The Where, When, and How.
Two very powerful tools of house training (and all training honestly) is mastering Routine and Habit.
Habits are WHAT we do and HOW we do the thing.
Routines are WHEN we do the thing.
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When we bring home a new puppy, we are immediately faced with a habit battle.
Our old habits don’t include a puppy! We have old habits and routines that will not house train our puppy for us.
But our new puppy requires we do lots of “new” behaviors that are not yet habits. Our Brain KNOWS we need to take the puppy out frequently, but our old habit brain has not yet learned that we need to, every 30 minutes, get up, leash up our puppy, and go outside and stand there hoping the puppy voids.
Our Old Habit brain says “keep working on that presentation” (or keep watching that show, keep cooking that food, keep folding that laundry)
And since there is no NEW habit speaking to us, next thing you know it’s an hour later and the puppy has peed three times and pooped, all inside.
Old habit brain is not your friend when you are raising a new puppy! To make new habits and routines make abundant use of all manner of reminders, from your phone, watch, and even a good old fashion kitchen timer.
Our puppy also comes to us with baby habits it’s learned in the first few weeks of it’s life before it came to our home, these are more plastic than our habits, because our puppy is so young, but they are STILL habits!
Let’s think about the habits that our puppy needs to develop in order to become a house trained adult dog. From the moment we bring our puppy home, we are creating new habits, let’s make sure those are desirable habits!
House Training Habits and Routines.
Habit: A mode of behavior that has become nearly, or completely, involuntary. An unconscious pattern of behavior acquired through frequent repetitions.
Where do I potty? Outside, litter box, on grass, on gravel etc.
When do I potty? Frequently: After waking up, after running around or playing a few minutes, after eating, after sniffing, when I feel the urge, when I’m nervous, when I don’t feel well.
How do I tell humans I need to potty?
Each of these represents learning that is required for successful house training.
Habits (ours and our puppy’s) are the infrastructure that allows this learning to occur, and further to become reliable.
We are going to break down each of these three into easy to follow steps, for you, and your puppy.
Creating new habits is actually easier than it sounds.
1. Make a schedule,post it where everyone can see it, and help each other remember to check it.
2. Assign a Responsible Party, to watch the puppy for a certain span of time.
3. Very frequently take your puppy, via the same route, to it’s potty spot.
4. Teach your puppy how to TELL someone it needs to go outside, once this last lesson is learned, your puppy won’t need to be taken out on a schedule, because they will know how to communicate this need.
📌Where to go.
📌When to go.
📌Who to ask.
This is creating a habit loop for your puppy, it’s fast, it’s effective, and it can last a lifetime.