Dog House Training

Dog House Training

You spent half a dozen books on dog house training, enrolled your dog in obedience school, spent a fortune on dog biscuits --- and still, your dog refuses to follow your commands. Add to that, the dog still pees on your couch. Is your dog trying to wear your patience out?

No. Your dog didn't just wake up one morning and decided to make your life miserable. There is no such thing. It is just that complex commands are not something dogs are capable of responding to. Ultimately, dogs respond to straightforward emotions such as fear, sadness or happiness.

Through time, dogs are able to connect certain emotions to certain events. If an act is repeated, they can only draw an emotion from it. Suffice to say, not because you hit your dog for peeing on the carpet, it would retaliate and bite you. Instead, it could only express an emotion, such as, probably fear, when you hit it.

So say you have made a house training rule that your dog should only pee on the newspapers you set up by the door. But one time, you forgot and left newspapers on the living room floor. The next scene, you see your dog peeing on these newspapers. Now scolding or hitting your dog from doing so would confuse the house training you have already began. Your dog already has associated newspapers as the peeing area.

Remember not to punish your dog when he makes this mistake as fear may cause it to stop learning your rules. Instead, take care in formulating your commands and maybe next time; take care of leaving the newspapers in the designated area only.

So what do you do if your dog pees on your furniture? One thing is for sure --- do not throw a fit. Do not show that you are upset. Quickly take your dog outside or in another area and clean up the mess. In order that your dog does not repeat the incident, remove the smell completely. For dogs, their pee marks the area where they can repeat the act again and again. Vinegar is a good choice for removing the smell. Stay away from ammonia-smelling disinfectants since it mimics that smell of dog urine.

If after all these efforts and your dog still strikes your ire you might want to bring your dog to the veterinarian. Studies show that certain illnesses may affect your dog's response in house training.

Certain conditions can cause your dog to urinate or poop uncontrollably and therefore cannot meet your demands in dog house training.

Visit Basic Dog Training Advice for more information on house training a dog. The website contains valuable information on dog training and other related services.

To signup for Dog Obedience 7-part email course please visit http://www.basicdogtrainingadvice.com