Goal: To have your dog go potty only in his outside designated area and never in the house.

Method:1. For puppies with someone home during the day to let them out. You'll need a small kennel, Nylorder deodorizer surface cleaner or Murphy's oil soap, and a stack of pea gravel. You confine your puppy to the kitchen or any other single room with a hard surface floor for the duration of the housebreaking period. The Schedule: 6:AM Take the puppy out of the kennel and carry him outside and place him on the pea gravel. Your puppy will be "triggered" to use pea gravel before you bring him home, if he comes from our kennel, so that when he feels the gravel on his feet he'll know what to do. When he's done bring him in, feed, water, and play with him for one hour. If he eats a lot of food get him out again within 5-10 minutes, he'll need to move his bowels. After one hour your puppy will be tired. Put him in his kennel for a nap. While he is taking his nap, mop the entire floor with Nilodor solution. You will do this once a day. You are not cleaning the floor when you do this; you are "marking your territory". When he gets up from his nap, you'll wipe out his kennel with the same diluted solution of Nilodor. (See "insight", for explanation). 10:AM-12PM or when he cries. Your puppy is crying because he needs to pee, so repeat above. 3:PM-6:PM Repeat. Let him out one last time just before you go to bed. That's it. No secrets, no beatings, just scheduling, patience, and time. When accidents happen, and they will, ignore the dog, clean up the mess, and deodorize the area on the floor.

Method:2 This is for people whom both work during the day so there is no one home to let the dog out. This method will take a little longer and can result in a dog that will never be totally trustworthy if you forget and leave newspapers on the floor. Other than those two things, this method is both convenient and perfectly acceptable. In the morning take the dog out to the pea gravel to pee. Bring him in, feed, and water him, play with him while you're getting ready to go to work. Just before you walk out the door, spread newspapers all over the floor. leave his kennel open, food, water, and a few toys for him to play with. Each day as the housebreaking process continues, you gradually reduce the area of the newspapers; eventually you you'll only have a few spread out by the back door. When you get home, take him out to the pea gravel, pick up all the newspapers, and mop the floor with Nylodor solution. Put down a few papers by the back door. Pick-up the food and water bowls at 6:PM. Take him out to the pea gravel one last time before you go to bed, then put him in the kennel and shut the door.

INSIGHT: Housebreaking starts with the mother dog. At three to four weeks of age the puppies start of creep out of the nest, and very tentatively explore the area around the nest. They also begin to eat foods other than mother's milk. As soon as they start to eat other food the mother stops cleaning up after them and a set of truly dramatic behavioral changes occur. My mother dogs are specifically selected for their calm docile affectionate temperaments (puppies "inherit" 80% of their temperament from mom) in the hope that my puppies will inherit their excellent temperament. This is worthy of note because it makes behavior I will describe all the more significant.

After the puppies begin eating food, when they eliminate in the nest their calm loving mother turns into something that resembles a werewolf and attacks them. The attack is savage, noisy, brutal, and climaxes when she hurls the pup out of the nest. The puppy takes a few moments to wonder what just happened to his world and staggers back into the nest, runs up to mom and is nuzzled, licked, and reassured by her. Note that the mother who not forty seconds ago demonstrated her hound of the Baskervill's imitation, is the same loving mother he remembers. The next time he eliminates in the nest the werewolf reappears. I've rarely seen a pup need a third demonstration of mom's wrath. Because this happens at such an early age, the impression is indelible. All housebreaking is based on this early indelible impression. Our job in housebreaking is to expand the puppy's mental boundary of THE NEST to include your entire home; and contract the puppy's mental boundary of NOT THE NEST, per mom's original lesson, to a small area of pea gravel in your yard.

A dog identifies the right place to go potty by the smell and the feel of the surface he is standing on. Go back and read that sentence three more times out loud. From the time your puppy was born his nest was washed down daily with Nilodor and from the time he was three to four weeks old he was taken out to pea gravel five to six times a day. When you get him he is not housebroken, but he is "triggered" on pea gravel When he feels himself standing on that surface he'll know what to do. When the housebreaking period is over you can pick up the pea gravel and move it to the farthest corner of your yard and your dog will always go there instead of all over the yard. Some of my customers elect to put the pea gravel in a cat litter box instead of using newspaper with excellent results. One 70- year old woman who lives in a second story apartment is convinced I am a genius and her dog never goes outside. I personally draw the line at that but, I'm just pointing out that When you understand how the dog is thinking, anything is possible.