BehavioRx Case of the Month
for February 2002

Housetraining a Puppy, Avoiding Common Problems

The owners of 4 month-old male Staffordshire Terrier complained about their youngster's obvious objections to being kept in a large dog travel crate when they were at work or out at other times. It was the nature of his objections that had them worried, and rightly so. As a puppy, he had remove several of his milk teeth on the wire door, and was now bloodying his gums and flews while trying to chew his way out of his little prison. He was also "messing" the crate with both urine and feces.

"The breeder and the pet shop said dogs are naturally denning animals and he wouldn't mess in his den, that he'd be easier to housetrain and safer in there. Is there something wrong with him?" Mrs. K seemed to have put total confidence in the information she received about crate confinement. In order to provide her with some facts, we related the following information to her:

There's a myth that cropped up in the 60s and 70s. It was touted widely by people with crate rental business and many popular trainer and breeder writers. The myth says domestic puppies, like wolves, (our dogs are presumed to be descendants of wolves) won't make a mess in their litter's nest.

The fact is, when a wild wolf mother has puppies in her hole in the ground (her den, that is) she actually stimulates them each one to urinate and defecate right there in the den by licking their genitals and anuses after birth and after each time feeding! However, she eats the urine and feces in order the keep a hygienic nest. This may be one aspect of den life that causes mother and the entire litter to stage what observers describe a lupine "celebration" when they finally abandon the den in favor of life in the open. This ingest-the-waste hygiene practice continues until the pups are 5 to 6 weeks old. In the meantime, at 3 to 4 weeks of age, the pups do learn to follow her out of the den and often evacuate outdoors.

Further, what started as the dam "causing" the pups involuntarily to evacuate after eating soon becomes a "conditioned reflex," wherein the act of eating now causes the intestines to start the process of evacuating the waste held in the bladder and rectum. Many carefully bred and managed litters of domestic dogs are allowed to follow the same order of development. Unfortunately, many more are not. (Which is what this month's case is all about, i.e., getting back to natural housetraining.)

When Mrs. K understood the logic for this procedure, she expressed relief... relief that her blessed pup was not "abnormal," since, in the wild, he would have been out of his den for two months! She was also pleased to learn that she should have been feeding him the same number of times per day as he was having bowel movements, because the act of eating would cause him to evacuate the previous day's meal. And, since she had to be there to feed him, the entire procedure was the ultimate in convenience, although she would have to pop home to feed a midday meal and feed him early and late evening in order to match hid meals to his four BMs a day. (He cut down to three BMs a week after starting the new schedule, so she was able to cut out the lunchtime meal.)

Both Mr. and Mrs. K instituted the Learn-to-Earn praise and petting (No Free Lunch program) and gradually (over four days) switched to a meat-based high-protein/low carbohydrate diet, which firmed up the pups stools a two days. The rest of the BehavioRx Instruction Brochure program for Housetraining Puppies and Adult Dogs was instituted, along with Separation Anxiety.

The clients opted to leave the pup free in the house, took the door off the crate, left his bed inside and the crate in their bedroom, where the pup slept at night. He had only four "accidents" by the door in the kitchen which leads to his back yard toilet area.

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