in the act, and then when he has finished, you
praise and reward lavishly. Keep this up until you can prompt him to poop and pee "on
cue". The advantage of cueing his toilet behavior is that he is unlikely to engage in
a cued behavior in the house where there is no reward given for the activity.
- Put your puppy under close scrutiny when in the house to eliminate his chance of
sneaking off to potty in a corner. This can be achieved if each person volunteers a
certain amount of time to be the puppy’s supervisor. The supervisor will stay with
the puppy wherever he goes and will especially keep a sharp eye out to make sure he does
not get a chance to eliminate indoors. If he tries; scoop him up quick, rush him outside
and observe steps one and two.
- The fourth strategy is unbelievable! If your puppy manages to potty inside you will
do nothing at all. You will not even utter a discouraging word. This reaction is to
ensure that the puppy gets diminished attention for in-house lapses. Do clean up out of
his sight too, so that he sees no consequence whatsoever for the undesirable behavior.
Everyone in the house should understand and commit to this four-part
plan. That means agreeing on the two commands you will use to "cue" urination
and defecation, carrying treats ready to praise and reward "good" behavior, and
understanding why supervision is important for a little while. Finally, explaining and
understanding why you ignore a mistake is really important.
Reference:
I think the best book on dog training, dolphin training, and human
training is "Don’t Shoot the Dog" by Karen Pryor. It is available
from Bantam books. It is worth getting.