by Sheree's Dog Rescue on Tuesday, March 15, 2011 at 8:30am
When a dog is taken in our rescue, we immediately start house training. Sometimes, the dog is already housebroken; most of the time, he is not. Regardless, we retrain the newcomber to our schedule and show him where the doggie door is and how to use it or how to give us a sign when he needs to go potty.
Some dogs will learn the ropes quickly, others will be more stubborn and dig their paws in the ground. Taking in the rescue a 9-year old dog that is not housetrained is very common. How can a dog that old not know anything about potty training? If nobody ever taught him anything about going to potty outside, he will not know where the door is in his new home and how to show his owners that he needs to go. Some dogs lived all their life in a kennel, crated and they don’t even know what grass is.
Whether you purchased a puppy from a breeder or you adopted a rescue dog, you will have to get involved in his house training. It always startles me when I get a phone call from a potential adopter and I hear: “Is this dog housebroken? If he is not, I can’t consider him because I have a very nice home and I don’t want it ruined by a dog that is not potty trained.” Right away, it is a deal breaker to me. I also get calls from adopters saying: “I adopted a dog from your rescue and she is 2 years old. How long have you had her? How come she has accidents in my house? Didn’t housetrain her before you put her up for adoption?”
We rescue dogs, vet them, feed them, care for them, love on them, train them until they find their forever home but we never guarantee a dog is fully housetrained and will never have accidents when he arrives in his new home. Dogs are dogs and do dogs things. They get nervous, stressed out and they need time to adapt to new situations, people and places, just like us.
If the carpet, the house, furniture, whatever else has more value to the adopter, and the thought of committing to house training your new family member seems a hassle, then he should stay with us until someone who is ready to give the time and has enough patience and understanding to train the dog comes along. Although we do our very best to start house training a dog the minute he gets in rescue and we extensively explain this to the adopter, we do have dogs who will come back to us after a few days to a few weeks because he had a few accidents in the house.
We give tips to help with house training, like using a belly band for boys but rarely do adopters use them. I personally use baby diapers as belly band and it works very well, and is cheaper than the slim liners you buy at the pet store. We strongly recommend to take the dog out and stay with him for as long as it takes, and remind him to potty. Usually people put the dog outside, don’t stay with them, bring them in after 5 minutes and the dog has an accident as he comes in. I get a call and a complaint. Positive reinforcement and patience go a long way. We potty trained our kids the same way; what works with children, works with dogs. When our kids had “accidents”, we didn’t bring them back anywhere and we didn’t give up on them, however long it took to get the point. Dogs are the same as kids; don’t give up on them.
Linda Barrette
Founder,
Sheree's Dog Rescue
www.shereesdogrescue.org
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