Overview

The main purpose of micturition and defecation for the young puppy is to rid the body of wastes. While this is also true for adult dogs, elimination behavior can serve a number of additional functions, including communicating information about sexual status, individual identity, and territory. It may also occur in a variety of situations as a component of submissive responses, fear, separation anxiety, and excitement.

At about 3 weeks of age, most puppies begin eliminating away from the nesting area on their own. By 5 weeks of age, locations and substrates for elimination are chosen and by 9 weeks these become more specific. Most housetraining strategies involve taking advantage of the dog’s innate proclivity to avoid eliminating in its den area and combining this inclination with operant and classical conditioning. The main techniques involve rewarding and shaping desired behavior, scheduling the dog’s feeding and activities to establish a regular elimination schedule, and managing the pet’s environment in order to prevent elimination in undesirable areas. With patience and consistency, most owners are able to train their dogs to eliminate outdoors and to cease eliminating indoors within a few months.

This tendency to keep the “den” area clean of wastes can be overcome by a number of factors. For instance, a dog that is confined for long periods will soil its living areas if not given the opportunity to relieve itself in a more appropriate area. Dogs that learn to eliminate in their crate (e.g., pet store, puppy mills) before they are adopted may be refractory to having this behavior altered. Also, medical problems such as diabetes insipidus and renal disease may reduce the dog’s ability to control elimination for entirely physiological reasons.

As environments and lifestyles change, some owners, such as those with small dogs living in high-rise urban dwellings, may prefer to train their pets to an indoor elimination site (i.e., doggy litter, “potty pad”). Training to eliminate outdoors can be achieved within a few months for most pets. Teaching the pet to eliminate indoors but only in specific locations can be a more difficult task.

The importance of preventive counseling

Between 5 and 10% of canine cases at behavior specialty practices are presented due to housesoiling¹; in addition, housesoiling is a major risk factor for canine relinquishment.^2–4 In an extensive internet-based survey of owners of 630 dogs, almost 30% of those dogs were reported to soil at least occasionally, and 55% of dogs being relinquished were reported to soil.⁵ Behavioral wellness should be a part of every visit, with particular emphasis on preventive counseling during the initial few visits for new dog owners. One study showed that dogs with inappropriate elimination had a seven times lower risk of relinquishment if they had two veterinary visits in a year compared to less than once a year; however, only 25% of dog owners report receiving veterinary behavioral advice.⁶ Veterinarians must not assume that owners have knowledge of normal canine behavior or an understanding of basic training principles such as housetraining. A study of dog owners who were relinquishing their pets showed that almost 50% believed that rubbing a dog’s nose in a mess when it soiled was helpful or were unsure if this was appropriate.⁷

Preadoption counseling can also be beneficial in the prevention of elimination behavior problems. An important ally in this regard is the adoption service or breeder. Although housesoiling was the primary problem reported in 35% of dogs 1 week following adoption, most dogs were housetrained within 1 month.⁸ However, significantly more of the owners that had preadoption counseling considered their dogs housetrained (86.4–98.1%), and owners who received counseling used less verbal punishment and were more likely to clean soiled areas with enzymatic cleaners.⁹ Therefore, education from the time of adoption through the first few veterinary visits can prevent and resolve most housesoiling problems effectively and humanely.

Teach the desired behavior

The first step is to teach the pet where it is acceptable to eliminate. To accomplish this, the owner must regularly accompany the pet to the chosen elimination area to ensure that the pet relieves itself and gets a timely reward.

Choose a substrate and location that are easily accessible for the puppy and desirable for the owners. Training should begin with a schedule of taking the pet to the elimination area every hour when it is awake and a family member is available. The dog should be praised lavishly and given a small treat as soon as it eliminates in the appropriate place. The owner should not wait until the pet is back indoors to give the reward since this actually reinforces returning to the home, not elimination. If the puppy wants to play, this can also be used as a reward immediately following elimination. If the puppy does not eliminate within 5–10 minutes, return indoors, monitor closely, and return outdoors frequently until successful. Within a few days, the family should be able to predict the interval at which the puppy needs to eliminate and should be taking the puppy out sufficiently often to meet this need. In addition, the family should take the dog to its elimination area shortly after eating, drinking, playing, upon waking from a nap, and just prior to confinement. Returning to the same area allows some residual odor to accumulate and should increase the likelihood that the pet will use the location. By using a verbal cue (e.g., “Go pee”) just as the elimination begins and rewarding immediately following each elimination, many dogs can learn the concept of eliminating on command. Dogs can be taught to eliminate on an indoor surface, such as newspaper, a “potty pad,” or a dog litterbox by using the same methods mentioned above.

Confinement/supervision to prevent inappropriate elimination

The next important consideration is to prevent elimination in undesirable areas by providing close supervision or confinement until the dog is fully trained to eliminate in its appropriate area and no longer eliminates in inappropriate areas. This may take anywhere from several weeks to many months depending on the age of the dog, the duration of soiling in the home, the consistency of family members, and how often the pet is allowed to sneak away and eliminate in the home. In general, a dog should not be considered housetrained until it has gone for at least 4–8 consecutive weeks without soiling the home. Adult dogs that have been housesoiling for many years may take 6 months or more before they are dependably trained. Until this has been accomplished, the pet should be within eyesight of a family member 100% of the time. When it cannot be watched, it should be confined. Leaving a long leash attached as a drag line, or even attaching the leash to the owner’s belt loop, provides an effective means of keeping the puppy in sight, and gently and effectively interrupting indoor elimination without the need for verbal reprimands. When leaving a leash attached, the puppy must be constantly supervised and the leash should not be left attached to a collar that might choke when tightened. With constant observation and supervision, the family should soon be able to recognize signs that the puppy is about to eliminate (i.e., pre-elimination signs such as sniffing, squatting, circling, sneaking away), get the puppy’s attention before elimination begins, and direct it to the appropriate location where it can be rewarded for eliminating.

A wire or plastic crate provides a safe confinement area where the pet can be placed at times that it cannot be observed. It should not be used for longer than about 5 hours on a daily basis. If the pet is alone for longer periods, it should be confined in an area that is about 1.5 × 1.5 meters (roughly 5 × 5 feet). Adult pets sometimes have difficulty adapting to a confinement area, especially if never previously used. These dogs should be introduced to confinement very gradually. Feeding in the crate, tossing toys in the crate, and hiding treats for them to find in the crate should all help the pet adjust to confinement. Another option is to use a pen or small room such as a kitchen, bathroom, or laundry room to give the dog more space and more room to play with its toys. If the pet eliminates in inappropriate areas while the owner sleeps, but vocalizes excessively when crated at night, the owner might try placing the crate in the bedroom. Some dogs might even be allowed to have freedom in the bedroom during the night as long as the bedroom door is closed, and may learn to scratch at the door or vocalize at night when they need to eliminate.

Owners who must leave their dogs for periods longer than those during which they can control elimination should consider a dog walker. If this can’t be done, then the dog can be confined to an area such as a room, pen, or indoor run. The dog’s crate can be placed inside the room or pen. For short-term departures it can be confined to its crate, and for long departures the crate door could be left open. The floor should be covered with paper except for the area that contains the crate, toys, water, and bedding. The papered area can be made smaller as the dog begins to use a specific location, and then finally removed. Dogs that are paper-trained may generalize to other paper products in the home when they are available. Owners that prefer to have a permanent indoor elimination area should put the litterbox or potty pad inside the confinement area so that the dog has constant access to it when confined. However, they must be sure that access is still available when the dog is released from the confinement area.

Another consideration is to provide a doggie door so that the pet has access to a fenced yard when the owner is not home. For dogs that soil indoors even when a doggie door is available, the owner should build a small confinement pen around the inside door flap that is just large enough for the pet to rest. Most dogs will then use the door to go outside in order to avoid soiling the small indoor area.

See Chapter 4 for environmental enrichment tips for the confined pet. See Box 4.11, client handout #5, printable version available online, for details.

Transition

If there has been no inappropriate elimination for at least 4 weeks (longer for adult dogs), the family may begin to decrease the amount of supervision and confinement gradually. The family must determine their dog’s limit for how long it can retain urine and stool so that they always ensure the pet is taken to its elimination site well before this limit is reached.