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Training Tips
Probably the most
important thing for new Havanese Puppy owners is potty
training. Your puppy will come to you paper or
litter box trained. This teaches your puppy were
to go but not when to go. Crate Training and Bell
Ringing could be your next steps in puppy house
training. There is lots of info on house training
your pet. I've included my experience under Potty
Training.
For instructions on
sleeping through the night - look at the crate training
section
Crate
Training
Potty
Training
Leash
Training (coming soon)
Discouraging hand biting (coming soon)
Leave
It (coming soon)
Crate Training
Crate Training Your Puppy for safety
For article on
crate training for House Breaking – see Potty Training
article
Crate Training is good for your puppy. Whether you
crate train as a method of housebreaking, or simply
train your puppy to be comfortable and love his crate it
is a wonderful idea and I highly recommend it. The
following is a collection from what I know, and what I
have read and what I have taken in training classes.
There will be some differing opinions, as there is with
all training, but for the most part this is tried and
true and pretty consistent with just about all crate
training methods. If you have any suggestions, or
things that have really worked for you, I would love to
incorporate them. E-mail me at
lgoebel@hotmail.com
Why Crate Train:
Puppies and Adults who love their crates give you, the
owner, many benefits. It makes them easy to travel with
– secured crates are great in the car; vet visits,
hotels insist generally on crated pets, they learn it is
a safe quiet place when they want to get away from other
pets and children, they learn to sleep quietly and
comfortably and they and your home are safe when they
are crated.
Crate Training is also probably the easiest and
quickest way to housetrain your puppy. You can’t
leave your puppy crated all the time, but when you are
not supervising him, playing or feeding him, or taking
him out to potty he will be in his crate. For more
information on crate training for housebreaking, see the
Potty Training section.
What
Crate to Buy:
You
can buy a crate that fits your puppy size. He should be
able to stand up and turn around, and lie conformably --
but not much more room that that. This means you will
go through two crates in a Toy dogs lifetime as you will
have to increase the size of the crate. I have tried
blocking off the crate so it is small when they are a
puppy but this was not very successful for me, welcome
to try it though. You can use a box, or a milk crate to
block off the back of the crate. If you go the two
crate way, buy an inexpensive puppy crate, he/she is
going to grow out of it by 4-5 months.
Plastic or Wire, choice is yours. I have a preference
for wire, they are cooler and they do not give off any
petroleum fumes. Plastic kennels in the summer are very
very hot. Wire are more expensive so I generally use
plastic for my puppy stage and then move to wire. You
can go crazy with crates there are some that look like
furniture, there are some beautiful metal and wood –
everything for any budget. This oned below are an
inexpensive plastic kennel and fold down wire crate. It
collapses for easy storage and travel. If you use a
wire crate drape a blanket or towel over three sides to
give you puppy security and privacy. Cloth crates do
not tend to work well on puppies – when they are
teething they chew or scratch through them.
How to Start Crate
Training:
Buy
a crate for your puppy that is not too big. My puppies
have learnt that there is a place to sleep, a place to
eat and a place to potty, so it is very unusual for
puppies to potty in their crate unless the crate is huge
and they think they have a whole apartment, not just a
bedroom. I do not put food and water in the crate,
because you want to supervise intake when you are potty
training. Food and water go in your exercise pen and
are given when the puppy is out of the crate. Later,
once your puppy is trained, you can certainly put a
water bottle on the crate door for him, and of course if
you are crating your puppy and it is warm you can add a
water bottle and/or a crate fan.
An
X-pen can be purchased from just about any pet store –
look for sales. You will want a hire quality if you
plan to use your pen outside. Havanese can jump, I use
a 2 foot X-pen – I can still reach in but the majority
of Havanese will not jump over.
How
to Begin the Crate/Puppy Bonding Process:
Sometimes this is so
easy, it almost seems like you didn’t do anything.
Puppies and dogs often like to den so they seek out the
crate on their own. Sometimes you have to introduce the
bond with a bit of help, and a few treats.
Step
One:
Puppy comes home – may
have had some exposure to a crate already, which is
great, if not you put your crate in your busy room with
your family, door open or off, but don’t let it close on
its own – sometimes they close and open and scare the
puppy, so either remove the door, or tie it open.
If you are using an
Exercise Pen (X-Pen) have the crate right in the X pen
area and sit with your puppy there. Give you puppy a
few treats that he really likes – my puppies get Natural
Balance dog food as a treat, but I use the big round
semi soft rolls for treats – they love it) Do this
training exercise when puppy is hungry not just after
you have fed him/her. Once he likes this treat idea,
throw one in the crate – see if he will go in for it –
praise puppy lavishly. If he won’t go in, bit more work
but do the breadcrumb bit – give him a trail closer and
closer to the kennel until you get him in. He may grab
the treat and run out, praise him lavishly. Repeat a
few times. Sometimes step 1 takes 1 try, sometimes it
can take 5 or 6 tries, but you puppy should be
comfortable with step 1 in just one training session.
If all else fails put the puppy in the crate and give
him treats telling him how good he is. This will be
more work, and you will being to only give you puppies
treat inside the crate until he associates that place as
the greatest place on earth. Tell him your
training word for crate every time you put him in. I
use “crate up” but nap time, crate, night night whatever
you use, just be consistent.
Step
Two:
He likes his crate, he
goes in and out of it whenever he feels like it – you
are now ready to have him try it with the door closed.
I generally wait until the puppy is sleeping or tired.
If he is sleeping just move him into the nice comfy
crate – don’t close the door until he settles, but once
he falls back to sleep close the door. You have to stay
on top of this, you don’t ever want to remove a puppy
from the crate when he is whining or throwing a puppy
fit, so watch when he wakes up, open the door and tell
him how good he is. Do this with your hands in the
crate, don’t take him out. Let the puppy come out
naturally when he is ready, praise him and take him
potty. Try to do the majority of his naps in the crate
with the door closed.
Step Three:
The wide awake crated
dog – this is the serious stuff but you have prepared
your puppy well. Put his favorite treat, something that
will take him a little while to eat, – a kong with
peanut butter stuffed in is good, or a pigs ear. Say
“crate up” or your training phrase, every time you
want him to go into his crate. Say the word and put the
treat in, allow him to go in on his own, tell him good
boy and then close the door. Eventually you want him to
go in on command and then treat once he is in so give a
little time after the training word before you put the
treat in – he will get the idea quickly. One thing that
is important in all training – SAY YOUR TRAINING
WORD ONLY ONCE. Puppies are like kids if you
say “crate up” 4 or 5 times the puppy will learn that
the command is not really that important, he may
eventually listen to you, but maybe the 6th
time will work for him, after all can’t you see he is
playing right now, he’ll get to it and you don’t seem to
mind if it is the first time you ask or the 6th
so what the heck. Stay with the puppy and try to judge
when to open the door – you want it to be 2-5 min, more
if he falls asleep of course. Don’t let out a crying
puppy, so if he cries and whines you are going to have
to wait until he is calm again. Don’t forget to tell
him how good he is when he comes out of the crate.
TREAT your dog every time he goes into the crate and
always say your crate word “crate up” or “crate” or
whatever word you use.
Step
Four:
You will gradually be
increasing crate time, you should also notice that your
puppy goes into his crate for naps some of the time. If
you are around and notice it close the door – this gets
him used to being quite content with the door closed.
Never open the door when there is whining. If you
absolutely have to because the puppy is not comfortable
at all – don’t say a word to the puppy, just open the
crate and ignore the puppy. Don’t forget to potty your
puppy before crate time. Your puppy should be equally
comfortable with you in the room or out of the room.
Lavish praise for your puppy now when he goes into the
crate, but coming out of the crate – don’t make a big
deal out of this. It can actually teach the puppy that
the reward is coming out of the crate and for those of
us who occasionally want to leave her homes without our
puppy can be one of the bad habits we do as owners that
causes separation anxiety.
Night time Crating:
Once everyone is
comfortable with step 4, your puppy can crate up for
nighttime. Some puppies can go through the night at 10
weeks, others 12 weeks, you are going to make the
process smoother by picking up water at 8:00 pm. No
water or food after 8:00. Potty the puppy before bed
and by now you should have a rough idea of your puppies
potty schedule – does he poop twice after his dinner
feed or usually just once – keep track it will assist
your success. He must go potty before you crate him for
the night. Once he is crated he does not come out
unless he is crying and making a fuss and it has been 4
hours for a 9 week old Havanese. If you pottied him and
it has been less than 4 hours it is for attention and
comfort not for potty issues. Of course this is a
guideline you will get to know your puppies cries, and
be able to tell the difference between a pick me up, I’m
lonely and a I really really have to go out now cry.
After 12 weeks puppy should be sleeping through the
night, without a potty break. When you take the puppy
out for potty be careful that you and he both know it is
for potty not for play. I say absolutely nothing to the
puppy except for my “Go Potty” command and my “Good
Potty” command and treat on success. Do not, DO NOT,
play with the puppy – you will turn a 5 minute exercise
into a 20 minute exercise. The first couple of times
the puppy will likely not settle down immediately after
his potty – you will just have to ignore the puppy and
wait out the whining, so please make sure you gave the
puppy enough time to both pee and poo, otherwise you
will either be up again, or cleaning up a mess in your
crate.. Ear plugs are a great investment.
Potty Training
coming soon
Any questions just ask
lgoebel@hotmail.com
Article courtesy and property of
www.Myladhavanese.com Links are welcome copying is
not!
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