HOW TO TRAIN YOUR PAPILLON
Every thing your puppy does is a learning experience. EVERY THING. He will learn something good from it or something bad from it.
HOUSE TRAINING
The first thing you will need to do, when you get your puppy home, is to introduce him to his potty area. Take him on lead to one spot in the yard and say a word that you will use every time you want him to relieve himself. It can be "go potty" "hurry up" "right here" or any word or phrase. Use the word every time. He will soon associate the word with his business and get the job done much faster.
Always take him to the same place. Stay there until he goes. This is a very important step, do not go back in to the house until he goes potty. When he does his business praise him, act crazy !!! Oh good boy, that was a good hurry up !!! The more you praise the faster he will learn. I will add here, if you have another dog, take that dog with you when you take the puppy out to potty. Papillon's also learn by watching. Often they will watch the other dog and then march right over and do the same thing in the same spot.
Your Papillon will need a crate and you will need to let him use it. The puppy will, in most cases, be crate trained when you receive it. This means it will have been in a crate for short periods of time and will be use to the crate. All dogs that get use to a crate early in life, love them. Never use a crate as punishment. In fact your dog should never be punished, but we will not get into that here. The crate is their safe place, their den. When in the crate, children, adults and other pets need to leave him alone.
Do not expect your puppy to be able to" hold it" all day while you are at work or out for the day. This is unfair to the small breed puppy, they simply can not hold it for very long, even when crated. If you must leave your Papillon for the entire day, then you will need to get a larger crate and give it a bed in that crate as well as a potty area. If room allows use an x-pen. An x-pen is a 4 foot by 4 foot portable fence, or play yard. Never leave the collar on the puppy when he is in the crate or the x-pen. Collars can get hung up on the wires and cause the puppy to strangle. Collars can also slide over the bottom jaw and into the mouth. This is a sad situation for the puppy to be in. Take the collar off.
It is never a good idea to use your kitchen, bathroom, laundry room or bedroom in place of a crate. The Papillon can cause as much damage as a large dog, if he decides to chew. They have been known to chew woodwork, doors, walls, wallpaper, table and chair legs, dressers, window blinds, and electrical cords, you name it and they might chew it. For the safety of your Papillon and your house, never leave the puppy free in any room with out supervision.
The basic steps of house training your Papillon are.
Never leave the puppy unattended or give him free range of your home until he is completly house trained.
When you can not watch him, crate him.
Take the puppy out on a lead to the same place every time.
Give the command word.
Stay until his business is complete.
Praise him like crazy!
Your puppy will need to go out often.
Take him out as soon as he is let out of the crate,
after he wakes from a nap,
first thing in the morning and the first thing on arriving home.
Take him out with in 10 to 15 minutes after he has eaten.
Take him out when you see him sniffing and circling or
after he has been running and playing hard.
Make sure he has the chance to go out every few hours.
Never punish the puppy for going in the house. If he starts to relief himself in the house, say stop or no or ahhh in a loud voice and take him out quickly. If he has already gone potty, clean it up with a product that is made for pet urine, to elimanate the odor, so he does not seek that spot out again.
Think of house training as a step process. When he goes potty outside, you have taken a step forward, when you make a mistake and he goes potty in the house, you have taken 3 steps back. Keep your eyes open and keep the puppy with you and supervised at all times, avoid taking the 3 steps back.
Remember your dog or puppy does not make mistakes, you do. If your puppy goes potty in the house, it is your mistake. You waited too long to take him out, you did not stay out until he finished potting or you did not watch him carefully.
Extra tips for house training.
Establish a regular routine for feeding and the potty routine will follow. Puppies should eat at least 3 times a day. Adults will eat twice a day.
Place a bell near the bottom of the door. When the puppy plays with the bell and makes it ring, take him out to his potty area. He will soon learn to ring the bell when he needs to go out. When taking the puppy out, before he learns to ring the bell, make it ring as you are going out. Use caution with the bell, do not get one that is small enough for the puppy to swallow or choke on.
If you have a fenced yard for your puppy, do not send him out to potty alone. You must take him out, on lead is best, so that he stays with you and does not play, until he does his business. Then praise him and release him to play in his yard. After he is completely trained, then and only then, can you allow him to go out to potty with out you. At this time, a doggy door with a very secure fenced yard can be used even when you are not at home. Again use caution, with this. The fence and yard must be secure. Secure for a Papillon means no openings they can squeeze through and no way for other dogs to get in.
OBEDIENCE
Consider taking your puppy to an obedience class. Pick one that does not use force, yelling and jerking for the training method. You will want a class that teaches the puppy or dog, commands by voice, and hand signals and lots of praise and treats. If you observe any dog being handled roughly, run, don't walk, from that class. Dogs that are trained will be happier and so will you. There are many good books and pamplets on the basics, you can start with one of them. Teaching to walk on a lead, with out pulling, to sit, wait and stay, are the simple commands they should learn in this first months home.
DASHING OUT THE DOOR
You must teach you puppy early, not to run out the door when it is open. For his or her safety teach him to wait until you say the "okay to go out" word. It is very easy to train the dog not to run out the door when it is open. Put the dog or pup on lead and walk out the door while holding the lead back so that the dog can not follow. When the dog starts to come out say ahh ahh and pull back on the lead. Then say "Okay lets go out" or what ever "word" you want to use. Practice this a few times. The dog will quickly learn to wait and not try to dash out. Remember to use the command to allow him to go out every time you take him through the door. A " let's go out" or a "do you want to go out" is good. You want the dog to have a command for permission to "go out", not a command to "stay in". You or someone else may open the door and forget to tell him to "stay". If you train him to "stay in" until you you give him permission to "go out", he will never run out. This can save his life.
DASHING DOWN THE STEPS
This is taught the same way you teach dashing out the door. You may want your dog to wait at the top of the steps until you reach the bottom or you may want your dog to go to the bottom or top of the stairs before you. This is to avoid tripping accidents or in large breeds being knocked down the steps.
CHEWING
Puppies need to chew to get their puppy teeth out and their adult teeth in. Many adult dogs love to chew also and it helps to keep their teeth clean. Keep your puppy crated, when you can not watch him, until he has gone through the chewing puppy stage.. Give him plenty of allowable things to chew on, such as rolled rawhide, dog chews, biscuits and carrots. Bitter Apple spray works well to keep your puppy from chewing on non food items. Do not allow your puppy to chew on you. When he does, put him down and ignore him for a minute. Do this every time. He will learn quickly. A Papillon will teeth for 6 to 8 months or more. During this time he will chew on any thing. If he is chewing on you and putting him down is not working, then have a tasty bone for him to chew on while you hold him.
LICKING YOU
Some dogs are lickers. They will lick your face, hands or what ever they can, when ever you are holding them. How you treat this is very important. The licking can become annoying quickly. One dog I had was a licker. To get him to stop, it was automatic to put my hand on him, this made him stop licking. Then I learned that petting him kept him from licking. Remember what I said in the first sentence on this page? Everything is a learning experience. This dog quickly learned, when he wanted to be petted, all he needed to do was lick. When I stop petting, he would lick, start petting, he would stop. Get the picture. I was trained by him!
The correct way to avoid licking, chewing on your fingers or other annoying habits your little furkid may be into, is to stand up and ignore him. Every time he is on your lap and the habit starts, say no, off, then ignore him, stand up, if you have to. Sit back down after a minute and repeat as many times as it takes. It won't take many, the little Papillons are smart, they catch on pretty quickly.
AGILITY OR RALLY
One of the best, most rewarding things you can do with your Papillon is to go to an Agility or Rally class with them. You don't have to go to Agility or Rally shows. Just go and enjoy the class. Go at an easy pace for you and your Papillon. It is a lot of fun for both of you. Don't be suprised if you find yourself and your Papillon getting pretty good at it. To find a club in your area, go to AKC.com and click on clubs. Then click on your state and the type of club you want.
COMFORMATION
If you are interestred in showing your Papillon in conformation. Go the the AKC.com and cick on clubs, your state and comformation. The clubs that have comformation classes will come up. The best way to learn to show in comformation is attending classes.
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