To a dog, their crate is their "den" - a place of their own where they can retreat when tired or stressed. Since dogs don't like to "mess" in their den, crating, when done correctly, expedites housebreaking, and ensures a secure dog and a happy household. The crate is utilized to train your dog - NEVER to punish your dog.

Even if a dog was housebroken when he or she arrived at the shelter, it will most likely need a refresher course. Remember, they were forced to eliminate in the cages so your patience in this area is especially important.

Using a crate with housebreaking takes advantage of a rule of dog behavior: a dog will not generally eliminate where it sleeps. Exceptions to this rule are:

• Dogs that are in crates that are too large (so the dog can eliminate at one end and sleep at the other end).
• Dogs that have lived in small cages in pet stores during critical phases of development and have had to learn to eliminate in the cage.
• Dogs that have blankets or other soft, absorbent items in the crate with them.
• Dogs that are left for too long in the crate and cannot hold it any longer.

If the crate is too big (because you got an adult size one), you can partition the crate off with pegboard wired to the sides to make the crate the correct size, and move it back as your puppy grows.

To house train a dog using a crate, establish a schedule where the dog is either outside or in its crate when it feels the need to eliminate.

Using a mild correction (saying "No" in a firm, even tone) when the dog eliminates inside and exuberant, wild praise when the dog eliminates outside will eventually teach the dog that it is better to go outside than in. Some owners correct more severely inside, but this is extremely detrimental to the character of puppies. To make the dog notice the difference between eliminating inside and outside, you must praise more outside rather than correcting more inside.

The crate is crucial because the dog will "hold it" while in the crate, so it is likely to have to eliminate when it is taken out. Since you know when your dog has to eliminate, you take it out and it eliminates immediately, and is praised immediately. Doing this consistently is ideal reinforcement for the behavior of going out to eliminate. In addition, the dog is always supervised in the house, so the dog is always corrected for eliminating indoors. This strengthens the inhibition against eliminating inside.

In general, consistency is MUCH more important than severe corrections when training a dog. Before a dog understands what you want, severe corrections are not useful and can be quite DETRIMENTAL. Crating allows the owner to have total control over the dog in order to achieve consistency. Hopefully, this will prevent the need (and the desire) to use more severe corrections.

Housetraining is relatively simple with puppies. The most important thing to understand is that it takes time. Young puppies cannot wait to go to the bathroom. When they have to go, they have to go NOW. Therefore, until they are about four or five months old, you can only encourage good behavior and try to prevent bad behavior. This is accomplished by the following regime.

• First: puppies have to go to the bathroom immediately upon waking up.
• Second: puppies have to go to the bathroom immediately after eating.

With these two rules goes the indisputable fact that until a puppy is housetrained, you MUST confine them or watch them to prevent accidents. This means that the puppy should have a place to sleep where it cannot get out. Understand that a puppy cannot go all night without eliminating, so when it cries in the night, you must get up and take it out and wait until it goes. Then enthusiastically praise it and put it back to bed. In the morning, take it out again and let it do its stuff and praise it. After it is fed and after it wakes up at any point, take it out to eliminate.

Make it aware that this is not playtime, but understand that puppies get pretty excited about things like grass and snails and leaves and forget what they came outside to do! Use the same spot each time if you can, the smell will help the puppy remember what it is to do, especially after 12 weeks of age.

To make life easier for you later on, use a key phrase just when the puppy starts to eliminate. Try "hurry up," "do it," or some similar phrase (pick one and use it). The puppy will begin to eliminate on command, and this can be especially useful later, such as making sure the dog eliminates before a car ride or a walk in the park.

Don't let the puppy loose in the house unless it has just gone outside, and/or you are watching it extremely closely for signs that it has to go. The key to housetraining is preventing accidents. If no accidents occur (ha!), then the dog never learns it has an option other than going outside. When you are at home, rather than leave the pup in the crate, you can "tether" the puppy to you -- use a six foot long leash and tie it to your belt. That way he can't get out of your site in the house and go in the wrong place.

For an idea of what this can involve, here is a hypothetical situation, assuming that you work and it takes you about 1/2 hour to get home from work:

• 03:00 Let dog out, go to bathroom, return to crate
• 07:00 Let dog out, go to bathroom
• 07:15 Feed dog in crate, leave dog in crate
• 08:00 Let dog out, go to bathroom, return to crate
• 08:15 Owner goes to work
• 11:30 Owner returns, lets dog out
• 11:45 return dog to crate, owner returns to work
• 17:00 Owner returns, lets dog out, go to bathroom, play (use tether if necessary)
• 19:00 Feed dog in crate, leave in crate
• 19:45 Let dog out, go to bathroom, play
• 23:00 Let dog out, put dog in crate, go to bed.

Identification: Collar, tags and microchip

A lost pet with identification is much more likely to be returned home. Pets adopted from the Humane Society may be fitted with an Avid microchip, which assigns you pet a unique number. This number is revealed by a scanner and, when entered into our database, displays your name, address and phone number. Microchips are a huge help to animal shelters when reuniting pets with their families, however, they are meant as an enhancement to collar and tags, not a replacement.

Even if you elected not to have your pet microchipped at adoption, you may contact us to schedule an appointment for microchipping up to six months after adoptions.

Collars are available at the shelter, and a tag machine is on site at many of our local pet supply stores. Include your phone number on the tag as well as an alternate number where you can be reached. Check your growing pet's collar frequently and loosen it or buy a new, larger collar as your pet grows.

A picture is worth a thousand words

Photograph your pet often to have a current record of their appearance if they become lost. Document distinguishing marks.

DOs and DON'Ts:

• Keep your spay or neuter appointment.
• Take your puppy or dog to training class.
• Reinforce good behavior with a lot of praise. Try not to go overboard with the treats.
• Use clay litter for kittens until they're sure-footed and no longer step in their mess and then in more litter. (When kittens clean the litter from their feet, they might ingest some of it - and the clumping kind will not pass through their digestive systems.)
• Pet-proof your home.
• Be prepared to lose some possessions to puppies when they are teething and housebreaking, but your temper shouldn't be one of them.
• Reinforce good behavior with a lot of praise. Try not to go overboard with the treats.
• Be patient.
• DO NOT take your pet to parks or other public areas until he or she has had their follow-up immunizations. Parvovirus, which is spread by infected feces, is deadly to puppies with fragile immune systems.
• DO NOT leave your pet unattended or allow him or her to roam outdoors.
• DO NOT leave your pet in the car. Parked cars become very hot very quickly in the summer, and very cold in the winter. Unless your dog is coming with you to your destination, leave him or her at home.
• DO NOT hit, harm, abuse, ignore or neglect your pet ever.

Obedience Training

It is essential for every dog, no matter how big, or small, or whether you want to show, or work, or just play with, to have basic obedience training. If you want to go beyond the basics, that's great. But at least do the basics. One way to think of it is that without basic obedience, you and the dog don't speak the same language so how can you communicate? But with basic obedience, you can tell the dog what you want it to do and it will understand you and do it. Another way to think of it is getting your dog to be a Good Citizen: it doesn't jump on people, or run off, or indulge in other obnoxious behaviors -- because it knows what you expect of it.

Obedience classes
Find a good class and attend it. Many places have puppy kindergarten classes; this also helps socialize your puppy. Do 10-minute training sessions every day. And if you like it, keep going. You'd be amazed at all the activities you can do with your dog once you and the dog learn the basics! Training is fun and simple if approached that way. Enjoy it!

Around the house
Puppies can be started far earlier than many people believe. In fact, waiting until your pup is 6 months old to start training it is VERY late, and will be the cause of a LOT of problems. Start right away with basic behavior: use simple, sharp "no's" to discourage chewing hands or fingers, jumping on people, and many other behaviors that are cute in puppies but annoying when full grown. Don't be severe about it, and praise the puppy *immediately* when it stops. Tie the puppy down in sight of people eating dinner to prevent begging and nosing for food (if you put it in another room, it will feel ostracized and begin to cry). If your puppy bites and scratches you when playing, give it a toy instead. Give a good, loud *yelp* or *ouch* when the puppy bites you. This is how the other puppies in the litter let each other know when they have crossed the line, and it is a good way to get the puppy's attention and let it know that biting is not acceptable.

The other side of the coin is immediate praise when your puppy stops after a "no". You may feel like this is engaging in wild mood swings (and you may well get odd looks from other people); that's all right. You're making your wishes crystal clear to the puppy. It also needs positive as well as negative reinforcement: how would you respond if people only ever yelled at you when you did something wrong?

Introduce things in a fun way without "corrections" just to lay a foundation for formal training later on. Formal training, demanding or exact, is not appropriate at this stage. Instead, concentrate on general behavior, getting its attention, introducing things that will be important later in a fun way, and some other preliminary things, such as discouraging it from lagging or forging on the leash (but not making it heel!). In sum, lay a good foundation for its future development and behavior.