Help! My Dog Pees in her Crate!

Leave a comment June 16, 2018 BabetteHaggerty

There are tons of articles on housetraining a dog.  But what help is there when you have a dog that urinates and defecates in its crate?  Many pups will have an accident in their crate when they can not hold it any longer but what about the dog that actually goes to the bathroom in the crate even when they can hold it for a longer period of time?  That dog is not offended by peeing or pooping in its area.  That is called Dirty Dog Syndrome!

A term I coined back in the 1990’s, Dirty Dog Syndrome, is relatively rare, yet it is somewhat prevalent among small breed dogs and dogs that come from puppy mills.

Why small dogs and why puppy mill dogs?  It is simple. Small dogs tend to be more difficult to housetrain. Additionally, papertraining also tends to be more widely used when training a small breed of dog.  When you paper train a dog, if the paper is not kept clean, the dog becomes accustomed to its area which is dirty and they do not mind going to the bathroom in their area.

Puppy mill and pet store dogs are often kept in an area that has a grate for flooring so that any elimination drops down to a pad below.  Very effective from a cleaning standpoint when running a pet store or puppy mill, however, it creates a training disaster for the new family who is doing their best to start crate training the correct way.

So you are reading this and thinking, “I don’t really care why my dog does this!  I am just sick and tired of coming home every day and the puppy has peed, pooped and danced all over it!  Either this gets fixed or the dog goes back!”  I completely understand!  I have a foster dog right now that is a Red Tick Coonhound and I am fairly certain that she always lived in a crate where she could pee and poop to her heart’s content. It is gross, difficult and a time consuming mess!

So let’s fix it!  We, at Haggerty Dog Training, call it the Reverse Housetraining Process.  Think about this for a moment.  When housetraining a dog, the idea is to take them out frequently, give them an opportunity to go to the bathroom on short walks, give them free time then return them to the crate!  To resolve Dirty Dog Syndrome, we need to reverse what we do!

For a seamless experience, ideally we need the following:

1.  A fenced in back yard
2. A crate
3. A leash
4. Lots of patience

Keep your dog outside for 30 minutes at a time,  you will want to stay outside with her and wait until she goes to the bathroom.  Once she goes, bring her inside immediately and place her inside the crate.   Keep her there for two hours.  Take her outside again for another 30 minutes and wait for her to go the bathroom. Once she goes, bring her inside and place her in the crate.  You want to continue this routine.  Each time she goes to the bathroom outside, place her inside the crate.  By placing her inside the crate, immediately after going to the bathroom,  you are eliminating the possibility of her going to the bathroom INSIDE the crate!  As time goes on, you will start taking her outside less often while decreasing the length of time she stays outside.  You will be doing this while also keeping her inside the crate for longer periods of time.  Keep in mind, you want to do the OPPOSITE of housetraining. (See my blog post on crate training) How to Crate Train Your Dog

If you do not have access to a fenced in yard, you will want to tether her to you in the house and take her out every hour giving her five to seven minutes to go to the bathroom.  Keeping her tethered gives you the opportunity to stop the elimination in the crate.  Since she is tethered to you, you will also be able to intercept her if she starts sniffing and needs to go to the bathroom and wants to do so next to you in the house.

A caveat of using a fenced in yard is becoming too comfortable with leaving her outside unsupervised for periods of time.  If you have a small dog, be careful of wild life, even hawks that could pick up your dog and take her away.  Dogs that are great diggers, like terriers, can dig their way out of the yard.  In addition to the safety concerns, from a training point, it is important to stay outside with her so that you KNOW when she has gone to the bathroom.  If you are not with her, you are not going to know when it is safe to put her inside the crate.  We want her inside the crate when we know that she does NOT have to go to the bathroom!  Otherwise, we will set her up to continue to go to the bathroom inside the crate!

It is super important that you also track her bathroom schedule.  You want to write down the time of each day she relieves herself and what she does.  This will help you determine her bathroom cycle and know what she has to do and when she has to do it.

Between keeping her outside for extended periods of time, only placing her in the crate when she has very recently relieved herself and tracking her bathroom schedule, you will be able to eventually turn your dog from a Dirty Dog to a Clean Canine!

As always, Yours for Better Dogs,

Babette Haggerty

7 Tips to Successfully Train Your Dog

Leave a comment July 30, 2016 BabetteHaggerty

Every week we have dogs that start training in our Midland Park, New Jersey training center.  We encounter the same questions and concerns each week with most owners.  I would like to share some tips with you to make your dog’s training the most successful.

It is important to understand a few things about the training process first:

1. It is a process and your dog will progress at its own pace. Just like some people pick up certain skills sooner while others take longer, so will your dog.
2. Skills are built upon other skills.  We lay a foundation initially and build on that.  If you are having your dog trained in a day school environment, you are not going to see a difference until the second week of training.  Just like if you were to take tennis lessons, you are not going to show much progress until you have practiced day after day for a period of time, the same goes for your dog.
3. Obedience training helps other problems such as jumping, lunging, chewing, digging magically disappear.  We are giving your dog a positive outlet for the energy that they are now channeling into something negative, such as relandscape your yard.  If your dog suffers from anxiety or nervousness, the obedience will give your dog the tools he/she needs to become more relaxed, confident and  happier.
4. Practice and follow through at home is instrumental to optimizing your results.  For example, we will teach your dog to lay down and stay while we are eating lunch.  At home, perhaps you have been feeding your dog from the table, when your dog goes home we are going to show you how to send her to her bed and stay there while eating dinner which she will do but most likely, will get up once you sit down to eat.  This behavior in the past has earned her a piece of chicken so it is logical she will believe that it will happen again, so you have two options: throw your hands up in the air and say, ‘she is not trained’ OR you can tell her ‘no’ and send her back to her bed as we will show you.  If you are consistent in your new habits, she will learn that she now has to do the same for you, as she does for us in school.

The following are some tips that you can use to create new habits for yourself which will indirectly help you make the transition to a brand new well behaved as seamless as possible.

1.  Keep a positive outlook.  Henry Ford said, “If you think you can or if you think you can’t, you are right”.  The same holds true for training your dog.  Dogs pick up on our energy- positive and negative energy very easily, it will frustrate them and it will show itself in their behavior.  Dogs are a lot smarter than you think and if you think that your dog is dumb or won’t or can’t be trained, I can tell you that you are absolutely WRONG!  You need to have faith in your dog and in your trainer, if you don’t, then don’t waste your money or time.  When people will tell my dad that their dog was dumb, he would ask them, “Really?  When you went to work today where was your dog, at day care?  When it comes time for dinner, who is serving your dog dinner? You!  When it comes time to pay the bills where is your dog? Laying on the sofa without a care in the world?  Sounds like your dog is smarter than you!”
2. Practice with your dog every day, just for a few minutes. This is so that you can learn to be a better handler and your dog learns that they have to listen to you, not just the trainer.
3. Take all of your trainer’s suggestions from the leash, the collar and how often to practice.  Your trainer doesn’t tell you things just for the sake of saying things, they are telling you things because they want you to succeed.  Your trainer wants you to succeed with your dog. The fewer suggestions you take, the more you compromise your training.
4. Only work with your dog when you are focused, in good spirits and have a positive outlook.  Texting or checking your phone will not allow you to focus on the task at hand and your dog will take advantage of that.  You want to be in a good mood, working your dog when angry or upset, your dog will pick up on that and not respond as well.
5.  Wear appropriate shoes, no flip flops or heels. Wear flat comfortable shoes.
6. Save the alcohol and zanax for another time.  If you are mentally compromised, you can’t focus on your dog.
7. Have faith in your trainer, if you don’t, then you need to find one you have faith and trust.

While the above list is not all encompassing, it does highlight some of the more important ideas to make training a success.  Remember one thing, you are teaching your dog behaviors they never learned in the past.  They don’t learn overnight, like good wine, good training takes time.  Be patient and consistent and I leave you with one last thought, “Treat your dog like a person, your dog will treat you like a dog”.

Until next time, happy wags to you!