I feel that the number one source of frustration, as far as my dogs are concerned, was housebreaking. When we got Thrall, I joined an amazing forum, www.bulldogsworld.com. In the beginning, I asked tons of questions, but probably one of the most pressing matters on my mind was, "how long will it take to house break my dog?" One of the many knowledgeable members said, "4 months- no accidents." It turned out that at 4 months old, Thrall suddenly "got it" and there were virtually no more accidents. I was very lucky, and didn't even know it, Raisin pooped in the house when no one was home until she was a year old. Everyone kept telling me that pugs are stubborn, and I felt like if Thrall could do it so could Raisin. I couldn't have been more wrong. I am going to diagram my house breaking techniques for you, as well as some points of debate that I've encountered along the way.

Suggested items to have on hand:

1. Puppy housebreaking pads, I buy whichever are the cheapest, however I have heard people say their dogs get attached to a particular brand, do whatever turns out best for you.

2. Dog crate of appropriate size. Your dog should be able to sit, stand, lie down, and turn around, but not have enough room to relieve themselves on one side and sleep on the other. I purchased a crate that has a special divider so you can adjust the size as the puppy grows.

3. Treats- special ones that are only given for going potty. (I included this item even though I DID NOT reward Thrall or Lady with potty treats. I did eventually use treats for Raisin.)

4. Accident cleaner with odor remover (enzyme cleaner). I recommend the Woolite brand carpet spray for pets. It has the Oxy symbol on the front, and is designed for pet odors, I found it removed even old stains and odors in our new house.

5. Bitter Apple Spray

6. lots of paper towels

7. Baby gate(s) or puppy pen

Starting out with a young puppy (if you have a grown dog, it is not necessary to take them out as often, but you might want to try it until you establish a routine.)

(note - I know many people train their dogs to use training pads exclusively, and do not take them out, when I refer to taking the dog out, for those people it means take them to their pad)

When Thrall came home he was peeing and pooping constantly. Please note that anyone who advertises a small puppy as housebroken, doing great on potty-training, or paper-trained, is lying. Young puppies lack the muscle control to be housebroken. If you bring a puppy home, be ready to start from scratch. There are multiple schools of thought on crating during the day while you are not home, with Thrall I felt that he would get stiff in his crate all day, only to come out for a few hours when I got home, and then go back in to go to bed. I partitioned off an area of my hallway with a baby gate (easier with hardwood floors or tile), and let him stay there. He had room to walk and play, and still had an area with a training pad to potty on. I put his food, water, and bed on one side, and pad on the other, so all fun things were in one area, and the rest of the space was only big enough for the pad, this left the pad as his only area to potty if he didn't want to lie in it, or have it in his food. Imagine in this pic that the pad is where i am standing to take the pic.

His food and water would be placed right next to the bed.

He quickly began using the pad to potty on, since he hated his own pee and poo, as most dogs (but not all, and I will discuss this later, do). A quick tip is to spray the pad, and all corners and gates with Bitter Apple spray, as puppies love to chew anything they can get their jowls on.

When we were home we found the hallway to provide a great place to put puppies when we needed a break. It's hard to cook and keep an eye out for impending accidents, and sometimes you just need a bit of time to yourself to read, watch your favorite show, or look up House Breaking online :-)

During the night, Thrall slept in his crate in our room. I am a light sleeper, and every time he started to shuffle around or whine, out we went to the yard. If you are a heavy sleeper, set your alarm for every hour, and take the puppy out, if he goes potty, praise him like he found the cure for cancer. To this day Thrall is so proud when he potties, he charges in looking for attention. Some people choose to give treats, with Thrall, praise was enough, but I ended up using treats for Raisin, every dog is different, if your dog does not noticeably respond to praise, add treats, I recommend using special treats for potty that they never get any other time. As your dog gets older, you can begin setting your alarm for longer spans. I have heard they can hold their business for an extra hour every week after 8 weeks old, but if after 1 week of every hour, you start going 2 hours and he has an accident in his crate, try 90 mins, if there are still accidents, go back to every hour, just remember each dog is different.

When you are at home with your puppy, follow a similar schedule, take him out at least every hour in the beginning, and go from there. You will begin to recognize the body language of a puppy that is about to go, they usually sniff around, and both of mine turn in circles. If you see signs of looking to potty, take him out, even if you were just out.

Feeding

Feeding is an important aspect of house breaking, after all, what goes in must come out. I free feed my dogs (meaning food is available in their bowl at all times), my vet says this is the best way to go, but you are by no means a bad owner if you are not able to do this. Many older dogs will become obese if you try to begin them on free feeding. Free feeding has prevented any kind of food aggression in my dogs, as why fight over something that's always there. They share a bowl with no issues, making travel easier. Free feeding does present a number of added challenges with house breaking though. If it goes in at irregular times you never know when it will come out. So in the beginning, I took all food and water away at 9pm, this helped all of us sleep through the night. I also have a dog door, so my dogs have access to the yard at all times during the day. Like I said this will not work for everyone, if you have no yard, or dog door, put your puppy on a schedule, it will make your life easier, if it goes in at scheduled times, it will come out at corresponding times. I found that over time my dogs developed a schedule even though I free feed, but as puppies, it came out all the time lol.

Cleaning

If your puppy messes in the house, make sure you clean it thoroughly with an enzyme cleaner. I chose Woolite's spot carpet cleaner for pets. If you leave traces of the scent in the carpet, the puppy will associate that area with being a place to go. The concept behind training pads is that they are scented like urine to encourage the puppy to want to go on them. If your carpet smells like pee, it become a large pad, so make sure you get the smell out. When the puppy is caught in the act of going in the house, scold it strongly, and immediately take it to where it is supposed to go. If it finishes there, praise it as described earlier, if it does not, do not punish it, just take it back in and wait for the next round, you probably won't have to wait long.

***TIP: White Vinegar is an excellent odor eliminator, it's super cheap, and even works on cat pee. Use a cleaner as mentioned above for the mess, and then spritz some white vinegar diluted 75% with water to make sure the smell is gone. Works great, and doesn't stain.

Praise vs. Punishment

This is a very important topic, if you want to house break your puppy, it is imperative you focus on praise instead of punishment. Rewarding a dog for a job well-done is so much more important than punishing a dog for bad behavior. Many people think that sticking your dog's face in 2 hour old feces will help them learn to go outside. The truth is, after the deed is done (the potty), the dog has forgotten what it did. If you punish it, it has no idea why you are angry. Some dogs respond to punishment by trying to hide their accidents, going behind furniture etc, there's no incentive for going outside. If the puppy is rewarded for going outside, it will want to repeat the action.

If your dog potties inside, and you do not catch him in the act, clean it up discreetly and move on, the deed is done, there's nothing you can do about it now. If you catch him going inside, that is the ideal time to scold him (verbally) and take him out. If you DO NOT catch him in the act, even if it is 5 minutes later, it is too late. When he does his business outside, he gets praise, treat him like royalty, make sure he knows what a good, special boy he is. Praise is your #1 tool for house breaking, I cannot stress this enough. 

A note on using treats: Sometimes dogs catch on to the idea that going potty means a treat is coming, and they will pretend to go. They may bug you to go out every 10 minutes, and then squeeze out a drop and expect a treat. That is why I favor praise over treats as a reward.

Crate Training
The idea behind a crate is that most dogs detest their own feces. Given a choice most dogs will hold it in for as long as they can rather than cover themselves in filth. This does not give you a free pass to lock the dog up until you are ready to take him out, there are limits to how long a dog can keep it in. A puppy will not be able to hold it all night, no matter how much they hate their waste, so you have to be responsible, and remember to take them out regularly. Locking a puppy up and forcing them to lie in their waste will desensitize them from the situation, and they will stop trying to hold it, they may also begin to associate their crate with a place to go potty. Thrall loves his crate, and we call it his bed, he loves his bed, and he sleeps in it all the time with the door open, as an adult, the only time he is crated is at night, because he loves to jump on the bed and eat my hair while I sleep. If you tell him to go to his bed, he goes without question because he loves it, he feels safe and protected in it. As a puppy, I used the hallway to contain him while I was at work, there is NO POSSIBLE WAY for an 8 week old puppy to hold it in for 9 hours every day while you are at work. If there is no where in your home to contain your puppy (kitchen, bathroom, hallway, etc) invest in a a puppy pen (an adjustable metal enclosure) or a super large crate, just provide enough room for the puppy to potty without soiling himself. Provide a training pad, and tape it down (before I started taping mine down, Thrall dragged the dirty pad all over eww). In older dogs, the crate is an excellent tool to use when a dog can hold it, but refuses to (have your dog checked by a vet to make sure the accidents are behavioral and not the result of illness). I will get into the use of a crate with adult dogs and difficult situations in future sections, so keep reading.

Difficult Situations

I am well aware of the fact that not all dogs will conform to the norm. If your dog is stubborn, don't give up, with patience and persistence, any dog can be house broken.

My pug, Raisin, was a tough case. My good friend has 3 pugs, and she warned me that pugs are not the walk in the park that Thrall was. I just assumed that she had stubborn dogs, or did something wrong, boy was I in for a surprise!

This is a touchy subject, and I write this with no intention of offending anyone, pet shop puppies. If you purchased your puppy from a pet store, you may face numerous challenges stemming from the kennel conditions of the store. I am only addressing the effects of pet store kennel practices on house breaking. There are many other concerns that can be voiced about a pet store purchase, but all I will say is that if your puppy came from a pet store, take the safe route, and bring it to a vet right away (an independent vet, NOT the store's vet). Moving on, the husbandry in a pet store is often carried out by teenage employees, and anyone with teenage children knows that they are prone to cut corners. These dogs, in general, are not walked, they urinate and defecate in their cage, and the droppings are meant to drop into a container through a grate underneath them. Often, the feces do not make it through the grate, and the animal is joined in its enclosure by its own poo. Also, the employees often clean these trays at most 2 times a day, and often do not clean the grate itself, which will cake with feces. Not all stores are like this, but many are, even if they weave a wonderful tale about walking all the dogs 8 times a day. The troubles that come from pet store husbandry can be overcome, it is often just more challenging and time-consuming. There are no guarantees that a home-bred puppy will be easy to train, Raisin is a prime example, but statistically you should have an easier time. Once the dog is accustomed to lying in its own waste, they will not feel the need to hold it while in their crate. This can be overcome with time and patience, as diagrammed below in my experiences with Raisin.

For whatever reason, Raisin never felt aversion to her feces and urine. In the hallway, she pooped wherever she was standing when she felt the need, her bed, food dish, etc, so I took away the bed, and raised the food and water bowls. as she got older, she began to realize that when we were home she got in trouble for going in the house, and went outside without fail at about 5 or 6 months old. But she still pottied at her leisure when we were at work, I tried leaving her out of the hallway so she could use the dog door, but she would poop right in front of it, in the house. It got to the point where I would find 7 or 8 piles of poop (small piles) scattered all over. I asked the vet what to do, and he said crate her while you're gone, that only helped me not having to clean poop off the floor, but I still had to clean poop off of Raisin! I came home one day and let her out, and I swear she had a Phantom of the Opera mask made out of feces. What crazy dog would choose to lie face down in her own poo? I talked to everyone for suggestions. How do you train a dog that knows what to do, and knows that you are not there to witness it? She only did it while we were out. Then my friend with the pugs suggested treats, I am very against treat training, as the dog will learn to only respond if you offer a treat, but I was desperate. Here is the outline of my method and eventual success:

1. I bought special, potty-only treats, and rewarded her for going potty outside (I continued to verbally praise her)

2. When she pooped in the house she spent 2 days in the crate while we were at work. It started with short trips out, we would leave her out to run to the store, and then she got no hello or praise when we got home until we checked her usual spots for poop. Once the check was done, if there was no poo, she got high praise, and we kept repeating "Good girl, no poopies!" If there was poo, I would clean it up, all the while pushing her away (I hadn't greeted her yet) all time saying "Bad poopies!" as I pushed her away. then when it was cleaned up, I sat on the couch and greeted her. So she would hopefully make the connection of no fun if there were poopies anywhere (who knows if she made the connection or not, but it seemed to work). If she didn't make poopies, she got to be free in the house while we were at work the next day, if there were poopies, crate for 2 days. Every time I left the house I repeated these steps, and eventually she got it. Just as she turned one year old she stopped pooping in the house. Persistence is the key, it can be done!

3. In her crate at night, I often heard her shuffling around (a sign she had just pooped and was trying to cover it up). I started putting a pad in there to soak up the pee - note that I did not put a pad in there until she was grown enough to hold it, about 6 months old, and had continued to poop and pee in there. Putting a pad in the crate of a dog without a behavioral problem will more than likely cause such a problem to develop, as they will associate the crate as a place to go, (we had already been referring to the crate as the "shit cave" for many months, and it just helped me not have to clean as much filth off of her). If I heard the shuffling, I took her out, told her no poopies, and locked her outside until I had cleaned it up. On the rare occasions that there was no poop, I praised her, took her out, gave her a treat and we both went back to bed. eventually she caught on, and decided getting a treat was better than being locked outside for 10 minutes. By the way, I knew she was not pottying outside because she would cry at the door the whole time, if she quieted down, I would go out and watch for potty, so I could praise her if she went.

As a side note, you have no idea how much you will learn to appreciate not having to wash poop off of your dog 3 times a day every day, I used to take the long way home so my husband got there first and took care of it lol.

I hope this guide helps you out, I firmly believe that no matter how bad your dog's behavior is, with time and patience any obstacle can be overcome.

Good Luck!

-Jami