House training is at the top of the list when you bring home a new puppy or dog. It can also be one the more frustrating aspects of dog training. Some puppies just don’t learn very quickly that they shouldn’t use your floors as their own personal potty. But if you adhere to the two rules of house training your pup will soon learn the proper place to relieve himself.

Rule #1: Prevent accidents. Supervise your puppy in the house. Use a confinement area or leash your puppy to you when you are not sure if your puppy is empty.

Rule #2: Reward your puppy for going outside. Praise at the right moment (when he starts ‘going’) and reward with treats the moment he finishes.

Preventing Accidents

People often make the mistake of giving a new puppy too much freedom too soon. Use a long-term confinement area, such as a single room with an easy-to-clean floor (kitchen, laundry room, etc.) when you will be gone longer than your dog can hold it. Furnish it with:

• A potty pad or litter box
• Your puppy’s crate (with door open)
• Water and food bowels
• Chew toys and stuffed Kongs

Use short-term confinement (his crate or leashed to you) when you are home but cannot devote undivided attention to your dog.

Fabulous Rewards Get Fabulous Results

Take your puppy outside on leash every 60 minutes (don’t wait for a signal). Take him to the same potty area every time. When you see him squat begin praising him. Offer him some fabulous treats when he is finished. If you are in a puppy-safe place, let him off the leash for a little playtime.

If he doesn’t go within 5 minutes, take him back inside and put him in his crate (with a chew toy or stuffed Kong) or leash him to you for 10-20 minutes, then try again. For every 3 days of no accidents, increase the time between potty breaks by 15 minutes.

Puppy House Training Checklist

Take your puppy to his potty place first thing in the morning, last thing before bed, shortly after meals, naps, or play sessions, when he comes out of his crate, and generally every hour or so.

Until your puppy is perfectly house trained, always go outside with him so you can cheer and reward at the right moment.
Supervise whenever your puppy is not crated. If you must take your eyes off him, even for a minute, crate him or leash him to you.
If you see your puppy sniffing and circling in the house, take him out immediately.

Handling Puppy House Training Mistakes

Interrupt mistakes as they are happening. After interrupting your puppy, hustle him outside to the potty area. Praise if he finishes there. Clean up the indoor mess with an enzymatic cleaner to remove protein residue that might attract him to the same place again.

Never punish. If your puppy made the mistake one hour or five seconds ago, you are too late. Don’t rub his nose in his own mess or smack him, this will simply make him afraid of you, and he won’t understand why you do it. You must catch him in the act for the interruption to work, and again, you can’t do it too harshly or your puppy will be afraid to go in front of you, even when you are outside!

Puppy Troubleshooting

If your puppy potties in the house, take a newspaper, roll it up, and hit……
yourself over the head – because you weren’t paying enough attention to your dog!

Still having trouble or do you have more questions about your dog’s training or behavior? ‘Ask the Trainer’ by contacting Dentler’s Dog Training – [email protected] or 610-505-0123.

Jeff Dentler is a Certified Professional Dog Trainer and owner of Dentler’s Dog Training in Pottstown, PA. For more information and to sign-up for his newsletter, visit the Dentler’s Dog Training website. For daily tips on training, exercise, health, and nutrition please become a fan on Facebook.

When Arctic Spirit Rescue asked me to write about an article about “Special Needs” dogs, a myriad of subjects came to mind. My husband and I are suckers for dogs with disabilities to the point where I started a Website called Gimpy Dogs to help others wade through the confusing and often misleading sites out there selling everything from snake oil to miracle cures and peddling bad information.

We chose to adopt a Siberian Husky with horrible hips, and one with a deformed front paw because we fell in love with them on first sight, but also because we knew that they would need pretty extensive medical care, and had the time, money, and means to give them a wonderful loving home. We also purchased a purebred Siberian Husky from champion lines from a reputable breeder.

Throughout their lives, we’ve dealt with:

• Juvenile Cataracts (and subsequent near blindness)
• Liver tumor
• Perianal adenomas
• Total Hip Replacement
• Knee Surgery
• Compressed disc and spine surgery
• Ehrlichiosis
• Knee surgery
• Chronic Urinary Tract Infections
• Bladder Cancer
• Degenerative Myelopathy
• Bladder Incontinence

If you look at that list, you’ll see that the only thing listed that has anything to do with a dog with bad hips and one with a deformed paw is the Total Hip Replacement. The Husky with the deformed paw has been our least expensive “gimpy dog”. Everything else popped up, out of the blue. Even our purebred, from show lines, reputable breeder raised with perfectly sound parents, and socialized early Siberian Husky needed some “special” care through her life as well. Not to scare you away from bringing a four-legged family member into your home, but Special Needs dogs may pop up out of the blue, you don’t necessarily choose them, and in their senior years, you will most definitely encounter medical issues.

How to Prepare for a Special Needs Dog

Even healthy “normal” dogs will cost you money in the general day-to-day things: food, treats, toys, leashes, crates, collars, and vet bills when they eat their collar, toys, and annual vaccines and check ups. The best way to handle the day-to-day is to be proactive and prepare for the emergencies that may come up.

Pet Insurance vs Savings Account

Some people choose pet insurance, but do your research to find out which type of policy is best for your dog. Some require you to take your dog to specific vets for treatments that are covered. Others require you to pay the vet bill and then get reimbursed for treatment.

We opted to just start a savings account for our dogs and put money in automatically each month. If you can pay a company a monthly fee for insurance, you can put it in a savings account instead. If you start off when they’re puppies and don’t touch it, you generally have enough saved up for some pretty pricey procedures. This way, you don’t pay a company monthly fees, have a stranger determine where your dog is treated, and what gets covered. In the case of companies that reimburse, you still have to come up with the money up front for procedures and hope the procedures are covered under the insurance. Some people save off a special credit card to use for emergencies or needed treatments.

Learn to Filter Information About Your Dog’s Breed

Learn as much as you can about the breed of dog you adopt. All breeds have special issues, training techniques, and congenital issues, so find out from people who know: other people who own the breed, reputable non-profit rescues, and your vet. Learn how to filter out bogus information you may find on the Web, take advice with a grain of salt, and always consult your vet. If you don’t trust your vet to give you good information, then find another vet. If you do trust your vet but think there may be other options out there, don’t hesitate to get a second opinion. If your vet is offended by you wanting a second opinion, then get another vet.

One very important thing to remember: your vet sees your dog once a year, sometimes more. YOU have to be your dog’s advocate and you have to relay important information to your vet on behalf of your dog, so make sure you document things, do some research on a diagnosis, and engage your vet in conversations about the best treatment.

Not So “Special”

Now that I’ve pretty much freaked you out, let me tell you what isn’t so “Special” about Special Needs dogs: They’re just dogs. Sure, you may spend a little more time and sometimes money, caring for them, need a little more patience depending on their disability, but for the most part, they’re just dogs, and they do dog things.

In the case of our huskies, they were typical huskies: stealing whole raw roasts from the counter, shredding toilet paper, escaping, digging, bouncing off the furniture, wooing to go out, in, out, in, out, in, etc.

Dogs have the wonderful capacity of not knowing they are different in any way. Our mutant pawed Loki had no clue he was any different, and ran like the wind. People would say “what’s wrong with his paw?” and we’d freak out and look, thinking something was wrong with his paw, only to realize they were referring to his mutatoe. Sam, with his bad hips, would leap up, nab whole loaves of bread, and gobble them up in seconds. Nova, with almost complete cataract coverage, would still uncannily manage to catch squeeky toys thrown at him, was fine as long as we didn’t move the furniture, still ran up and down the stairs.

Every dog has special needs: they need love, and a good home.

We thank Penny for sharing her experience of living with special needs dogs. We hope her perspective will encourage some potential adopters to consider a dog labeled special needs. Please visit her Gimpy Dogs website for valuable information, insight, links, and support.

We’ve heard it all through the years:

“They have such pretty blue eyes!”
“They look like a wolf!”
“My cousin’s best friend’s neighbor had one when I was a child, they’re cool.”

They’re often seen in blockbuster movies and TV shows – Snow Dogs, Eight Below, and most recently, Game of Thrones. We’ve all seen the reports on social media blaming these movies for a sudden increase in Siberian Husky relinquishment. Sadly, it doesn’t help, but the fact is, there has always been a steady stream of Huskies being relinquished for many reasons as noted above and when the movies disappear there will still be relinquishments due to unprepared owners. Breed-specific rescues and local shelters have never been able to keep up with re-homing this breed.

The best defense is a strategy. Education. Arctic Spirit Rescue is focused as much on education as we are on adoption. We often speak with local groups and make sure our audience understands that although beautiful, this breed has very specific needs and requires a very specific owner. For that reason we’re very cautious when we choose an adopter or foster home making sure they’re well prepared for those Siberian antics.

Let’s Talk About Those Siberian Husky Traits

Siberian Huskies are amazing animals with some very unique traits. Below are important considerations if you are thinking of adding one to your family.

Grooming

They shed…a lot. This doesn’t happen just a couple times a year. It’s constant and requires frequent brushings and regular grooms to help manage it. You’ll find their hair everywhere – in your food, on your clothes, drifting along in the air, rolling through your living room. Your guests will encounter hair on their clothing when they visit. It’s embedded in your furniture. If this bothers you in any way. Don’t get one.

Barking & Howling

They’re vocal. They typically don’t bark like other dogs do. They howl and sing. It’s the song of their breed! If you live in a neighborhood that won’t appreciate this music, don’t get one. It’s not something that can be “trained out” of them.

Training a Husky

Speaking of training – it’s not going to be easy. Siberians are known as independent thinkers. It’s in their DNA and can be traced back to their early beginnings. They like to make their own decisions and that’s not always going to be in your (or your home’s) best interest. Your goal will be to keep your Siberian friend busy so he won’t have time to look for other things to do. For this reason many Siberian owners find it helpful to have more than one. They are often happier living in a pack and it will reduce the boredom they might encounter. They won’t be the dog that lies down on command, rolls over, and speaks on request unless perhaps you have something yummy that they desire at that particular moment. They usually don’t fetch, at least not past the first two times and they’ll always leave the intended object far away from you requiring you to actually fetch it if you want it back. They’ll watch you fetch while they rest in the yard.

Preparing For a Husky Escape Artist

They like to run away. They’ll run away no matter how wonderful you are. They were bred to run and this is another trait that won’t be trained out of them. If there’s an open door or gate they’ll find it. If there’s a fence left unsecured at the base they will dig their way out within minutes. They climb fences, especially chain link fences or a fence with a picnic table or grill placed too close to the fence panel. They’ll wait for snow to pile up at the perimeter of the fence to use as a boost to hop over the fence. When they’ve breached their confinement they will keep running for miles. If you’re fortunate enough to find them they might not be in the same town. They might be in the next County. They are unlikely be in your neighbor’s yard, unless of course your neighbor owns a cat that has regularly tormented them from the other side of the fence.

Huskies Have a Prey Drive

This brings us to cats and small animals. We should mention they’re not very trustworthy around animals significantly smaller than they are. It doesn’t matter if this Husky has lived with a cat for years. If that cat bounds across the yard one day something called predatory drift kicks in and it’s over. We’ve dealt with this very issue when heartbroken owners call us in total disbelief that their Husky “attacked” the cat he lived with for 7 years. Yes – there might be exceptions to the rule for that one in a million Husky you had years ago. Don’t ever assume another one will be the same, even if raised as a puppy. This goes back to the independent thinker trait.

So Why Own a Siberian Husky?

So why in the world would anyone want a Husky?? They are incredibly intelligent and we are quite certain they understand everything we are thinking. This is particularly helpful after a long, hard day full of disappointment and frustration. They know when we need them the most and if we’re lucky, will run up to us, do a huge play bow, and invite us to play. Or, they might quietly settle next to us, snuggling as close as they can get or lie across our legs so we can no longer feel our feet. This is an honor. They’ll help us with our chores….you’ll never be alone again! They’re always available to supervise any task. Their gentle, kind, and perpetually happy personalities will raise the bar for any other dog you might own although once you’ve successfully cohabitated with a Siberian we’re very sure you’ll want another. It just works that way.

Interested in Siberian Huskies? Be sure to follow us on Facebook for future tips on caring for the breed. Also subscribe to our YouTube Channel, where we will be adding educational videos on care for all northern breed dogs.