House Training? Do You Rub Its Nose In Or Not?
Filed under Care & Training Q&As
Hi I have a 14 week old westie pup that i have been trying to house train since 9 weeks old and have only got as far as peeing on training pads if im lucky, I was told NOT to rub its nose in its mess and say no (like how it was done years ago) because it makes the dog loose its faith in you! but im at the stage where I want to drop kick it out the door (i would never do it) Please help me!!!!
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Puppies DO want to learn, they don’t deliberately defy you, she just doesn’t understand what you want.
Housetrain a pup by being consistent. Take her outside everytime she wakes up, after she’s eaten and when she’s been playing. Don’t just put her outside, you need to go outside with her and stay with her until she has performed. As soon as she does perform, praise her to the skies. When she has a mistake indoors, put her in another room, clean up the mess, making sure you get rid of every trace of the smell (you may not be able to smell where she’s been, but she will be able to so use a biological cleaner.
Put her in her crate when you can’t keep an eye on her and as soon as you let her out, take her outside. If she sleeps in her crate, try to make 2 areas for her, one to sleep in and one to use as a toilet. Don’t expect her to be clean at night for a while yet.
It’s hard work for a few weeks but if you are consistent & vigilent, she’ll soon catch on.
Ive heard not to, its more about positive reinforcement. My father in law had his new puppy house trained within a week and a half.
He takes the puppy outside and says busy busy and she does her business, then she gets rewarded. After a few times she learnt the sounds, what she needed to do to get the reward.
no. rubbing his nose into the pee wouldn’t have any effect on him, he’ll just continue to use your floor as a toilet. enforce the fact that outside is the toilet by praising him when he goes outdoors and make it fun too. as for saying no, that is a good idea.. and crate him. when you aren’t there to be with him, crate him, he;ll learn to hold his bladder until you get him outside to play and pee. and make sure you clean up after a pee accident as soon as possible and make sure the smell of urine is gone as he will be attracted to its smell and urinate in the same area of your floor. good luck!
A pups main aim in life right now is to eat, sleep, play and get your attention. If you react to his “mess” in any way then he has in fact got your attention. The pup does not know that the words you speak at the time are negative ones, he just knows he has your attention. Hard as it is try to avoid any reaction to the mess, only react, in fact over react with praise when he/she does it in the right place. In other words ignore completely the behaviour you don’t want and reward big time the behaviour you do. I know it takes every ounce of patience but it does work.
doesn’t hurt at all to rub their nose in it (dogs put their nose in some nasty stuff, this is not going to hurt)…
but when you do it, immediatly take the dog outside .. have some key words that you only use for potty
if you don’t want to rub their nose in it, take the dog to the mess and put nose up to it (tell them no) and then send them outside and use the keywords – you must let them know that it was wrong
i have done it with all my dogs and there has never been any problems AND they all learned not to potty in my house
yes rub his nose in it then put him on the paper and tell him to do it there. if you dont tell him where to do it he wont know you need to show him. hope this helps
Crate training is the best and fastest way to house train your dog…please do not rub his nose in it…read this link and start crate training him.
i wouldnt rub its nose in it – what’s that going to achieve?? you need to keep a very close eye and try to work out when it needs the toilet. then, put him outside and when he’s done his business praise him up, give him a treat etc.
to train ours we put newspaper by the back door and she did it else where we’d tell her off and put her outside. keep on trying but dont rub his nose in it, pity.
well what you do is dont rub his nose hold it shut and show him him what he did……..then when he doesnt have an accident on the floor praise him and he will then learn what to do and what not 2 do….i did this with my dog and every time he had an accident i would hold his mouth shut and scold him while putting his nose 2 his peea….hes never peed in the house since!!!!!
That is disgusting & I would never do that to a pet.
Our Dog has had one accident since we got him and it happened in the middle of the night when we were sleeping. Once we let her back in we watched her close and when she went to sniff it, she dot disciplined, (NO, Bad Dog!!!) She never did it again. When we owned a different dog I watched him like a hawk and if I couldn’t I either kept him outside or in the bathroom where it is easier to clean up. One lady I babysat for got a doggy door and put the crate right at it, so the dogs options were to be in the crate inside or go outside, and the dog was able to train itself to go outside. It might be worth the money to invest in one if you work, and you can try craiglslist to get one used.
no no no dont even think of it it makes me want to cry just to think of the the poor dog going through it .we have a dog that will pee at night in the kitchen . so we got a large dog cage and put comfy bedding in and he is quite happy to go in there at night and never soils his own bedding
Do it in a positive way ie lots of praise, fuss and treats when he gets it right!
Close all the doors in the house and allow your dog into one room only ,watch him continuously and catch him when he does the toilet ,you can say a sharp no followed immediately by taking him outside or use a plastic bottle filled with dried beans and give a loud shake and no and put him straight outside..you will only need to do this a few times and the dog will learn it is not a nice experience doing its toilet indoors.
When you are sure it has got the message allow him into another room and repeat the process. but you must respond immediately otherwise the dog wont associate the no with the action.
absolutley not! that is bad training! you are NOT supposted to do that! this is because.. lets say you go to work, and leave your dog at home. it then goes to the bathroom on the floor. you get home 5 hours later and rub your dogs nose in its buisness. the dog wont remember that it did that! and it will be pointless. the only way to effectivley punish your dog is catch them in the act, them let em have it…….
Don’t rub it’s nose in the mess!!!
Dogs have very sensitive noses
No don’t. Train her with positive reinforcement. If she does something wrong ignore it. If she does something right pet her or give her a treat.
Reward not punishment , never punish for accidents but give plenty of reward for doing it right , it will be worth it in the end
I was told by my vet that if you rub its nose in the mess it will only continue to soil there as it can smell its scent and believes it to be the right spot to relieve itself. I tink you should probably get a dog trainer into help you as they can give you knowledgable advise and will have the problem sorted in no time. good luck!
Reason you are having problems is because you are using a crate…….this method just doesnt work, its like putting a dog in prison in solitary confinement.
Remove the crate, and go back to basics. Take her outside when she wakes up, after food and during play, wait with her until she does something even if it takes half an hour, praise her up and bring her back in the house and repeat. Do not rub a dogs nose in it, it is cruel and unnecessary.
It has never taken me more than two weeks to train a puppy to be dry day and night, I have never ever used a crate and I presently have three young dogs.
Are you serious?? You NEVER EVER rub their nose in it.. Crate train the dog.. Or find him a new home.. Sounds like you maybe don’t have enough patience for a puppy?
Some people think sticking a dog’s nose in it is a good idea. Personally I think if there’s a better way to communicate to a dog without being mean WHY NOT USE IT??
ADDED:
If you are taking the pup out (and going out with it) and it doesn’t relieve itself after a bit, bring it back in and take it back out in another 15 minutes, repeat until the deed is done. And no puppy or dog that isn’t reliabley house broke should have any sort of unsupervised freedom. So confine the pup in a room with you so you can catch the puppy in the act…you will find it goes a long way in getting the pup to understand. When you catch them a firm NO is all you need, then scoop the puppy up and out the door you both go and PRAISE like crazy when it’s gone in the proper place and bring it back inside. I think it helps a lot also if the puppy only goes out to potty at this point and no free play time outdoors. It just helps the pup know outdoors plays a very important role in it’s life other than just play. And never consider a dog reliable until it’s gone a whole month accident free. GL and don’t forget patience above all else.
Not only is it cruel, it doesn’t teach the dog how do do things right.
I tried to do it the way they NOW tell us, by not rubbing their nose in it. But i found it was taking forever and not getting anyway. In the end I did rub his nose in it and he stopped almost straight away. I never rubbed it in the poo, but put his nose near it and told him “No” then put him outside. Never had any mess in the house since. Good luck, stick to the old ways as it always seems to work!!
No, don’t rub the pup’s nose in her mess, it doesn’t speed up the training process it’ll just make her fearful and if she’s smart she’ll learn to hid and poop where you can’t see her. She’s only 3.1/2 months old, she’s a young pup and it’s unrealistic of you to expect her to be house trained. If you’re training with patience, praise, consistency and frequent potty breaks she will catch on. Does “it” have a name? Good luck.
Edit: Are you going out with her or just letting her out into the backyard? If you’re not you need to be out there with her, play with her awhile until she poops or pees.
No, don’t rub its nose in the mess. That will just make the dog terrified of you. Pottypads=housetraining nightmare. Skip the pottypads, buy a crate, and crate train.
ETA: Then keep a closer eye on her and take her outside as soon as she starts sniffing and circling. Potty training puppies isn’t easy.
ETA2: Google “cratetraining”. There is too much info to type it concisely into an answer here.
Do not rub its noise in it, it is very bad for them, you just need to be consistent never let it out of your sight and take it to the training pad every hour and just stick with it. When it does go on the pad give him or her a treat and praise her or him. They will catch on eventually. Also when it goes off the matt say no in a firm voice look him or her inn the eye when saying it then take them to the pad.
If you catch the dog squatting in the corner or the middle of the room for that matter, you can rub it’s nose in the mess, say NO in a firm loud voice and take it outside. Now, if you do not catch until the dog is done, even if only done for like 3 sec. you can’t rub their nose in it. They will think “what are you doing, I did not do this”. The dog will not remember and look at that as a punishment. At that point you take the dog outside and leave him out there until he goes, once he does go outside make sure to give him plenty of praise. Good luck with your puppy training.
I know my dad did that with my dog and he never had trust issues with us.
My cat was rescued from a family where she was abused by being kicked and then went to a family who didn’t treat her in the best ways either, and then to our family, and she now is the most loving trusting cat that I have ever known. I know its different because its a cat, but I think the point is if you keep giving your pets constant love, they will trust you even if you rub their nose in pee.
I even smack my dog (lightly) when he barks too much and he still trusts me. And when I was a kid i would do things that really annoy him like touch his nose a lot and he still trusts me.
Yea get ready for all these answers i asked a question similar to this and was accused of beating my dog! So just get ready for some back lash
Well my dad rubbed the dogs nose in its pee when it was a pup. it sure taught it a lesson and no the dog hasnt lost its faith in my dad. you just got to keep on loving it the way u do.