Adult Dog House Training. Do You Have To Start From Scratch?

If you are curious about Adult dog house training, you have probably gotten an older dog from a shelter or from some other source. Most dogs have been house trained at some point unless they were exclusively out door dogs. The dog that you now have may not have gotten enough opportunities in the shelter to properly go outside and may have gotten used to messing or urinating in its kennel area. There may also be other pets in the new home that are causing the dog to do some urine marking. You may just not know the new dog well enough yet to recognize its bathroom signal. For the first while, just assume that your new dog is not house trained and start at the beginning. It should go pretty quickly especially if the dog has been previously house trained.

As mentioned above, with adult dog house training, you should start at the beginning. Let the dog know where it is appropriate to go and try to recognize its signals so that you know when to let it outside. Besides this, use normal training techniques such as establishing a routine and supervising the dog so that there is less chance for it to have an accident. If you are not able to watch the dog constantly during the first few weeks, you should confine the dog in some way when you are not around. A crate is probably the best option for this if your dog is crate trained (see Recource Box), otherwise find some way to confine the dog if you are gone.

Similar to puppy training, adult dog house trainig requires that you clean up messes quickly and thoroughly. Don't punish the dog, but let the dog know where the proper place to go is. This works best when you catch the dog in the act, it will then be able to make the connection more easily.

Adult dog house training is not as difficult as puppy house training because of the physical maturity of the animal, but you must follow the same procedures. You need to observe the dog and watch for its signals, set a routine, clean up messes quickly and thoroughly and let the dog know where the proper place to go is. When the dog does the right thing, praise it lavishly.