Recherche Kennels Training Library
First Steps With Your New Puppy
Help with Potty Training
A major pillar of our Puppy Training Institute is House Training, which includes potty training, crate training, stair training, jump training and chew training. We have different levels of house training for every puppy program. We have a detailed list of goals found on our Puppy Training Institute page. Below are the potty training goals for each level:
- Puppy Academy: Potty Training- 1 hour; Crate Training- 4-5 hours at night.
- Canine College: Potty Training- 2 hours; Crate Training-5-6 hours at night.
- Master’s Program: Potty Training- 3 hours: Crate Training- 6-7 hours at night.
- Doggy Doctorate: Potty Training- 4 hours: Crate Training- 7-8 hours at night
- Doggy Double Doctorate: Potty Training- 5-6 hours: Crate Training- 10+ hours at night.
Please realize that just because they are fully potty trained here doesn’t mean they will never have an accident in your house. It’s impossible for any trainer to fully prepare every puppy for every family, every home and every yard. This is why we want to give you these important tips so you can quickly transition your pup from our home to yours.
Below is the playbook on how we potty train your pup so it’s very important to see what we do so that you can do the exact same thing. Please remember this…the closer you pay attention to these points the faster the transition for your pup’s potty training. If you run through this and don’t follow the simple advice we give you then your pup will most likely have potty accidents in your house.
Potty training is 1 step forward and 3 steps back. You cannot afford to go one day without following through. If you wait until you have problems, you may have weeks of work ahead of you. Even if you purchased a 12+ month old pup, you still have to follow these steps. The older your pup is, the faster they will get though the transition, typically because they can physically hold their bathroom longer and they are more intelligent to learn (which is one reason many buyers choose a longer training program). The younger pups will have a longer transition time typically.
Also, please realize that even if your pup is “signaling” to potty here in our home, that doesn’t mean they will immediately start signaling to go in your home. It takes time for them to learn where to potty at your place. It takes time to build a relationship with you. As you follow our steps, they will eventually start signaling to you that they need to go potty outside. Signaling could be them going to your back door, or sitting in front of you, or even barking to go outside.
As you learn your pup, you will start getting his signals but don’t expect it even from an older trained pup for several weeks. Below is our advice for every puppy when it comes to keeping your puppy house trained and transferring all the hours of training we have done to your home.
Never Trust Your Puppy!
First and most importantly, do not trust your Puppy. Recherche Kennels spends two-thirds of their training hours house training each individual puppy. Nevertheless, we don’t trust them. We watch them diligently at all times in the house. We block off areas in our house so they are not able to wander off out of view.
The biggest mistake families make is allowing their puppy to wander freely and are shocked to find an “accident” in the bedroom or a shoe chewed up in the laundry room. Again, do not trust them! The Bible verse for puppy training is “Lead me not into temptation…” (Matt. 6:13).
Even if they don’t have a problem with pottying in the house, they most likely will be going through a chewing/destructive phase from around 5-12 months of age. Never leave a puppy alone without supervision. If you are not able to watch your puppy carefully, then you need to crate your pup or put your pup outside.
Catch Your Puppy “In the Act!”
The greatest success you can have is for your puppy to cry, whine, bark or even ring a bell to use the restroom outside. The goal of every dog owner is to train your puppy to communicate to you that they need to use the restroom outside.
The second greatest success may surprise you. Some think that never giving your puppy the opportunity to potty inside is the key. We don’t believe that. We believe in watching your puppy carefully and giving your puppy the chance to communicate. If they don’t communicate and squat to go, then there’s a golden opportunity to verbally correct your puppy. Whenever we see a puppy start doing the pace back and forth or the circling, we wait and get ready to pounce. At the moment they start squatting, we jump up and strongly correct verbally with a “Bad!” or “No!” Depending on how close they are we may also clap our hands and stomp our feet as we make our way to them.
The severity of our correction depends on the sensitivity of our puppy (typically the younger the pup, the more sensitive). Some pups are very sensitive and just need a soft “Uh, Uh!” to stop immediately. Some pups are just a little more strong-willed and it takes a very loud “NO!” for them to stop their potty and be taken outside.
Once they potty outside we praise them and reward them if we have a treat available. We recommend having a “Lickety Stik” or a small bag of treats to give to your pup by your door. If you are consistent, your English Golden will learn that going inside is wrong and going outside is good.
Now the following is VERY important: If you find an “accident” on the floor, then it means you have failed and not the puppy. If a puppy is able to potty out of sight and you were not able to catch them, then you were either too distracted, too busy or didn’t block them off. Always make sure they are being watched and if they have an accident that you are able to correct them in that same moment.
If you discover an accident then tell yourself “That is my fault.” It’s not your puppy’s fault…it’s your fault. Never correct a puppy after the fact. Until they get older, they have a very short memory and can’t remember and thus understand why you are yelling at them. Also, NEVER “rub your dog’s nose in it.” English cream Golden Retrievers are very sensitive and smart. They want to please you. If you physically correct them, you are simply going to make your Golden Retriever afraid of you. You will lose their trust and continued training will be hampered.
Be Mindful of Pitfalls!
Recherche Kennels spot trains every puppy and we never allow our pups to use the restroom on hard surfaces. We train our pups to use the restroom only on pine shavings, grass or dirt. They are trained to do this even before they are weaned.
On the other hand, there are certain areas of a home that are usually pitfalls for puppies. These are areas that appear very similar to grass or dirt. Areas they tend to favor for accidents include carpets, rugs, doggy beds, etc… Whenever they are in these areas they may believe they are on a potty spot and be more prone to potty. Watch them carefully in these areas.
If your puppy does have an accident, clean it up very well to eliminate the smell by using a carpet cleaner like Nature’s Miracle Urine Destroyer. Dogs have an incredible sense of smell and if they can still smell residue on the spot where they pottied, they will be much more prone to potty there again and again. If they are constantly pottying on the same spot, another helpful tactic you can try is to feed them on the potty spot. They naturally do not want to sleep or eat where they potty so that can help discourage them.
Know Your Puppy’s “Schedule!”
Remember that a puppy will need to use the restroom after they wake up in the morning, after naps, after playing hard and after eating. During the day, a 12-week old puppy (Puppy Academy) usually will not hold their restroom for longer than 1-2 hours at a time. A 16-week old pup (Canine College) can hold it for around 2-3 hours and a 6-month-old (Doggy Doctorate) can hold it around 3-4 hours a day. If you keep a consistent schedule with feeding and pottying them, they will be much faster at mastering potty training at your home.
We feed our dogs first thing in the morning around 8 am and again around 2-3 pm. We feed them around 1 ½ cups of food at each sitting. If they are having problems with constant urination then perhaps it would help to monitor their water intake. Some Golden Retrievers love water….I mean LOVE water. I had a puppy that drank and drank and drank all day long. You can just imagine how many times we had to potty that dog! It seemed that every 30-60 minutes we had to let this pup out to potty!
In the Beginning…
The beginning phase, just after arriving home, is crucial. Make sure you teach them where to potty. Take them to the exact same spot to potty every time. Take your Golden out the exact same door every time. Use the same keyword when pottying your puppy (like “Let’s Go” or “Potty”). Treat your pup when they potty where they are supposed to. Buy some pine shavings and sprinkle them around where you want your pup to use the restroom.
Some families have even purchased bells or the Tell Bell and put them on the door. You can teach your puppy to ring the bells or Tell Bell every time they need to use the restroom. There are many great YouTube video tutorials on doing this. One of them can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQTTm5YeqEI.
Some breeds do have very sensitive stomachs. So many things can cause diarrhea, loss of appetite, vomiting, etc… We are always struggling to figure out what is causing what for each puppy. You definitely want to and need to stay on top of it. It can get bad very quick especially if he doesn’t eat or drink and/or vomits. The most common causes recently are:
- Stress– This is the most common reason why pups that go home get diarrhea. We never truly believed stress caused diarrhea until experience taught us the hard way. We learned by experience that when a pup travels long distances (8+ hours) that about 50% of them got diarrhea. We found that younger pups especially were prone to getting diarrhea in the first week of going home. Nothing was changed with food and water, yet they still would get diarrhea. Stress causes diarrhea more than any other reason in pups going home. We try to prevent “stress diarrhea” by giving our pups anti-diarrhea medicine before going home and providing you with Pro-pectalin, metronidazole and Forti-flora. This is mainly to keep your pups stool firm when traveling and adjusting to their new home.
- Giardia– Closely behind stress, giardia is the second most cause of diarrhea in English Goldens. The biggest reason is that there no medicine that truly kills it permanently. It’s very contagious passing through fecal matter and it lives in almost any kennel that’s been established for a few years. There are a couple of medicines that can suppress it enough for his immune system to overcome it. Panacur (fenbendazole) & Flagyl (metronidazole) are the best medicines to get for it we have found. A 10 day treatment of both together is the best combination. If your pup has diarrhea and your vet tests for giardia, make sure to have them test for active giardia and not antigen giardia. That is where they test to see is there is ova or giardia cyst in their fecal. Sending off to an outside lab like IDEXX is the most reliable way. Most of our pups will test positive for giardia antigen which basically means your pup had diarrhea in the past. Only treat your pup if they have active giardia. The reason is that you could develop a resistant strand of giardia. We have tried everything imaginable to get rid of giardia and one of the things we tried years ago was giving many days of “preventative” treatment of panacur and flagyl. What we found was that our pups still had giardia and a very strong strand that wouldn’t be killed easier. That basically meant a pup would continue to have soft stools until they got older and their immune system beat giardia down. So only treat if you have to.
- Food Sensitivities/Allergies– Some breeds do have sensitivities to certain foods and there is no food out there that works for every pup. TLC Whole Life Puppy Food is one of the best to work with most pups but sometimes our clients need to switch because of continual diarrhea. Simple is better. The 2 foods that our clients have used with stomach sensitivities are Canidae Grain-free Pure Sea w/ Salmon or a prescription food Royal Canin Hypoallergenic/Hydrolyzed Protein kibble. Both have worked very well. The Royal Canin is better than the Canidae but it’s simply harder to get since it’s a prescription food. Allergies- Puppies again are like people and all have different allergies. We’ve had pups with the oddest of allergies before. We’ve seen puppies have allergies to chicken, to grass, to barley, to Pork, to Soybean, to White Potato, to Green Peas and more. You may need to go to your vet and order an allergy test like the one found on vetallergy.com to truly figure it out.
- Coccidia– This is another common organism found in pups. We treat them with Marquis and it does work. Unfortunately, they could have some small amount of coccidia still in them (or their littermates) that regrows after some time. If that’s the case then you vet should see this with a normal fecal and prescribe Marquis or Albon with metronidazole.
- Worms– We do deworm our pups every 2 weeks with a variety of dewormers but sometimes again they get through. We even check them before going home but they can have an egg that’s resistant to the dewormer hatch and spread. The most common worms are hookworm and roundworm. Panacur is one of the most popular dewormers to use even though every vet has their own favorite medicine.
- Bacterial Infections– This is the most complicated problem because there are so many bacterias out there. Salmonella, Ecoli, Camylobacter jejun and other issues can cause diarrhea. Medicines given vary not only on the bacteria but the specific strain of bacteria. When we have a diarrhea problem that’s not giardia, coccidia, worms or food sensitivities it’s normally some sort of bacteria infection. We then have to send off a fecal to the vet and have it tested for everything. It’s expensive but it’s really the only thing we have found to tell us exactly what we are dealing with. Being a breeder of these breeds we have seen just about everything. Coronovirus, circovirus, ecoli, etc… We’ve never had something like parvo oddly enough but we’ve had almost everything else. Depending on what the pup tests positive for is how we treat it. Anti-biotics like clavamox, doxycycline, and even baytril needs to be used sometimes to get over some of these frustrating issues.
Getting Rid of Diarrhea
Here are our suggestions:
- Unsweeten Pumpkin– Add a scoop of canned unsweetened pumpkin. It’s high in fiber, good tasting and great in helping diarrhea. OR you can buy Pumpkin supplement like this: http://a.co/8xLvejk
- Probiotics– Buy some Forti-Flora Pro-biotics and put a packet it on your pup’s food daily. By the way, you should never give panacur especially without giving pro-biotic. Many vets and pet stores have Forti-flora or you can buy it online on Amazon: http://a.co/28qLkDa
- Diagel– Give a dosage of Dia-Gel for dogs. It’s the best anti-diarrhea medicine that works quickly for us: http://a.co/hWoiKQK
- Flagyl/aka Metronidazole– we give you this in your puppy packet but you probably got this from your vet as well.
There are other anti-diarrhea medicines we have tried. Every dog is different and so some medicines work better for one dog than another. Because of the amount of pups we have (we keep them longer than any breeder), we have seen no 1 anti-diarrhea medicine work for all. If nothing works than we have found it’s typically an allergy. I have had 2 pups in the past 10 years that kept having diarrhea and it ended being an allergy to…grass. Only an allergy test found that out. Here are some other good anti-diarrhea medicines:
- Tylan Powder– is a good anti-diarrhea medicine and oddly enough helps with tear stains. Unfortunately it is a prescription so your vet would have to get you a prescription to get it. It does work well for our Goldens.
- Kaolinpectin (http://a.co/ipinnmH)
- Pro-pectalin (http://a.co/5UIUMke)
- Immodium AD– yes…the same stuff you give a person. https://www.petmd.com/dog/general-health/imodium-dogs-it-good-idea
Warning!
Watery diarrhea combined with vomiting could be serious. If your pup is extremely lethargic then you need to get water and energy in your pup right away. We recommend giving Dyne High Calorie Solution or Nutra-Gel as an energy supplement if your pups getting dehydrated or hypoglycemic. Take them to the vet. Pups under 6 months of age are susceptible to quick death. The younger the more dangerous. 6-10 week of age is the most dangerous period. Then it’s 10-16 weeks. After 16 weeks its very rare that the pups are in danger of death but any pups under that age, be very, very watchful! We have lost dozens of pups due to this even under veterinarian care.
Generally speaking, submissiveness is a trait that all dog owners yearn to find in their beloved pets. A dog that is obedient and well trained is a joy to have around. However, for all of the blessings that come with a submissive pup, there is most certainly a potential disadvantage to their deference and respect: Submissive Urination, more commonly known as “Submissive Peeing.”
Submissive Peeing is actually quite normal behavior for the canine members of our families; some dogs pee in this manner as a way of communicating to their canine companions that they are not a threat. Not all pups are prone to submissive peeing, but those that are will most likely do so as a result of feeling either excited or intimidated.
How Do You Recognize Submissive Urination?
Postures that will likely accompany Submissive Peeing are lowering the body, tucking the tail, and flattening the ears back. Pups who struggle with Submissive Peeing are most likely to do so during the most exciting activities (like when greeting new people or animals or while being pet), and during the most “scary” activities (like when being scolded or punished). Submissive Peeing is found most commonly in puppies, and retrievers are one of the breeds that are more susceptible to the behavior.
What SHOULD I do?
Pups that submissively pee will not learn to correct their unwanted behavior from one day to the next. They will need a lot of patience, as well as training and strategic guidance, on the part of the owner. The following is a list of helpful pointers to steer your pup in the right direction:
- Empty the bladder. If you have upcoming events that you know will excite your pup (company coming over, for example), allow ample opportunity for pottying beforehand. A pup that struggles to hold its bladder will struggle that much more on a FULL bladder!
- Ignore your pup. This is critical if your pup pees out of excitement, and usually requires sacrifice on the part of the owner in ignoring your pup every single time you come home. It may seem cruel, but as a tactic for training submissive peeing out of a puppy, it has proven effective! When you first arrive home, completely ignore your pup’s existence and wait until they have 100% calmed down to acknowledge him/her.
- Posture is everything. Even when your pup has totally calmed, you should try to not approach your dog, but instead let your pup approach you. Don’t make eye contact, but instead look in a different direction. Crouch or squat down instead of bending over your pup. Posture is everything for your pup. Move your hand slowly towards your pup when it comes time to pet, and always begin by petting your pup low, under the chin or on the chest instead of petting over your pup’s head or back.
- Distract your pup. Once you begin to see results from the ignoring method, another good strategy is to find a way to distract your pup from the exciting stimulus. This can take the form of throwing some treats on the floor as your pup approaches you, or teaching your pup to sit every time you come home or you feel an exciting moment coming along.
What Should I NOT do?
- Do NOT scold or show frustration. NEVER scold or punish your pup for submissive peeing. Not only because this isn’t your pup’s fault, but also because it will typically make the problem even worse. Instead, if you notice that your pup begins to pee in a moment of affection or excitement, immediately stop whatever petting or attention you are giving. This will help the pup to eventually come to the realization that peeing is the best way to NOT get love and affection.
- Approach them directly. If you must approach your over-excited dog in order to get into your home, etc., try to approach from the side instead of head on, and present the side of your body to them instead of the front of your body.
We Humans Need Training, Too!
Considering that there are likely many folks who, just like your pup, are going to be very excited to meet and to greet their canine friend, it is important that you alert your guests to the importance of following the aforementioned indications prior to coming to your door. Especially for the friends or family who you know will be interacting with your pup on a regular basis, it is crucial that you teach and gently remind your excited friends to mask their excitement, at least until the pup calms down and learns to master its bladder.
Continued Training Tips
Upon getting your Recherche pup home, you may find that they try to test the boundaries and limitations of their new pack leaders. Many times these tests and challenges can take place while your pup is on a leash. We know that knowing how to correctly address these speed bumps with your pup can be a daunting task. Using the knowledge and experience we have gained over the years of training more than 700 pups, we have comprised a training video to help you recognize and handle many common issues that may arise while walking your pup on a leash.
Walking in Front of You: Ideally you want your dog’s head to be even with your thigh during a walk. Your dog may move in front of you because they are excited or distracted by something in front up ahead or because they are trying to lead the walk. Whatever the reason for the behavior, the correction is still the same. As soon as your dog makes a move to get in front of you, give the leash a sharp leash pop and do a 180 degree turn so that you begin moving in the exact opposite direction that your pup wants to go. Once they catch back up to you and begin walking beside you give them praise and affection.
Lagging Behind You: If your dog’s head falls behind your thigh or you find yourself having to maintain tension on the leash to encourage forward movement from your pup then your pup is lagging behind. This could take place because they are interested in something behind them or because they don’t really want to go the way you are asking them to go. When this happens give several small quick leash pops in the forward direction to encourage movement in that direction. You may also pat your leg and use your voice to encourage your pet to move forward. Once they get back into the correct leash walking position, praise them verbally and reward them with affection.
Straying to the Left: This can happen when you pass by interesting looking/smelling/sounding distractions. Your pup begins to pay more attention to their surroundings that they do to their pack leader (YOU) and then they start moving away from you to the left. To address this you want to give a leash correction and then immediately make a sharp turn to the right. This will automatically redirect your pup’s attention back to you. Remember to make sure that your level and intensity of correction matches your level and intensity of praise/reward.
Cutting in Front of You: Your pup may try this if something on your other side catches their attention and they want to go investigate. If this happens your pup will be hovering in your space or trying to cut across your body. To correct this behavior you will NOT use the leash to correct, instead you will use your body. While keeping the leash slack make a sharp turn to the left using your knees or shins to move your dog out of the space that you want to claim. This movement should be decisive and assertive. Your goal is not to move carefully to avoid making contact with your pup. Your goal is to require your pup to pay attention to you in order to avoid getting stepped on as you move.
Remember that leash training, like all areas of puppy training is about consistency and repetition. Your puppy is not going to be the same everyday. You may have one day where they seem to have everything down to an art, then the next day they don’t seem to remember how to do anything. When this happens make sure you don’t get discouraged and lose sight of your long term goal. Keep at it, be diligent, and persevere. The days where your pup seems to have it all together will become more frequent, while the days of them seeming to be at square one will become few and far between. With patience and consistency you will soon have people stopping you to compliment you on your pup’s manners. Believe me, we have all seen it!
Let’s focus on the “come” command. This command is one of the most unusual of all commands because it’s more than just an obedience command. “Sit”, “Stay”, “Lay”, “Heel” and many others are simply obedience commands that a puppy can master after hours of repetition with distractions. Your Recherche puppy is definitely doing great in these commands. “Come” is also an obedience command, but it’s a little more than that.
We do train “Come” by using the word “Come” and an open palm tap to the chest. If you watch our YouTube videos you can see many videos of our pups listening to our trainers very attentively. What you don’t see is the relationship that we have built with your puppy. More than likely your puppy won’t “come” as easily and readily to you as they are coming to our trainers right now. Why? Because you haven’t yet built up the relationship with your pup. That takes time and trust.
As you spend time with your pup and love on your pup, they will develop the desire to be with you. As you consistently reward your pup and reprimand your pup, your pup will develop trust in you. If you “fly off the handle” for no good reason or show lack of concern for your pup, or let your pup “get away with murder” then you will lose that respect and love that’s necessary for a consistent “come”.
Training Tips on Building a Relationship With Your New Puppy
First, spend at least a week without any structured obedience training so that you can first develop a loving relationship with your pup. Spend time with them and do not over correct them. Do your best not to correct them at all. The first week is always difficult because they are away from everything they know and are used to. The sights, the sounds and especially the smells are all different. Use this time just to have your pup get comfortable with you and learn to love and trust you.
Second, bribe them. Sounds horrible, but it works. Most breeds LOVE food, and the fastest way to their heart is through their mouth. Carry treats with you everywhere at the beginning. Have a baggie of some good soft treats like cubed chicken hot dogs when you go on walks or in public somewhere. If they start getting stressed, scared or distrustful during this first bonding week, give them a treat and you will see their beautiful black eyes light up and many times their mouths will start knocking from pure excitement!
Thirdly, after a week or so start having a training session every day. The best time to train is when your puppy is very hungry. First thing in the morning or before their afternoon meal is the best time. Spend maybe 5-10 minutes tops working with their commands like you see Recherche Kennels doing. After they are done with their training session, give them their food. They are used to this routine as we have been doing it since 6 weeks of age. It will also get them to look forward to spending time with you.
The last thing we want to prepare you for is a possible “rebellious stage.” Puppies, like people, can go through a rebellious phase. It’s what we call their “teenage years,” and it happens between 4-10 months of age. It’s the time where for no good reason they just refuse to come. Sometimes it’s because the relationship hasn’t been built and sometimes it’s “just because.” It’s a very delicate time because if you are not careful you could cause permanent issues. You do not want to be overly harsh during this time. If you correct your dog strongly for not obeying “come,” then their rebellious period will turn into a very serious “fear period” which could last the rest of their lives.
Just work through it with patience. Keep training them. If you have to, put them on a 20 foot leash and stretch it out. Reward them when they come. If they start going the other direction, you will have the leash handy to grab. You can also put treats near your doors, and so every time you call your dog to go inside you treat them. If they run away, the worst thing to do is to go after them and discipline them harshly. That just makes it worse. Just try to forget about it (I know that’s hard!). They will get over their “rebellious phase” typically around 10-12 months of age, as long as you don’t cause permanent damage.
Remember, your Recherche puppy knows the “come” command for obedience, but the dog/owner relationship has to be strong for it to “come back to them!”
