So as any former or current puppy owner might expect, we’ve spent the last four days trying to figure out how to teach our new puppy not to pee in the house. Heck, we’ve got those special puppy pads, so we’d even be happy with on the pads, not on the carpet, but after the short-lived novelty of actually using them for their intended purpose wore off, now all she wants to do is tear the things to pieces.
One approach that we had been trying despite it failing miserably was that for about a day and a half, if she peed inside, she had to spend five minutes outside on our patio … alone. She DID NOT like this, and so as a result, it basically led to her yelping and crying at the door like she was being murdered for the entire duration of each five minute period.
Not fun for any of us involved, or probably our neighbors either, for that matter!
Thankfully, Sara was doing some research this evening and discovered that in no uncertain terms, that’s a horrible way to teach a dog how to do anything! All the “punishment” was doing was upsetting her (and us), and in fact, we noted that since invoking this inane punishment, she had actually started peeing in the house more, in addition to being more clingy to Sara as well. Instead, ironically she read that our first attempt had actually been the correct one – to reward her and praise her when she goes outside, and to do our best not to cause a ruckus when she doesn’t.
Apparently you can’t scare a dog into not peeing on your carpet, but rewarding it with yummy treats when it pees in the preferred area – that’s the ticket.
At least, we’ll see. I feel like we’ve already gone through nearly half the bottle of carpet sanitizer already! Probably shouldn’t count on ever seeing that pet deposit that we just put down ever again…
