My puppy won't housebreak. Is nose rubbing cruel or effective?

This is not how I recommend potty training. I find that it makes the puppy fearful and can actually delay your potty training efforts. If you find an accident in the house and later take the puppy back to it and rub his nose, he will not understand what you are doing. I think it is best to fully supervise the puppy whenever he is free in the home. Take him outside more often than he will likely need to to. Give him a command and go to the same place each time. Give lots of praise and treat when he goes outside. If he has an accident in the house (and be will), clean it with a carpet cleaner marketed for animal odors and just move on. He will learn quickly if you are consistent. I would recommend a consult if you would like to discuss this further with me, but I hope this information helps. Good luck to you and Bennie!

• DO have a feeding schedule in which elimination breaks follow eating and drinking; this is a natural reflex in dogs. Elimination breaks should also follow napping/sleeping and exercise/play. • DO praise your puppy at the time he is eliminating in an appropriate place! You can also give him a small treat at that time. • DO constantly supervise puppy to prevent him from sneaking off and eliminating when you can’t correct him; try keeping him on a leash attached to your waist. • DO clean inappropriate eliminations thoroughly with enzymatic cleaner to remove residual smells that may entice puppy to revisit the area. • DO leave feces in desired areas of elimination, when appropriate, to reinforce that this is an appropriate area for performing this function. • DO take puppy to the same desired area every time; do not play with or excite him until he has eliminated. He should realize that elimination is his first and foremost duty (no pun intended!) and that playtime is secondary. • DO interrupt improper elimination by startling your puppy (e.g. clapping your hands) and redirect or carry him to the desired elimination area. • DO be consistent and patient until your puppy’s housetraining is complete. Incomplete housetraining is a primary cause of housesoiling as an adult dog. What NOT To Do: • DO NOT punish your puppy for inappropriate elimination verbally or physically (e.g. hitting with rolled up newspaper, rubbing his nose in his mess, etc). This is ineffective and may lead to further and more serious behavioral problems. • DO NOT punish your puppy after you find it. • DO NOT leave puppy outside unsupervised. You may miss an opportunity to praise him for appropriate elimination behavior. • DO NOT make abrupt changes to your puppy’s diet unless instructed by your veterinarian. • DO NOT allow puppy to have free access to the house without direct supervision. Be especially aware if you think your puppy is going to sleep in the evenings…he may be sneaking off to eliminate. • DO NOT get discouraged – accidents will happen and should be expected! Please talk with your veterinarian if you have more questions about housetraining your new addition.

Thanks for posting this question. The thing to remember about house training is that we are actually teaching the dog the preference and desire to go outside. We aren't really teaching them to not go inside. Kind of backwards, but that's how they get trained. Keep her close when she is inside, even tether her leash to your belt loop. Anytime you see her act like she might need to go potty get her outside. When she successfully urinates outside give her treats and lots of praise. Keep doing this and she will want to go outside. Good luck and thanks for using Pet Coach!

I am not a huge proponent of crate training. Though it can be effective to stop accidents and keep destructive chewing to a minimum. Overall I believe it leads to understimukated dogs. I have shared below to step by step articles to help with potty training and with accidents. I would suggest trying these methods before trying crate training. https://www.petcoach.co/article/top-5-tips-to-potty-train-your-dog-young-and-old https://www.petcoach.co/article/6-common-reasons-for-potty-accidents-in-dogs

I'm sorry to hear that you're having these problems with Ebby! Puppies this age can definitely be frustrating at times. We actually have a great article on the PetCoach website that discusses housetraining in detail - you can read it here: https://www.petcoach.co/article/7-rules-for-effective-housetraining/0 This should get you on the right track with teaching her to potty outside. If you still have questions about this after reading the article, feel free to post again - we would be happy to try and help :) Biting and mouthing are very normal behaviors for a puppy this age - this is how puppies explore the world, and how they instinctively want to play. This will resolve on its own as she gets older, but there are a few things you can do in the meantime to help. Make sure that Ebby has a variety of different toys to provide an appropriate outlet for this behavior - long floppy rope or fleece toys for tugging, plush toys for biting and carrying, and smaller toys or balls for chasing and fetching. You should also provide lots of different things for her to chew on, such as bully sticks, large rawhide chews, cow or pig ears, and puzzle toys such as a Kong stuffed with peanut butter. If you are playing with Ebby and she bites you, just redirect her to one of her toys and use that to play with her instead. If she bites your hands when you pet her, calmly stop petting and ignore her until she calms down again. This will get better as she grows up, as long as you are patient and consistent.

Potty training your dog or puppy can sometimes be a challenging task. However, with the steps below and a a lot of patience, you can have your dog potty trained quickly! Keeping a schedule, focusing on times when your dog needs to go, keeping the area clean, and stopping accidents before they happen will make the potty training process much easier. The steps are; Keep a routine- Most dogs will need to go out about 5-15 minutes after activities such as eating and drinking, playing, or waking up from a nap Know your dog's body: puppies, the rule of thumb is that they can hold their bladder at most 1 hour per month of age. This means a 2-month old puppy can hold his potty for a maximum of 2 hours. This is just a general rule and smaller dogs or those with bladder control issues may need even more frequent outings. Be sure to never let your dog go more than 8 hours without a potty break to prevent hurting their bladder! Keep in mind health issues Not punish your dog Cleanup after accidents as the scent attracts them to repeat accidents. Here is a link to puppy pads to help while you Are still training; Www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=37282 Here is an excellent resource to help you as you proceed; https://www.petcoach.co/article/7-rules-for-effective-housetraining/ https://www.petcoach.co/article/6-common-reasons-for-potty-accidents-in-dogs/ https://www.petcoach.co/article/top-5-tips-to-potty-train-your-dog-young-and-old/

Hi, thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! It is going to take several weeks to months to train her to a new substrate preference. Carry her to the same patch of grass each time and keep her on a leash. Give her 10-15 mins to go to the bathroom. You can also carry her poop and put it on the grass or put a rag you previously used to clean up her pee so she can smell her scent. When she goes verbally praise her and give her a great treat then play with her outside for 10 mins. If she does not go, then she either goes in to the crate or is leashed to an adult until you can take her out again in 15-30 mins to try again. She can not come out of the crate or be off a leash until she goes outside. All bedroom doors need to be close and she should be gated from wandering off to go somewhere in the house. Do not use negative reinforcement if she goes in the house. Train her to ring a bell to notify you she needs to go out. The key is to always know where she is and to not allow her to have the opportunity to go inside. She can be allowed to be unsupervised once there has been 3 months of no accidents in the house. As a side note I found the beagles are the hardest to train. Especially if they were rescued from a lab or hoarding situation or grew up crated. I hope this helps and I wish you all the very best!