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Potty Training without discipline?

7K views 73 replies 32 participants last post by  nikon22shooter 
#1 ·
So my almost 8 week old Oskar has been doing quite well. We take him outside and he goes right away in the same spot almost every time. When he doesn't have to go he lies down at our feet or goes back and stands at the door. After letting him back in he doesn't have accidents right away.

He hasn't had any problems going number two in the house, largely because we take him out often and he hasn't gone in his crate once!

He does still have accidents, which is understandable because he is so young and we are only on day 4 of having him/potty training him but I want to make sure we are going about it in the most effective way.

I've heard some say disciplining is bad and others say it helps them associate a negative interacting with going inside, and I am just wondering your opinions on this. I do not want to make him fear-aggressive or learn to be afraid of eliminating in front of us etc but I want to know how to train him to start letting us know he needs to go out instead of us just taking him out every 45 min-1 hour.

This may seem like a basic question, but he is my first puppy and I am a titch overwhelmed with the barrage of conflicting information out there. I'd like to hear some experienced folks give me the straight skinny on what worked for them.
 
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#11 ·
I also followed this thought. We never disciplined for accidents because they don't know any better and it was always due to us not paying attention. We never used puppy pads. I would say we had fewer than 10 accidents (never a #2) and he was fully potty trained by 4-5 months.
 
#4 ·
We have a 10 week old who is also at your pups level. The thing you have to constantly remember is that GSDs are not like normal dogs. They tend to be very sensitive to discipline, which could make them fearful/insecure. If we didn't see him do it (were only human and he wanders out of our sight sometimes), one of us plays with him in the other room while the other cleans it with an enzyme cleaner. We never let him see us clean it because we don't want to draw any attention to it. Now if we see him squatting, we do a firm but not "mean" No and pick him up mid-stream and gently take him outside and say "go potty". We have noticed if we get frustrated an raise our voice, he really gets sad and just kind of shuts down for a few minutes. Every time we take him outside and he goes, we act like he just won the Nobel prize.

This is just our method. It really seems to be working.


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#5 ·
The discipline for house training wrecks should be administered to the humans involved, not the pup. If you catch him in the act, just say something like "oops" and pick him up and take him outside. Right then. Personally, I've not had much luck intercepting (my fault not the pups). But frequent outside trips "putting a name on it" and praising like they just found your lost gold watch seems to work. My pup has figured out what "whizz" means and what "poop" means. Or at least what activity in response to those words gets a lot of praise.
 
#7 ·
I've never bothered to train mine to "let me know". I just take them out at intervals appropriate for their age, and by the time they're 6 months or so they can hold it all day and all night. My current pup is 13 weeks and I let him out every 30-45 minutes while he's awake. At night he can hold it 5-6 hours so far.
 
#8 ·
We have an 11 week pup and still about the same place you are. He will go on command, "go potty", "go poop" and seems to know the difference.

Yesterday evening he is in the kitchen with my wife. He comes running into the living room, sits in front of me and cries. I jump up at take him outside, he pee'd and pooped (we have different places for each) and I never stepped off the deck. As far as I'm concerned he DID just win the Nobel prize.

He still doesn't seem to know the concept of outside only. I "think" we are making progress.... I think..... Our last Shepherd was done at two weeks with only a couple of accidents after. So it's either a male vs female thing or simply all dogs are different.
 
#9 ·
You have to remember your puppy is only a baby. Just be consistant and extremely patient. You wouldn't discipline an infant for soiling its diaper. You will learn to see the signals, unless your puppy is like Lakota was. We used to call her the "stealth squatter"!
 
#10 ·
Other than a, "No! Let's go outside!" if I saw her starting to look around or squat, I did not discipline Lisl to potty train her. If she had an accident I said nothing, cleaned it up, and we went out until she pottied again. Sometimes those where some very long and cold trips outside.

What I did was take her out every 20-30 minutes at that age to teach her where potty was to take place and where it was not to take place. I also managed her water and food intake extremely close to get her into a semi-regular routine for going potty.

You do not want the pup to associate anything bad with going potty.
 
#12 ·
I am going to be in the minority and say that mild corrections are ok. I know that 100% positive motivation is in vogue right now, but something needs to give them a negative association with going inside. I don't mean rub their nose in it, it only works if you catch them in the act, but a little swat on the butt and a loud NO isn't going to traumatize your dog and make it hate you forever. I don't understand the people who say "don't let the dog see you cleaning it up". Why? The dog doesn't understand that any more than they understand a number of other things.

Speaking from personal experience...I was going out of my mind potty training Sansa...I was taking her out every hour, rain or shine, rewarding her with high value treats, and ignoring the occasional mistake that was "my fault" because I turned my head for three seconds. After about month, she understood that going outside was fantastic but still didn't understand not to go inside. Why? Because we were all positive and didn't want to correct her for going inside. Finally, my husband caught her in the act, yelled loud and swatted her on the butt. Guess what? She has never had an accident inside since. She also isn't a traumatized dog who hates her owners, she is happy and well socialized and a great dog.

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#14 ·
I am going to be in the minority and say that mild corrections are ok. I know that 100% positive motivation is in vogue right now, but something needs to give them a negative association with going inside. I don't mean rub their nose in it, it only works if you catch them in the act, but a little swat on the butt and a loud NO isn't going to traumatize your dog and make it hate you forever. I don't understand the people who say "don't let the dog see you cleaning it up". Why? The dog doesn't understand that any more than they understand a number of other things.

Speaking from personal experience...I was going out of my mind potty training Sansa...I was taking her out every hour, rain or shine, rewarding her with high value treats, and ignoring the occasional mistake that was "my fault" because I turned my head for three seconds. After about month, she understood that going outside was fantastic but still didn't understand not to go inside. Why? Because we were all positive and didn't want to correct her for going inside. Finally, my husband caught her in the act, yelled loud and swatted her on the butt. Guess what? She has never had an accident inside since. She also isn't a traumatized dog who hates her owners, she is happy and well socialized and a great dog.

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This would depend on the dog. What punishing a dog for pottying inside like this is more likely to do is to make the dog less likely to potty in your presence. Which means you would then not be able to get him to go when you need him to, where you need him to.

And then back inside, once you are no longer paying attention, the dog stops being quite so stressed and feels the urge and goes.

So this method will be highly dependent on how handler sensitive the dog is, and how hard or soft the dog is. Don't do this with a soft dog or it will make house training a nightmare.

And the worst thing about this, is that most people attribute non-compliance with stubbornness, and reactive behaviors with boldness or harness. It seems that people with soft dogs, often think they have hard dogs.

Puppies between 8 weeks and 16 weeks do not need to be swatted on the butt. Sorry. I would not suggest this method of housebreaking. It worked for you. It isn't necessarily going to work most of the time.

House training is all about discipline -- disciplining yourself to get your puppy where he needs to be, when he needs to be there, praising him for performing, and supervising him when you are inside.
 
#13 ·
As others have said, 8 weeks is still a baby. I would second the others who say to remain positive. Bring them outside to eliminate, treat/praise immediately after eliminating (so if you're using treats, bring them outside with you), come back inside, play, crate, and the cycle repeats.

Don't give your puppy the opportunity to 'slip up.' Set your puppy up for success--that's why I crated or had my pup on leash tethered to me at all times. Accidents were very minimal. If I caught him the act, I just went, eh-eh, and I brought him outside.

My parents had a toy poodle who was a very intelligent dog, but my parents did a lot of old-school discipline with him during potty training as a pup (shoving his nose in it, yelling at him, you name it.) The dog never learned to be properly housetrained, and he would go off and eliminate 'in private' throughout the house. He wasn't being taught not to eliminate inside--he was being taught to eliminate outside of the eyesight of the very angry, frightening humans.

Every dog is different, but our puppy really grasped it at a quicker rate using a positive-only approach. They are babies! No use punishing them when they clearly have no concept of right or wrong.
 
#15 · (Edited)
I just think there is a spectrum, a happy medium. On one side, there are the harsh, cesar milan alpha type of people, on the other side, the all positive, all the time, dog can do no wrong school of thought. I fall somewhere in the middle, rewarding good behaviors and correcting bad ones. I have had both hard dogs and soft, and what a "correction" is depends on the dog. My male only needed a stern voice and sad look. A middle of the road dog can handle a swat on the butt. I'm just saying, I don't think people need to act like every dog is the most delicate sensitive being whose fragile feelings will be forever hurt by any kind of correction.

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#16 ·
I just think there is a spectrum, a happy medium. On one side, there are the harsh, cesar milan alpha type of people, on the other side, the all positive, all the time, dog can do no wrong school of thought. I fall somewhere in the middle, rewarding good behaviors and correcting bad ones. I have had both hard dogs and soft, and what a "correction" is depends on the dog. My male only needed a stern voice and sad look. A middle of the road dog can handle a swat on the butt. I'm just saying, I don't think people need to act like every dog is the most delicate sensitive being whose fragile feelings will be forever hurt by any kind of correction.

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My dogs are not children. I do not swat them on the butt.

Positive training is not permissive. Not if done correctly. You are way off base with the positive training stereotype: "all positive all the time dog can do no wrong."

There are very few people out there that do zero corrections. Most of us use our voice to correct the dog -- not yelling, but eh! or No. We let them know that was not correct. Some dogs only need the lack of praise or the repetition of whatever we are working on to realize they did it incorrectly. And some can use the verbal negative marker to correct them. But there is actually very little totally positive without corrections going on out there.

I like to think there is very little swatting of dogs being done as well. It is totally unnecessary and it lowers us in our dogs' eyes. A dog thrives when it is secure in an owner who is completely in charge. When an owner is shouting or hitting them, the dog is totally insecure because the human is acting crazy. We cannot be a natural leader if we go about shouting at or swatting our dogs, sorry.

Can some dogs adjust to this kind of leadership? Sure. Dogs are pretty resilient overall, most of them. But, if you smack your dog to get it to do what you want, and yell at it, chances are good that you are going to have to reach that level in other areas as well. And the dog will do things or not do things to avoid your interaction with them. I guess I prefer my dogs to do things in order to have interaction with me. It is very effective, much more effective than losing my mind, shouting and striking at them.
 
#17 ·
Thank you all for the help. I can honestly say that it only took a week after that post for my puppy to be potty trained. He lets us know when he has to go out... and has had only one accident in the house in the past 11 days, until Saturday night. I took your advice about the "party" and am continuing it until I fully trust him and perhaps even after then... :) He gets a Kong treats promptly and knows it is going to happen to the point where after walking in the house he pops a squat at my feet and looks up at me with big brown eyes of earnest :)

He has had issues the past two nights that we thought were mere slip-ups but it turns out his body is actually producing a large number of crystals, causing him to "leak" and he messed in his cage last night :( Took him to the vet this morning and he recommended science diet and vitamin B6 twice a day. I started a new thread and despite 123 views no one has replied :(

I was just wondering if anyone who feeds their dog a raw diet had experienced this with a dog food, since the vet said it was diet related. If so or if not, I am still interested in people posting (on that thread perhaps) some info on if they have experienced this or if they have taken any preventative steps to prevent this. My vet said this is very rare for a ten week old and it puts him at risk for kidney stones so we will have to monitor that for perhaps the rest of his life! :help:
 
#18 ·
I wish I could help on that. I don't feed raw. I have given raw chicken legs or hamburger to my dogs but usually only skipping a meal in 2 weeks or longer. I feed Diamond Naturals.

I don't like the idea of Science Diet. It has poor ingredients, is over-priced, and I think that the over all quality of the food is not so good. I hope by bumping this, I can find someone who is into the raw stuff to give their advice on this. You may not need to change the type of food(raw) just the make-up: organ meat to RMB, but I have no clue about any of that. (Vets generally frown on raw feeding in principle.) I think it is probably a lot more healthy overall, but I would have to do my homework to figure out a correct diet, and one that is within my budget.
 
#19 ·
I have no idea about the food issue, congrats on the potty training tho!:)

I never punish / correct mine for having an accident in the house..I have always just taken them out frequently, praise for 'good potties',,ignore the accidents.

If I 'think" they are about to potty in the house, I just quickly scoop them up and out we go..
 
#21 ·
He was eating Authority for Puppies (recommended by a lady at petsmart when I was looking at Purina for large breed puppies) from the time I got him home until yesterday. (I've only had him for three weeks) I used kong treats for potty training and just his kibble for other training. I bought him bully sticks yesterday but the vet said he shouldn't have those until they eliminate what is causing the issue.

I'm concerned because although crystals were found the vet did not look for bacteria that could be causing a UTI and did not specify to me what type of crystals they were. He also said to not give the dog cranberries or cranberry supplements or fish oil pills when I asked. I asked him about this because whenever I personally have had a UTI I can get rid of the issue just with cranberry supplements and putting some cranberries in my salads etc. and taking the fish oil supplements. At the very least it would seem that including cranberry supplements in his diet could help him if he is prone to this kind of problem.

My Vet is a Petsmart Vet and overall I am not that impressed with his approach to this, among other things. He told me that he would have to consult with another vet after finding the crystals because he had never seen so many in a male puppy as young as he is. The vet he consulted with reccomended 25mg of B6 a day and Science Diet for large breed puppies, he also had never heard of crystals in a male puppy at this age.

To me, it just doesn't seem proactive enough given the risks. I mean no antibiotics or even attempting to find out if he has a bacterial infection in addition to the crystals?!?!? When we know that these crystals can form stones!

I don't think that science diet food and b6 vitamins are going to just solve the problem. Seems like a preventative treatment to me when he already has the crystals.
 
#22 ·
Get a good vet and avoid the PetSmart nutritional advice. I think there is much better info on this forum.
My Italian Greyhound had crystals and they dissolved with the (hold your horses....) Science Diet UTI formula. I decided to take this vet's advice and use one small bag and it cleared it up. Now she gets a good maintenance diet; good quality kibble in the AM an raw at PM , which seems to acidify the urine. On top of that cranberry powder and vit C.
 
#23 ·
@Wolfy Dog

Science Diet Urinary would make sense but they don't have it for puppies so I am just giving him Science Diet for large breed puppies. Apparently they don't have much Urinary Puppy Food on the market. On that note, anyone know of any?!

And on the whole petsmart thing, he gets his second round of vaccinations on Monday. I am going to ask for a copy of the urine tests they did do and move on to another vet with the info I have.

Also do you think I should ask him why he didn't run a test for bacteria. He just said that male dogs don't usually get UTIs but if Oskar has bacteria, no matter what diet I put him on the problem won't be resolved without the "proper" antibiotics.
 
#30 ·
Discipline and consistency are key to every facet of training dogs.

All 6 of my German Shepherd pups were brought home between 6 and 8 weeks old.

All were house broke by around 10 weeks old.

You never let them out of your site and you take them out every 15 minutes regardless.

If you see them sniffing around you snatch them up and take them outside.

The second they go potty outside you lavish them with huge amounts of praise, you can't go over board here.

If there is an accident you catch in progress, you throw a NO! at them in the form of a Verbal Brick,

grab them that instance on either side of the muzzle and sternly/lovingly correct them with the NO/Verbal Brick.

Then you immediately take them outside. Here's where I go against the conventional thinking,

if you find an accident, you show it to them and sternly tell

them no, then take them outside and explain this is where that was supposed to take place.

You always read not to do this because supposedly they don't know what they are being

scolded for, IMO this is BS, I can tell by the look on their face and their body language that

they had a good idea they shouldn't have done what they did. Dogs are way smarter and

have better memories than what most people know. At night you either crate them close to

your bed or you put them on a short lead tied to the bed post on your side of the bed. My

preferred method is to let them sleep in the bed between my wife and myself, this is very

comforting to them and will allow you to get some sleep those first few nights. Regardless

what method you use, they need to be taken out every couple of hours or when they whine.

You shouldn't let them drink a lot before bedtime and you have to be consistent on

their feeding time to get them into a # 2 routine.
 
#31 ·
All were house broke by around 10 weeks old.
You never let them out of your site and you take them out every 15 minutes regardless.
Yup, this is where I went wrong. My little guy had quite a few accidents because it took me a while to understand that "but I just took him out!" wasn't true: 20 minutes isn't 'just out' when you've got such a tiny bladder, lol. Especially when they're playing, they get worked up and seem to pee more frequently. I'm sure he would have been housetrained earlier if I'd have taken him out more frequently during that first week.
 
#37 ·
I've managed to housebreak several pups and have not had any real issues with rapid housebreaking, particularly with GSDs. Never felt the need to correct the dog but just take them out at key times and scoop them up quick and take them out if they started ... The males seemed a little easier but in any case it was not bad at all. I always took them out after eating, napping or drinking or playing and frequently after that. If I was not 100% watching the puppy he was crated. I typically took a few weeks off work when I got a puppy. With Beau I lucked out because I telecommute and he was crated in my office.

To be honest, your timing gets better with the more pups you have had I think. Beau came home at 10 weeks I think? Never once had an accident .....

I don't have an issue at all with correcting an older dog for violating a learned command when I am sure it knows what is expected.
 
#42 ·
Oskar was potty trained at ten weeks. We did not physically correct him but did say no sharply and scoop him up and take him outside. He now goes to the door. I have to say this turnaround was a but unexpected. He went from having several accidents to none at all the next day. In our defense we did take him out every half hour and crated him when he couldn't be watched. I think the crate training was the most useful, second only to the treats and afterparty. But i'm not kidding you take him out and if he is farting around, say go potty and there you have it folks a pile of poo. Pretty awesome! Back to crating: After a week of being taken out at night after whining he seemed to understand thats where he goes even when he is on the loose wreaking havoc and trying to eat us :) bonus is he gets a treat and some love just for doing what he does best!


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#44 ·
THIS!!! This is how to potty train a puppy! Good job! Hope people have the common sense to recognize good advice amid the many different mind-sets of puppy raising.

And every pup is different. People just have to be patient.

Really, swatting a pup for having an accident is like spanking a toddler for wetting their diaper . . .
 
#45 ·
Just want to make it clear it's fine to swat a puppy BUT, just realize that when you swat

IT IS FOR YOU TO MAKE YOU FEEL BETTER AND TO GET OUT YOUR FRUSTRATION AND AGGRAVATION.

So if you are FINE with realizing that you have to hit your puppy to sufficiently calm down and continue with the training...........then that's your training method.

If, instead, you want to actually TEACH your puppy. So they LEARN from you what's going on and not to avoid your hands, avoid you when you are coming with 'that face' and somewhat change your relationship with your dog, then swat away.

It will work, eventually. Which is everyone's point that swatted.

IT WORKED.

So if you are only interested in results and not the method, then hitting your pup will appear to show results.

But for me, when I know better, I do better. And dog training has changed TREMENDOUSLY over even the past 20 years. Instead of the 'no brainer' of REACTION and hitting the puppy. Training has now become much smarter (on the human side) and for those of us who want to LEARN and become better owners/trainers this is just another instance where we can be PRO-active and use our brains to pay attention and TEACH, rather then be lazy (or distracted) and merely react and 'hit'.

MY GOALS with my pups are to teach, manage, and raise a dog that loves my hands, loves to learn, understands EXACTLY what's going on in the house cause I set them up to succeed and to well by knowing that housebreaking is MY job and responsibility to make clear to a puppy. A puppy who WILL make mistake and realizing I MAY MAKE MISTAKES TOO! So if I choose to smack that puppy who squats right in front of me...

THEN I sure better hit myself when I ALLOW them to leave the room to go pee out of my sight where I can't see and 'uh uh' them in the act to take them outside.

Teaching has a student and a teacher BOTH are involved. Both need to be proud when they do well and both to be BLAMED when there are backslides.

I take responsibility for each and every 'accident' in the house. I wish others would also choose to become better trainers. More involved in the process. PRO-active. Rather then blaming and smacking.

:(
 
#46 ·
Yay, what MaggieRoseLee said, that! :D

Also, for those who are saying the puppy knows to go outside, but thinks it's also okay to go inside. This is a management issue. This is not an issue where you need to bring in punishment. This is an issue where the puppy was allowed way too much freedom too soon. When the happens, the puppy will inevitable pee/poop inside. Once that happens, now you are setting up a pattern of behavior, a bad habit if you will. OF COURSE, if given the chance to pee/poop inside the house, the chances of the puppy continuing this will be very high - your house is temperature controlled, smells nice, is private… It was your job to prevent this from happening in the first place. Are you using crates, exercise pens, leashes, and baby gates to help with supervision? Are you making sure the puppy only has access to porous surfaces such as carpet, rugs, and couches after he has just peed outside within the last 15 minutes?

I have potty trained around 10 dogs in the past 4 years, my own and fosters (including puppy mill dogs who "can't" be house trained). I can count the number of "accidents" we've had in the house on my two hands. You control where and when the dog goes pee that is your job.

For those of you who use punishment, have your read The Culture Clash by Jean Donaldson? If you haven't, here is one of my favorite parts:

Imagine you live on a planet where the dominant species is far more intellectually sophisticated than human beings but often keep humans as companion animals. They are called the Gorns. They communicate with each other via a combination of telepathy, eye movements and high-pitched squeaks, unintelligible and unlearnable by humans, whose brains are prepared for verbal language acquisition only. What humans sometimes learn is the meaning of individual sounds by repeated association with things of relevance to them. The Gorns and humans bond strongly but there are many Gorn rules that humans must try to assimilate with limited information and usually high stakes.

You are one of the lucky humans who lives with the Gorns in their dwelling. Many other humans are chained to small cabanas in the yard or kept in outdoor pens of varying size. They have become so socially starved that they cannot control their emotions when a Gorn goes near them. Because of this behaviour, the Gorns agree that they could never be house humans. They are too excitable.

The dwelling you share with your Gorn family is fitted with numerous water-filled porcelain bowls, complete with flushers. Every time you try to urinate in one, though, any nearby Gorn attacks you. You learn to only use the toilet when there are no Gorns present. Sometimes they come home and stuff your head down the toilet for no apparent reason. You hate this and start sucking up to the Gorns when they come home to try and stave this off but they view this as increasing evidence of your guilt.

You are also punished for watching videos, reading certain books, talking to other human beings, eating pizza or cheesecake, and writing letters. These are all considered behaviour problems by the Gorns. To avoid going crazy, once again you wait until they are not around to try doing anything you with to do. While they are around, you sit quietly, staring straight ahead. Because they witness this good behaviour you are so obviously capable of, they attribute to “spite” the video watching and other transgressions that occur when you are alone. Obviously you resent being left alone, they figure. You are walked several times a day and left crossword-puzzle books to do. You have never used them because you hate crosswords; the Gorns think you’re ignoring them out of revenge.

Worst of all, you like them. They are, after all, often nice to you. But when you smile at them, they punish you, likewise for shaking hands. If you apologize, they punish you again. You have not seen another human since you were a small child. When you see one on the street you are curious, excited and sometimes afraid. You really don’t know how to act. So, the Gorn you live with keeps you away from other humans. Your social skills never develop.

Top Ten Behaviour Problems of Pet Humans on Planet Gorn
  • Watching TV
  • Use of water-filled porcelain bowls as elimination sites
  • Listening to music other than Country & Western
  • Talking to other humans
  • Smoking
  • Sitting on chairs (“How can I get him to stop sitting on CHAIRS?!”)
  • Toothbrushing
  • Eating anything but (nutritionally balanced) Human Chow
  • Shaking hands to greet
  • Smiling

Finally, you are brought to training school. A large part of the training consists of having your air briefly cut off by a metal chain around your neck. They are sure you understand every squeak and telepathic communication they make because you sometimes get it right. You are guessing and hate the training. You feel stressed out a lot of the time. One day, you see a Gorn approaching with the training collar in hand. You have PMS, a sore neck and you just don’t feel up to the baffling coercion about to ensue. You tell them in your sternest voice to please leave you alone and go away. The Gorns are shocked by this unprovoked aggressive behaviour. They thought you had a good temperament.

They put you in one of their vehicles and take you for a drive. You watch the attractive planetary landscape going by and wonder where you are going. The vehicle stops and you are led into a building filled with the smell of human sweat and excrement. Humans are everywhere in small cages. Some are nervous, some depressed, most watch the goings on from their prisons. Your Gorns, with whom you have lived your entire life, hand you over to strangers who drag you to a small room. You are terrified and yell for your Gorn family to help you. They turn and walk out the door of the building. You are held down and given a lethal injection. It is, after all, the humane way to do it.

This nightmarish world is the one inhabited by many domestic dogs all the time. Virtaully all natural dog behaviours – chewing, barking, rough play, chasing moving objects, eating food items within reach, jumping up to access faces, settling disputes with threat displays, establishing contact with strange dogs, guarding resources, leaning into steady pressure against their necks, urinating on porous surfaces like carpets, defending themselves from perceived threat – are considered by humans to be behaviour problems. The rules that seem so obvious to us make absolutely no sense to dogs. They are not humans in dog suits…

It is as inherently obvious to dogs that furniture, clothing and car interiors are good for chewing as it is inherently obvious to you that TV sets are good for watching. If I reprimand you for watching the TV, your most likely course of action is to simply watch TV when I’m not around… Housetraining is another classic example… Owners interpret dogs who “refuse” to eliminate on walks and then go on the carpet when the owner leaves the room to answer the phone as “getting back at them”. Absolutely not so. The dog has simply learned to go to the bathroom on an obvious toilet – the carpet – when the attacker is not present. He behaves obsequiously on the owner’s return to try and turn off the punishment that inevitably occurs when certain context cues (owner plus poop on rug) are present. It is clear from his terrified, submissive posture that the dog would dearly love to avoid that punishment if only he knew how. If someone punished you in a certain circumstance, you would beg for mercy too, regardless of whether you had any clue as to why they were about to punish you. It’s Orwellian what we do to dogs.
I think pieces of this are a sad reality for many pet dogs.
 
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