House Training a Shelter Dog

Sometimes when you bring home an adult dog from a pet rescue organization or shelter it needs to be housetrained. Here are some tips to teaching old dog new tricks.

Make him feel safe and give him a den to retreat to. Making your rescued dog feel emotionally secure by providing him with a den builds your trust bond with him and makes him less anxious. A dog that is calm and feels secure is easier to train than a dog that does not know his place in your home. Providing him with a safe haven may also prevent him from urinating out of fear if he encounters other members of your pet or human family.

Learn to read his body language. When it comes reading the dog’s body language, circling, sniffing, rising to a standing position and then sitting down again repeatedly and whining are all messages that he needs to go outside. Don’t ignore these messages. Validate the dog immediately by taking him out to urinate or defecate. Don’t punish an adult dog by pushing his face in urine or feces. These substances are not offensive to a Stafford so he will have no idea that he is being punished if you do this. He will enjoy the sensation of the smell and associate it with pleasure. He may also associate this with positive attention from you.

Also note that adopted that have suffered from malnutrition may have small, underdeveloped bladders. These poor dogs may simply not be able to hold their urine. The only solution to this is to take him out more often. It is absolutely crucial that you never blame this type of dog for accidents, as he just can’t help it. If you do intimidate this type of dog the first thing it is going to do is urinate. This is how it shows that it is submissive to you and recognizes your anger. The dog may even begin to urinate unprovoked when it sees you to show you that it recognizes that you are dominant. In this case, the dog has a hard-wired instinct to please you by automatically piddling when it sees you. Once again, your best course of action is to be patient. Try not to resent the dog for having accidents.

A dog is not a vengeful creature. He simply doesn’t understand where he is supposed to go or why he should hold it. He has either been badly trained or not at all. All you can do about this one is keep a lot of paper towels handy in all areas of your home in case it happens again. The thing to realize is that nearly all shelter dogs have problems like this. If you have nice carpets or don’t like the smell of urine then don’t get a dog from a shelter or a rescue organization. Chances are very likely that the dog will have problems with its training and have to be retrained. Simply accept that accidents are going to be inevitable with a rescued dog especially if it has had a traumatic time.

Dealing With Dog Flatulence

If your dog is farting a lot (or experiencing flatulence as it is known in politer circles) then it probably has to do with something the animal has eaten. Most of the time it is a fairly innocent symptom and not indicative of any disease or even of indigestion. Very rarely it can indicate an abdominal obstruction, which means that your dog may have eaten something it, shouldn’t have.

However there can be warning signs that the farting is more than an occasional bad smell.) If vomiting, diarrhea or constipation accompanies the flatulence then take your pet to the veterinarian as soon as you can. If it is diet that is causing the flatulence than you can try the following methods to try and get the problem under control. First of all try to feed the pet more dry foods than wet foods. You can do this by mixing a bit of dry food with the wet and then over a series of days adding more and more dry food until he is off the wet food diet. Your dog will probably not like this at first and there may be even more digestive upsets until he has adjusted to his new dry diet.

Take your dog for a walk within an hour after feeding him. This will help get his gastric juices flowing and moving food through his digestive system. At the very least if you dog is going to fart it is probably better that he or she do it outside anyway. Make sure your pet is not eating rubbish from the trashcan.

Buy one of those trashcans with a pedal that keeps the lid down or buy a tall garbage can so the dog can’t get at it. Stop feeding your pet scraps from the table as half the time it is human food that is causing the dog to fart. Teaching your dog not to beg at the table is a start. Also talk to other soft hearted family members that may be feeding the dog behind your back.

Reduce or eliminate dairy products (such as cheese) from your dog’s diet for a week and see if there is any improvement. Like humans, dogs can be lactose intolerant. Try raising your pet’s food bowl by putting it on a small stool, table or even telephone book so that he does not have to bend down to eat. This helps him gulp less air when he swallows.

If you have multiple dogs or other dogs in the house he may be gulping his food to finish it all before the others get it. Make sure he has his own bowl and separate feeding time so his gobbling does not cause him to ingest excess air that can cause flatulence. If the flatulence really smells horrific or is every few minutes you should take the dog to the vet. It could have a digestive blockage, stomach intestine or some other kind of problem.

Pet Blog
dog, food