House Breaking: Proper "punishment"
Olive, our sweet 6mth old Gremlin, is (to our knowledge) fully crate trained and house broken if we're home. We've been trying to leave her out at increasing intervals when we go places... such as an hour long walk, an outing to the store, etc etc. We came home one day after leaving her alone in the house after 3hrs and she'd chewed a bit of the linoleum up from the foyer. Not much, and she'd moved the area rug to get to it. We shook the pennies at her and told her bad, but nothing else. She was funny... we came in and she took us right to what she did. So proud, silly girl! Well, I get home after golfing yesterday (5hrs), and she'd torn up a heck of a lot more linoleum than she did the previous time! I was pretty angry, and she was again pretty proud! I told her to go to her crate, which she did, so I could clean up a little and calm down. I brought her and she went up to the foyer area, and I got after her pretty good with the pennies. But, I'm not sure if this is the correct course of action? She didn't mess anywhere, didn't chew anything else up or anything else destructive. I'm sure it's... anxiety, for lack of a better understanding or word. What Jess and I want to know is, how do we properly admonish her for such unacceptable behavior? We know you're not supposed to punish them if you don't catch them messing when you're potty training them, so how do we properly house break? Thanks for the help and input!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Carla on
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I think the same thought process applies to a destructive pup as one that went to the bathroom in the house - if you don't catch them in the act, they have no idea what your correcting them for.
Honestly, your best bet would probably be avoidance. She's now learned how much fun it is to chew on your linoleum, and was able to get away with it for quite sometime it sounds like. To me, 6 months seems quite early to leave a dog with that much space home alone for 3 hours (she's probably teething right now, and starting to go through adolescence, when a ton of bad behaviours can start up).
My pup is currently 10 months old, and she's crated when neither my husband nor myself are home or are unable to keep an eye on her. She probably won't get access to even a room of the house to herself until she's 14-16 months old (just yesterday she was caught chewing on a wooden door frame when I was home! ARG!!)
But again, unless you catch her in the act, she's not gonig to associate the punishment with whatever she's done wrong.
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Permalink Reply by Wally, Jessica, and Olive on
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Not teething anymore! And the chewing is odd because other than her toys, she's never been a destructive chewer. We've only caught her a handful of times at home... 4 or 5 to be honest.
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At such a young age, they just sort of put their mouths on things. Not because they're "good" or "bad" or even "destructive chewers," but just because they do. I think the thought process is literally "hey, what's this? I should try putting my mouth on it." And if your not there to correct them, and they decide that it's fun/tastes good/relieves boredom, then they'll just keep doing it. It's just something else to chew, there's no difference between the linoleum and the toys in their mind.
Casey has put her mouth on pretty much everything in our house at least once, but because I watched her like a hawk for the first several months, every time she so much as looked at something like she was going to chew on it, I corrected/redirected her. She's still not trustworthy though, and I wouldn't even think about leaving her alone for more than a few minutes, let alone a few hours.
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Permalink Reply by Beth on
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Think of it this way: at 6 months old, she is the equivalent of about a 10-year-old child in terms of physical maturity (not reasoning ability). I'm guessing you would not be attempting to leave a ten-year-old home for short periods when no one was there to watch, right?
She is way too young to be unsupervised. At 6 months, I would still lock mine up if I was going upstairs to get a load of laundry. At about 1 year you can start doing short trial runs of leaving her loose; give her a peanut butter kong or other long-lasting treat and leave her for only as long as it will take her to eat the treat. Come home, make no fuss, go about your business. If all goes well, then you can start leaving her for a half hour, then an hour. If all continues to go well, you can start leaving her for a few hours and eventually work up to a typical work day.
But now she is way to young. You should never scold a puppy unless you catch her in the act. She has no idea why you are upset, and may come to associate your coming home with your being angry and that can lead to all sorts of anxiety-caused problems down the road.
Count this as a learning experience (for you, not the dog!). Don't worry, we all make mistakes, but if she gets into something when no one was there to watch, just take a deep breath and remind yourself the fault lies with the lack of supervision, not with the dog. She's still just a baby.
She's a very cute girl! Good luck with her.
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Yea, figured she was. bored. Just weird... I guess we expect too much of our smart girl! She naps or chews a toy when bored when we're home. Oh well..!
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Permalink Reply by Bev Levy on
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Most of the time when you want to punish a pup (or a baby) you really should be punishing yourself. By the way she really is still teething on and off. Sometimes our corgis are so smart we forget their limitations. She is still essentially too much of a baby to understand unless you catch her in the act. Even then she may have trouble controlling her impulses. I have always crated at least for the first year. After that it is a matter of finding a safe space when you are not around. She will outgrow all theses stages eventually but your patience will be tested!
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I was definitely upset w/myself, I knew she was out for too long... she's so smart, as soon as we get a treat out for her she sits, lies down, rolls over and then starts pawing at the air. We laugh at her and get her to high five!
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