How to housebreak and calm down a puppy--advice please!

self | July 14 2013 | self

[proud American in Canada]

Hi, everyone. :)

We just bought a black lab who is about six weeks old; a female. I just brought her outside; she had napped next to me and was sound asleep on the couch as I dozed off. I then brought her out and put her in her crate, because she pees and poos all over the house.

How do I train this puppy--and how can I get her to stop crying at night. The last couple of nights, I could not stand the crying, so I brought her up to my husband and my bed.

Even now, she is crying and whimpering, trying to get out of the crate. We slept together just fine on the couch, just now, for a while, but now she wants the attention since I put her in the crate. I did that because our house has apparently become a puppy toilet. :( It is disgusting and I cannot stand it.

Do I bring her upstairs to stop the crying, or do I let her cry it out (which is painful).

I am falling asleep at the computer, however, listening to her cry, I"ll probably get very little sleep.

I will try to answer everyone, but we are all tired and I am at my wits end.

She is a cutie, though. :) She has massive paws--she will be a big girl. :)

Thanks, and I will respond as soon as I can,

Julie

[pops88]

My favorite source of training information is http://leerburg.com/

With our current dog, my daughter was old enough to take responsibility for training and I found this site to be my top choice. Two of the best training aids I’ve found over the years are crate training and marker/clicker training. Some people think crating is cruel, however it becomes the dog’s “safe place.” When the dog needs to rest away from kids, noise, etc., it has a “den” to retreat to.

As has been said, normally dogs won’t toilet where they sleep so it helps with house breaking. The first few nights our dog was crated next to my daughter’s bed while he got used to his new home, but after that he had to learn to sleep in his crate in the kitchen. You’ll save yourself a lot of headaches if you crate train and keep your dog out of the bedroom.

At 6 weeks, you’re going to be house broken, not the dog. He needs to go out immediately for a few minutes after eating, then 20-30 minutes later, and pretty much every hour throughout the day.

You can clean up after messes with diluted white vinegar. I clean with vinegar so I always have a spray bottle on hand and just used full strength on my tile floors, and enzymatic cleaner for the carpet. Good luck!

[Wuli]

watch old episdoes on NatGeo of Ceasar Milan, the “dog wisperer”

[DrKay]

I completely agree with Old_Grouch except that twice a night is not often enough at this age.

The”formula”for how often the puppy needs to be let out of its crate at night to relieve itself is: 1 Month = 1 Hour. That means at the age of 1 month it can only hold it for 1 hour. At 6 weeks it has to go every 1.5 hours. And so on.

You need to put the crate next to your bed and take it out every 1.5 hours now, at the age of 2 months every 2 hours, at 3 months every 3 hours. I know this is difficult but it is an investment in the dog’s and your future. The puppy will cry and whimper when it has to go out and you must respond right away. If it waits longer than this formula you can wait for the cry/whimper before taking it out.

This accomplishes 2 things. First it housebreaks the puppy. Second, because the pup senses that you are responsive to its needs it builds a bond of trust that lasts for its entire life.

[Georgia Girl 2]

Labs are hyper. I wouldn’t get one but since you have I would advise my tried and true training. Put them on a rigid schedule of eating and going out to the bathroom.

First, if you know when the dog ate you know when to expect it to poop. That would be fairly soon after it eats. Feed the dog morning and night at the same time. Don’t leave food down. Take the pup out on a harness and lead shortly after feeding and walk it around until it poops and peeps.

Also take the dog out every half hour or so to pee. Everytime the dog pees and poos outside praise it and give it a little treat. Ignore the mistakes.

I would confine the dog to the kitchen or something until its housebroken so you don’t have mistakes all over the house. At night put the dog in its crate and do not give the dog the run of the house until it is housebroken.

My sister loves to joke about how our dogs are on the most structured schedule she has ever seen but they never make a mistake in the house and they know when to expect every meal and every treat. Animals are creatures of habit. They love routine.

[freekitty]

BTW, Ditter has great dogs.

[Daffynition]

PAIC, I think you've got some great advice about house breaking. At least you have warm/summer weather. We knew when we got *Winchester* [see home page] in early winter, we'd be in for a challenge. It was, but be consistent. Fortunately I'm retired and home a lot, so the *during the day* trips outside helped him progress

I'm glad Mr.Da mentioned your next hurdle...and that is the *chew factor*. He'll need his own toys, and in spite of that expect furniture and shoes to be ruined.

We started out with a medium sized crate and when Winchester grew into the super-large crate, I kept the medium crate to keep our shoes in it with the door locked! It helped a bunch.

Gone are the days of finding a pair of shoes to wear out of the house...used to try and find a pair that I could wear that were the *least* chewed. LOL

But he destroyed the coffee table. [below] At some point he swallowed a stone he found in the yard. I combed every BM for a week and never found the stone...and about at 10 days he puked it up! Phew!

He still loves his marrow bones....and enjoys peanut butter in the ones he has hollowed out. He takes them in his kennel/crate to enjoy....the crate is his *protective place*.

He's still learning the trade of duck retrieval...is an excellent upland game retriever. Good luck with your Lab!

[Daffynition]

Oily? Pshaw!

Now the shedding is a whole other topic!

[Dogfaced Soldier]

Their shedding is legendary isn’t it? Especially when they are blowing out their undercoats.

One thing I would add is that you must train yourself and every other person in the house to pick up everything off of the floor. Labs are voracious and they’ll eat anything: socks, underwear, gloves, you name it. My lab ate one of the kid’s booksocks and it got lodged in her intestine and wouldn’t pass. A $1500 operation later, she was fine but went on swallowing other stuff until we broke the kids of using their floors as a hamper.

[Revolting cat!]

Black lab? Like this?

[Jeff Winston]

Also read the reviews on that, though. There are some people who very much disagree with things like the “alpha roll” taught in those books.

[pops88]

My understanding is that they no longer teach or support teaching the “alpha roll.”

[Daffynition]

>>Their shedding is legendary isn’t it?<<

Goodness YES!

We had black Labs for years and years; when it looked as if our ancient old girl was going to have to be put down at 14 y/o, I told the boys to go out and get *some other type of dog*...at that point in our lives, everyone wore black pants and trousers, carpets were dark grey; well, boys came home with a yellow Lab! *She's *different* right mom?* That initiated all trousers and pants and carpeting to change to khaki color! and it ushered in an era of yellows. Whom we loved to death! but shed just as bad as a black.

We're back to black it seems....Salamander sent me this image we can relate to.....;D

[Jeff Winston]

I think it’s in the book, though, which is why I mentioned it.

[afraidfortherepublic]

I have always found that it is helpful for the Alpha bitch to lower her voice (imitating a man) when giving commands to the dog. Try “Sit”, “Stay” in a false baritone!

[afraidfortherepublic]

See #114

[afraidfortherepublic]

2 Golden Retrievers caused me to carpet my house in matching fiber.

[riri]

We had a half lab/half cocker for about ten years. She didn't shed. Well, nothing to cause a neat freak like myself any sort of anxiety.

After her passing, we got a black lab.

I can't believe the amount of hair that comes off this dog. I didn't know dogs did this. We've had her for about seven years now though so I have adjusted, sort of. (:

I am not sure I will ever own another dog again after this though. Not just because of the shedding but because I really like to travel and leave for long periods of time.

Anyhow, to the person who started this thread ---the crate. It works like a charm.

[Salamander]

If dogs lived outside they’d have normal shed periods.

Since they’re living inside with artificial light [i.e. artificial lengths of day and night] they’re pretty much gonna shed year ‘round unless you want to replicate the natural seasons by sitting in the dark at night so you reproduce ‘sunset/sunrise’ and the length of days appropriate to every season.

:)

[Apple Pan Dowdy]

"Their shedding is legendary isn’t it?"

My husband ties his famous "Huck Finn" fly made with the under fur of our old Chocolate Lab. We saved a life-time supple of it when Huck passed on. GREAT trout fishing with the "Huck Finn" fly.

[berdie]

I really enjoyed this thread. It’s been years since I’ve had a puppy and I often miss it.

But I often forget what a handful they are so this thread served as a gentle reminder.

Guess I’ll stick with the grown dogs the Good Lord sends to me. :)

(But I do miss “puppy breath” and cuteness!)