The Urine for Treats Program

Kenai: I think I could really get used to the urine for treats program
Me: Good boy, three liver treats!
Kenai: Time to test a hypothesis
Me: Again?! did you not just go three minutes ago?
Kenai: I drank a lot of water
Me: Fine, Good Boy; here is your treat
*30 seconds later*
Kenai: Human, I did that thing again
Me: Seriously?  I get the feeling I am being taken for a ride.
Kenai: Is it to get more treats?  I’ll go drink more water meanwhile.

Kenai (adopted) was a clever little dog.  He was always pushing his boundaries.  I have a method I use to house-train dogs where I start off by giving them treats every time they go to the restroom outside.  The goal is to prevent accidents inside the house from ever occurring in the first place so I would take him outside a lot.  It is critically important that you start phasing out the food rewards.  Not completely, but you want to start treating less and less often.  Kenai figured out quick that going to the bathroom outside would get him food rewards, so he would start to withhold some of his urine so he could cash it in for 3x as many treats.  I would notice him going 3-4 times in rapid succession, coming back each time for a treat.

I finished off his training by setting him up; I wanted to proof the behavior.  When I came home from work one day I started playing with him instead of taking him immediately outside.  He starts to go to the restroom, and I immediately non-mark him and drag him outside.  Once he finished, he got his food reward.  I don’t think I ever had anymore problems out of him regarding house training after that.

The first goal in the urine for treats program is to teach the dog that going to the restroom outside around you is a worthwhile endeavor.  This requires first and foremost that you be able to predict when your dog will Pee and Poop.  Dogs usually will not urinate or defecate where they sleep, so a crate is great tool for this.  To start with, I would crate Kenai for 30 minutes and immediately take him outside.  If he went to the bathroom, he would get some liver treats and get to come inside to play for 15 minutes.  If he didn’t go to the bathroom he would go back into the crate.  There is no reason to scream or shout at your puppy for any reason in this phase.  If he makes a mistake here it is on you, not him.

Imagine you are a little puppy, and you go to the restroom on this weirdly textured brown grass.  Your owner is right there with you, so you think it is ok; you are safe.  Immediately afterwards your owner starts screaming and shouting at you, and you do not know why.  Later on you go to the bathroom when your owner is not looking, and nothing happens.  Obviously going around your owner is problematic.  It is easy for your dog to draw the wrong conclusions in this stage of training, completely misunderstanding why you are angry.

When training you dog it is important that you be fair.  Try to turn it into a fun game you both enjoy.  If it is fun for you then you are more likely to keep up with training.  If it is fun for him he is more likely to want to do it; you get better drive.  The behavior I noticed from Kenai was exactly what I wanted.   I wanted him to want to do this; it was a game for him.  It was a game he was very good at winning.

Dinner and a Kong

Yoshi: I’m hungry.
Me: Your dinner is still defrosting.
Yoshi: So?
Me: It will still be frozen solid!
Yoshi: Weren’t you the one going on about how I needed better chew toys?
Me: yes?
Yoshi: Then I am totally confused.

A frozen kong is an excellent way to help your dog with mild cases of separation anxiety, and general crate training.  If you feed dry dog food, simply add some water to your dog’s dry kibble, stuff it into a kong, and leave it in the freezer overnight.  When you crate your dog, toss the Kongcicle into the crate with him and he will be so focused on his kong he probably won’t even know you left.

P.S. Yoshi was adopted by a nice family in Georgia.  Best wishes to him in his new life.