Dog Training

To make sure that a puppy stays clean, it is easiest to make use of two of his basic impulses : (1) he does not foul his own den. (2) he will readily foul a place that he has fouled before. In the pack, as soon as a puppy can walk it will leave the den where it was born, of its own accord to evacuate its urine and faeces. It prefers to do this where it can smell the odour of previous urine and faeces. 

If the puppy lives outdoors in a run with its basket, the problem is simple. One the puppy itself will choose where it will defecate and urinate. Put some earth plant some grass in part of the run; the puppy will soon choose this area as its ‘lavatory’. If the puppy is to live in a town flat, a little special attention in the first few days should do the trick. Use the moment when it has just finished eating and will feel like relieving itself. Take it straight away in your arms out into the garden or onto the terrace or balcony or into the bathroom or wherever you have placed a good-sized box filled with earth and old leaves-the ‘toilet’ in other words. When the puppy has relieved himself, lavish praise on it. Take it in to the living-room for a while, play with it, and then put it down to sleep in its basket. Take it to the ‘toilet’ every couple of hours or so. In three or four days as soon as you let it off the chain or leash, it will run straight to its toilet, and then come and play with you . in about 10 days, with a little discreet supervision. You will be the proud owner of a thoroughly house-trained puppy. This is an excellent method for very young dogs. Take a box the right size for the puppy. Cover the bottom with a piece of turf that should have root-the best type is the kind used for garden lawns. Place the box right by the basket after mealtimes and when the puppy wakes up. It is better still if the piece of turf smells, a little of the puppy’s previous urine and faeces.

The dog will feel at home in this type of ‘toilet’ which should be moved gradually further away from the basket each day-a few centimeters at a time. This is a reliable method even for those rare cases when a puppy that is upset for some reason or there has a tendency to foul its own basket. As time passes and the puppy grows bigger, the toilet box should be changed for a larger one and gradually moved right outside to the terrace or balcony, if there is one. For anyone who has a small spare room or a box room or other area in their flat in which to put the basket. Cover the whole floor of the room with newspapers spread out flat. The puppy will have to relieve itself in one or more places whose there is newspaper; as soon as it has finished, remove the dirty paper and replace it will clean. Every morning remove a newspaper near the basket and leave the floor there uncovered. The puppy will not foul the visible area of floor ( which should be disinfected), but will choose a place covered with newspaper with a preference for place where there is still some scent of its previous urine. If you remove a newspaper every day deodorize the area of uncovered floor, and make the increasingly small area covered with papers well-scented, the puppy will relieve itself only where you have left the newspapers. 

In the first few days after the puppy has arrived letting it foul the house or flat wherever it likes, then changing your tune, smacking the ‘dirty little beast’, rubbing its nose in its urine and faeces, spanking it and then bawshing it to the balcony to cry. The puppy does not understand why on earth it has been hit for having relieved its bladder as nature intended; it does not understand why it should be shut away from the owners to whom it wants to show affection and from whom it wants help and protection; and it will end up thinking that there is some association between its bodily need and being hit. This will give rise to confusion and a lack of understanding that will have an adverse effect on training and on the future relationship between owner and dog. As well as doing harm in this way the nose-rubbing method may encourage a nasty tendency in the puppy to eat faeces. 

However, if you steer well clear of this method you will soon be the owner of a thoroughly clean and house-trained pup. Dogs ‘think’ with their noses, but a dog that lives from its puppy days in a human household-where people ‘think’ with their eyes will end up by making les use of its sense of smell then if it were a member of a pack. Where all the other members use their sense of smell all the time. So it is a good idea if the young dog soon becomes accustomed to trusting in its own nose. The modern method involves getting the puppy to find its own meal bowl, using a trail that should be made as difficult as possible. When the puppy has had ten days or so to get used to the house or flat, its basket, its bowl left by the basket, you can hide the bowl, without warning, a few feet from where the puppy usually expects to find it. Lay a trail of small scraps of food or drops of water to the new place. The puppy will put its nose down and soon find the place where its food is hidden. 

On the following days, gradually make the trail more and more complicated and less obvious. As the puppy is about to start following the trail, give it the command ‘Fetch’ in an encouraging tone of voice. A puppy nine to twelve weeks old can follow accurately a trail of 54 m (60yd) or so over varied terrain ( earth, grass, cement etc.,) with two corners, and find its meal at the end. The trail could change direction every day and became more difficult but the puppy still should manage to follow it, wagging its tail not putting a foot wrong and enjoying itself immensely. It is wrong to think that a pointer or setter should never put its nose to the ground because if it does it will lose its skills as a pointer. 

This is one of the many hunting superstitions. A good pointer should use its sense of smell from the word go gaining confidence in it and improving it. German hunters, who have a fine tradition of training teach their dogs to point nose in the air, or to fetch nose in the air, depending on the situation. The way to achieve this is explained below. Puppies that will eventually become pointers will benefit a lot from learning the meaning of the order ‘Fetch!’. Any dog trained by you as a puppy will be as it were moulted by your affection and your guidance. As time passes it will understand every move you make and at a glance it will carry out whatever command it is given. At the end of the 90 day first programme there will already be a state of mutual understanding between teacher and pupil, and the solid foundations of a firm future partnership will have been laid. 

The trainers hand must always be used to stroke the puppy : never to punish or threaten or hit it. A puppy ( and dog for that matter) must regard your hand as a source of pleasure-nothing else. When it sees your hand stretched towards it, it must head for it of its own accord. When it has been scolded for some reason. It must be fond of your hand. Seek it out, sniff at it and rub its muzzle against it. Confidence and trust in your hand will be of very great importance and a major factor in success. 


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