Poop-Free Day!

My puppy/mutt Jackson is an 8 month old Shepherd-Mix that came to us from John Ancrum Animal Shelter. He is an adorable and affectionate pup who is very playful and great with the kids (my 2 year old son was just smacking him in the head with a toy and he didn't even flinch). He has had a major problem though, we have not been able to successfully house break him yet. He developed a fear of pooping in front of people so he would only poop outside if he got out alone (thanks to a certain 2 year old boy). If you took him out on the leash he was too scared to go while you were standing there. He pooped so much in the house that it really became frustrating to deal with. How many times can you steam-clean a rug before it falls apart?

Yesterday I was in Mt. Pleasant dropping off a package and there was a mom-and-pop pet store called "Pet Emporium" next door to the UPS store. I was interested in finding a solution to the brown spots on my backyard lawn from the dogs peeing back there, when I was introduced to the owner - a complete dog expert. I started to tell him my woes and he had some great advice for me:

1) Never let the dog lead you out of the house - you need to go out of the door first and then give them the OK to follow you. The reasoning for this is that when the dog goes out first, it thinks that it is in charge. Because of a dog's pack mentality, they must always have a pack leader. Unless you impose your leadership on them, they will try and take the lead. Basically, little gestures such as going out the door first and then granting them permission to follow you go a long way in establishing the respect you demand from them.

2) If a dog has an accident inside the house, do not react at all. Just clean it up and keep note of when he did it. Because dogs have an average attention span of 18 seconds, yelling at the dog will just confuse it (he most likely wont even remember that he made the poop in the first place). The only exception to this is if you catch them in the middle of the act, and even then you should not yell, just distract the dog with a change of tone in your voice so you can get him to stop and go outside and also let him know that inside the house is not the place for pooping. Yelling and hitting a dog has no positive effect, only negative. On the flip side, immediately after the dog poops outside give him over-the-top praise so he understands that that is what you want him to do.

3) Shepherds and Retrievers are working dogs, and need to fulfill their instinct to work for you. They need a lot of working exercise everyday to be happy. Just running around and playing will not suffice. A long brisk walk a couple of times a day will go a long way in training the dog and make him feel like he is working for you. Its also not bad for the human involved either. This activity will also address some common mental issues with retrievers such as over-anxiety. Keep the dog working and it will be much happier.

4) When walking the dog, always lead them and keep them on a short leash. 20 foot retractable leashes are a bad idea as the dog can easily take the lead and end up walking you. It gives them a lot of leverage and makes the situation dangerous to anyone in its path. I know this because my neighbor and my kids have all gotten rope burns from the dog taking off after a bug or leaf while on a retractable 20 foot leach. Moral of the story; if you lead the dogs as you walk them, their pack mentality will kick in and they will be much more inclined to listen to your commands and behave properly.

I have implemented these tips and I have to say I am impressed with this guy's knowledge. All of my research had led to crate-training as the only way to house break a dog effectively. I tried that with my Golden Retriever and he hated it. He broke the damn cage! Fortunately, he picked up the idea that pooping was an outdoor thing very quickly even without the crate-training. Jackson is very different in that he had such a fear of pooping in front of me that I was at my wit's end. I had a hunch that crate-training was not the answer for him because he is so used to having free access to the house that throwing him in a cage half the day would not be a good thing. The Pet Emporium proprietor backed up my theory saying that the best way to house break the dog was to follow the tips I listed above as well as keep him on a consistent schedule.

Like I said above, I learned all of this yesterday and I started applying it the minute I got home. Since then, the dogs have not had any accidents in the house at all. Today was the first day that Jackson went the whole day without a single in-home poop. This is really impressive to me because we spent a good portion of the day at the beach and the doggies were left home alone. I'm so happy I talked to that guy, and I'm so happy to know that my dogs are going to be even happier than they already are.