Puppy household etiquette
The fashion, currently, is for dogs to cohabitate with their human owners indoors in an artificial environment, from puppyhood until advanced senior years. This is a human's choice and not an animal's preference.
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This modern approach opens numerous philosophical, animal behavioural, human psychological and veterinary doors. Certainly dogs want to interact as much as possible with people, who serve as an important inclusion in their gregarious social structure, but they also crave the instinctive aspects of being outside in nature where all their senses are used to an optimum.
They want visual stimulation, to expend physical energy, use of their olfactory senses to sniff out their territory, to observe or chase insects, reptiles, rodents and birds and the freedom to do so.
Puppy-proofing one’s home has been dealt with in previous articles, but now that the scenario of indoor-dwelling dogs is increasing, the problems of living inside increase for the pet.
It is imperative that any newly introduced puppy is taught where to defecate, what is acceptable for destructive chewing and how to, contentedly, calmly, occupy themselves in the absence of people and activity. Any mistake is a potential disaster because it signals many more to come. House-training, crate training and chew-toy training must be without errors, tolerated and effectively implemented, respectively and quickly. The more committed and consistent people are, the sooner the pup becomes socially acceptable inside the home and the sooner it will enjoy free rein of certain areas.
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Early confinement must be taken seriously with long-term benefits in mind. Messing in the house is not a phase the puppy is going through – it is unhygienic, a nuisance and purely owner supervision negligence and laziness. Every pup should have a long-term confinement facility at the outset to prevent mistakes around the house and to control its chewing habits to more appropriate items.
One may allocate one room in the house for this purpose wherein all the puppy’s requirements are available, such as toys, food, water, bedding, including a toilet in the farthest corner from its bedding. Confinement prompts the pup to focus on its toys, leaving little time to panic, become anxious or bark excessively. Once the pup has mastered household manners, the space available may be increased by successive approximation.
Many people ignore this early education and you will discover, although the owner is in complete denial, that the soiling indoors continues throughout its life due to the natural habit developing into a learnt obsessive compulsive behaviour reinforced, intermittently, by inappropriate punishment of the dog. In the cases where this is ignored, often the dog will toilet on the owner’s bed when under social stress. Short-term confinement areas dealt with in the past in crate-training has many advantages, including a meaningful human-animal bond. Anyway, who enjoys a pet that uses your home as a toilet?
A responsible pet owner must never allow their pup to make mistakes in the house. If you want the animal indoors, you need to be vigilant and competent. If the pup messes inside the house, certain questions need to be asked. Who left the puppy with a full bladder and bowel? Who left the puppy unattended to ransack the room, eat the electrical cords and destroy children’s toys? Who put the puppy’s face in its mess and smacked it? What did the puppy learn from this archaic method? Why do people do this to puppies and not to their own children? Who does not know the basics: that you reward good behaviour and ignore bad behaviour?
