[SOLVED ] Q. How do I train my puppy to pen up (go in her pen)? Every time I put her in, she runs back out.

Experienced and professional animal trainer provide their insights in answering this question :

A. U have to make that her safe place. Don’t use it as a place for punishment. At the same time feed and give her water in there. Praise her every time she goes in there. And make sure she has a bed or something comfortable to lay on in it.

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You simply put your dog in a relatively confined space, where she can`t engage in the behavior you`re trying to prevent, control, or eliminate. After your pup has calmed down and cleared her head, you can let her back out to rejoin the family. Time-outs can (and should) be used for all puppies during their training.

Unlike the crate where you can`t leave a young puppy for long periods; the puppy will be fine in the playpen and you can go out for longer periods. Just make sure your dog is ready before you leave for a long period so the puppy does not feel left alone form the start and associate that with the playpen itself.

Your puppy won`t need a puppy playpen forever, so don`t worry about it being a permanent feature in your home. Once your new puppy has been housetrained and settled into their new home, you can start to allow them free access to more of the house without you having to watch them all the time.

This means that other than resting your hand on the side of the crate or playpen, you must completely ignore your pup until they settle down. For some puppies, this can take up to 15 minutes, so you must be patient and wait out their cries, protests, and escape attempts until they finally do settle down.

During long periods or more than two hours, a playpen may be preferred for your young puppy. Potty accidents during longer periods will be less of an issue in a puppy pen compared to a dog crate. That said, older pups and adult dogs can typically manage up to four hours in a dog crate, assuming they`re crate trained.

Having a pet sitter or someone you know, such as a friend or neighbour, spend time with your puppy when you`re working is a great way to lower the risk of boredom or separation anxiety. If possible, have someone stop by every couple of hours while you`re gone if your puppy is younger.

You should have a pee pad inside the playpen, which if you`re lucky the first couple nights, the pup will pee on it instead of on the floor.

Depending on their age, most puppies poop between four and five times per day, typically shortly after eating. There is a significant difference in bowel movements between dog breeds, and their bowel habits will change as your dog ages.

But as they get older, bladder control in puppies improves and they`re able to hold their urine for much longer. When you first bring home a puppy, usually at around 8 weeks old, take her out every 30–60 minutes for the first week or two.

Crate training is necessary for when your canine is a puppy—sleeping in a crate at night teaches puppies how to control their bladder and bowels since they don`t like to relieve themselves in the same space that they sleep. Kennels are also excellent for the times that no one can be home to supervise your new puppy.

“Ignoring the whining is your best option,” says Dr. Coates. “Any type of attention will just reinforce the behavior.” Campbell says that pet parents should avoid giving attention or taking a puppy out of the crate until he is quiet.

Dogs are a naturally social species and it`s normal for them to stay close to their social group which is why they can become anxious when left alone. When a puppy is first separated from their mother and litter mates, their usual response will be to whine, whimper or bark while trying to get back to them.

A crate or a small play pen will keep them safe and secure while you can sleep easy knowing you will hear them if they wake up in the night and need a toilet visit. It will also help with toilet training – as a small sleeping area means they are more likely to try and avoid soiling their bed.

If Your Puppy`s Alone for Several Hours

If you don`t want your dog to have full reign of the house while you`re away, a pen is a great way to keep them comfortable. The benefit of a pen is it gives them enough space to eat, drink, move around, and change positions — unlike a crate which is more confined.

And as for how many times a day to feed your puppy, here`s a general guide to follow: 8-12 weeks: Feed 4 times per day. 3-6 months: Feed 3 times per day. 6-12 months: Feed 2 times per day, or 3 if you`d like.

According to the American Kennel Club, puppies younger than 10 weeks cannot be left alone for more than an hour. From 3-6 months, they should not be left longer than their age in months (for example, 3-month-old puppies cannot be alone for longer than 3 hours).

We recommend at least having them in your bedroom with you in the beginning in either a dog bed or crate. Having your puppy in your bedroom with you will make them feel more reassured. Then, you can gradually move them to where you would like them to sleep permanently.

Goldman explains that dogs engage in the zoomies when, “they have some form of excess energy that`s been contained such as physical energy, like when they`ve been crated, or nervous energy, like when they have tolerated an uncomfortable situation.” The chance to finally release that energy can lead to seemingly wild …

Your dog will associate the crate with where they eat and sleep and pups refuse to poop and pee where they snooze and dine. However, since playpens are so large, they poop, pee, eat and sleep in them.

When she looks as though she`s about to pee or poop, say “potty” (or whatever word you choose) and take her quickly to her pad. Give her lots of praise and a small treat when she “does her business” there. Do not allow her free access to the house yet, as that will only result in making housetraining mistakes.

Generally, dogs dislike hugs, not being allowed to sniff, a lack of routine, and more. Even the most laid-back dog will hate some of the things we humans do—if they tolerate it, it`s just because they love you or don`t want to be dominant.

Shouting or yelling at your dog can fill them with fear—of you, of their environment, of certain behaviors—and even lead to reactive behavior. Again, yelling and scolding in an angry tone is too vague. Screaming at your dog won`t prevent her from chewing the shoe next time.

Alcoholic drinks and food products containing alcohol. Avocado (only mildly toxic to dogs and cats, but can be severely toxic, even deadly, to birds, rabbits, horses, and ruminants such as cattle, goats, and sheep) Caffeine (found in a lot of drinks such as coffee, tea, soda, and energy drinks) Chocolate.

Relevant Questions and Answers :

the most relevant questions and answers related to your specific issue

Q. How do I desensitize my dog to squirrels and stray cats in the neighborhood?

ANSWER : A. It depends on the goal that you have in mind. I am going to assume that you would prefer that your dog not chase squirrels or stray cats in the yard/street. In this case, your options include: (1) training your dog on a “Leave it ” cue using positive reinforcement methods, (2) training your dog not to pull on its leash when it sees a squirrel/stray cat, and (3) training your dog to perform a more desirable behavior when it sees a squirrel/cat.
Training your dog on a cued “leave it” command is useful because it will give you the ability to tell your dog to stay away from any number of undesirable objects on your command. Training your dog to perform a more desireable behavior when it sees a squirrel or cat will substitute a behavior you find acceptable (sitting, laying down, coming to the door, etc.) with a behavior you dislike. Your dog can still react, just in a positive way. If your dog pulls on the leash every time you see a squirrel/cat, training not to pull will make your walk safer and more pleasant.
The ideal training method to use with dogs, or any animal for that matter, is positive reinforcement training, particularly a method called “clicker- training.” The basic concept of positive reinforcement training is to pair a reward (reinforcement) with a behavior you want to increase in frequency. In other words, when your dog performs the behavior you desire, it receives an award, which reinforces the desired behavior so you get more of that behavior. There are many excellent books in stores or on-line that describe positive reinforcement training in detail and many give step-by-step instructions for training common commands like “leave it”. Look for books that specifically mention positive reinforcement training or clicker-training. You can also take dog training classes to learn the techniques, find a mentor who already uses clicker-training, or request a consult from one of the pet experts on this site to guide you.

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Q. We have a 7 week old Toy Poodle/Bichon. We are trying to house train her, any tips would be appreciated. Thanks.

ANSWER : A. It’s understandable that she isn’t able to hold her bladder all that well yet. The bladder doesn’t fully develop until around 6-7 months of age. For now, you should be bringing your pup outside every 30 minutes, immediately after she eats/drinks, immediately after she plays, immediately after a nap, immediately after training.

Is she crate trained? If she is not crate trained, I have some wonderful crate training exercises I could go over. Crate training and potty training go hand-in-hand. Any time you cannot keep your eyes on the puppy, she should be in the crate so accidents do not occur. The main idea when it comes to potty training is to keep your puppy successful.

After a while of bringing her outside every 30 minutes, you can try to increase that time. What you should do is wait until the 30 minute marker strikes, and then begin some basic obedience using treats, or some puppy-play! Then go out a few minutes later. Teach her it’s fun to hold her bladder!

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Q. My puppy will be 8 weeks old tomorrow. I’ve had her for a week now, and she still isn’t responding to any training or her name. What can I do?

ANSWER : A. Try clicker training her to come when called. Clicker training is an effective way of training you dog to not only come when called, but can be used to teach a variety of tricks and tasks.

Have treats on hand that you know she loves, then simply click and treat. She will come to associate the sound with getting a treat. Start putting distance between you so she has to come to you. Call and click and when she comes to you for that treat, treat him and give her lots of praise. Move to hiding somewhere in the house, call and click. When she comes to you reliably inside when you call, click and treat. When this behavior is consistent, move outdoors with a very long leash. Call and click, if she doesn’t respond, give a light tug on the leash. If she takes even a single step toward you, click, treat and lots of praise. Keep doing this until she comes eagerly. Next, try her off-leash in a securely fenced area. Call and click. At this point she should be responding well and coming easily to the call and click. If she does not, go back to the last step she performed reliably and work on that again until she responds well. Eventually, you can start not treating her every time, but still praise her. Gradually lessen the frequency of the treats until she comes just to the click and praise.

Keep training sessions short, ten or fifteen minutes to start, no more than 30 minutes at a time and do it a few times a day. Try not to do it any time she is overly excited so that she can pay attention to you. Always end a training session on a good note, even if it is just getting him to do something she already does well on command. And never, NEVER punish a dog when they come to you, no matter how far they’ve made you chase them, no matter how frustrated and angry you might be. That teaches your dog that coming to you is a bad thing.

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Q. Husband shamed dog for having an accident inside, and now she won’t poop when he takes her out. Can we fix this? He realizes he erred

ANSWER : A. Good on your husband for realizing that scolding is not the way to potty train! Hopefully these tips can help both him and your pup get back on the right track and make pottying outside successful.

If your dog is still a puppy, that is good news as you may be able to more easily time your potty outings with your dog’s schedule. Even if your dog is older, this schedule may help. Dogs generally have to go potty about 15 minutes after eating, drinking, waking up or playing. Knowing this, get your husband to start taking out your puppy at these key times, so puppy gets used to going out with him, and the urge to potty may be higher than any fear to go. If the potty is successful, have your husband reward the dog with a favorite treat! For bowel movements, dogs may take a little more time, and you may have to stand outside for a while (sometimes even 10 minutes) to give your dog a chance to go. If she doesn’t go, take her back inside and play some, then try again in about 15 minutes. Again, a success equals a treat which most dogs will like right away!

For any indoor potty accidents that occurred, an enzymatic cleaner is great for cleaning up urine and stool. Not only does it remove the stain and smell, but it breaks down the enzymes in the urine and stool your dog can smell, which may deter her from going potty there again.

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Q. How do I get my dog to stop chewing on things? I kennel her when I leave for a few hours, but I can’t go to the mailbox without her eating something.

ANSWER : A. If she’s young, then this is just normal puppy behavior. Don’t worry about it. The thing about puppies is, they explore using their mouths. If your puppy grabs a coat hanger, or a slipper, you should roll up a newspaper, and smack yourself on the head with it for leaving those things out.. your puppy is going to explore things, that’s normal! It is 100% up to YOU to keep those things away from your puppy when your puppy is unsupervised… even for just a moment.

Remember to never scold your puppy for grabbing these things. They are just curious little cuties, and they don’t chew things up to bother us.. Dogs do not have intentional thought, so they aren’t ever doing anything ON PURPOSE to us.. The most important thing you can do when your puppy is chewing something you don’t want her to be chewing is TRADE her the inappropriate item with a toy of hers, so she understands “no honey, that isn’t what puppies chew on… THIS is what puppies chew on!” and then begin playing with her using her toy to show her that TOYS ARE FUN.. Way more fun than a boring ol’ coat hanger.

Another helpful thing you can do is have two bags of toys. In each bag is many different kinds of toys. Lots of chew toys, lots of soft squeaky toys, lots of rope-type toys, a bunch of balls.. All kinds of things! For one week you have bag#1’s toys out for your puppy to play with.. At the end of the one week, you collect those toys, and you bring out bag#2! The toys will be more interesting/feel like new to your puppy, which will in-turn, make her chew less inappropriate things. Her toys are too fun to care about that dumb Wii-mote that you left laying around.

Hope this helps!

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Q. We just adopted a Lab puppy who seems to be hungry all the time. She is usually awake by 4:30 am. Wondering on when and how much to feed her?

ANSWER : A. It depends on the food you feed her. Read the back of the bag of food, whatever it says on the back under “amount for puppy”, decrease that by a very small amount. Often kibble bags encourage overeating to sell more product.

You should be feeding the puppy at three set times throughout the day. A nice and early breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Make sure you aren’t feeding too close to bedtime. Give the puppy an hour after eating before bed in case she has to eliminate outdoors again before bed.

I’m wondering if maybe she’s just waking up at 4:30am to be taken outside to eliminate. Puppies can typically only hold their bladders 1 hour per month of age, plus 1.. and that’s typically pushing it until after 6mo of age. Have you tried just bringing the puppy outdoors, and then luring her back into her crate with a high value treat? See if she’ll go back to sleep.

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Q. My puppy refuses to walk outside on the leash. This only happens when we’re outside… Is it stubbornness or fear?

ANSWER : A. It is never stubbornness. Dogs are not stubborn, they can’t be. Dogs do not generalize well, and dogs display fearful behavior that appears to be stubbornness. Absolutely NEVER force this dog to walk outside when he is uncomfortable with doing so.. the more you force him to do it, opposition reflex – the more he will resist. The more he resists and is forced into it, the less he learns about being comfortable, and the more he becomes fearful of you and of the situation.

What you can do is carry extremely high value treats outside with you. Things like cooked white meat chicken, cooked fish, turkey pepperoni, turkey bacon, diced ham, mozzarella cheese sticks – all cut up into tiny little pea-sized pieces. You can also use peanut butter in a squeeze tube. First, put on the leash indoors and begin feeding him the treats. Help him make positive associations with having the leash put on. Then, take the leash off, and start over in 10min. Put the leash on, feed treats, walk to the door, open the door, feed treats, close door, take off leash. Start over in 10min. Put on leash, feed treats, go to door, feed treats, open door, feed treats, go outside, feed tons of treats and praise. Keep Titus in his comfort zone. If he doesn’t want to go far, just feed him tons of treats where he IS comfortable going. Make sure everything is calm/happy/positive. I bet in a week of doing this, he will be happy with walk further and further all of the time. If ever he is uncomfortable, feed him lots of treats for being a brave boy, and then turn around and go back home. It’s all about keeping him in his comfort zone.. it’s all about remaining within his threshold and never forcing him to feed uncomfortable.

This is very common for puppies. The world is scary! It’s brand new to them, and it’s up to you to make their interactions and discoveries positive, happy, calm, and to never force them into anything.

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Q. How do I train my puppy to pen up (go in her pen)? Every time I put her in, she runs back out.

ANSWER : A. U have to make that her safe place. Don’t use it as a place for punishment. At the same time feed and give her water in there. Praise her every time she goes in there. And make sure she has a bed or something comfortable to lay on in it.

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