The Dish by Darcy

“Dear Santa, I can explain…. Kent”

Frankie is counter surfing. Oliver has Kent's glove and won't give it back.

Dear Darcie, Would you take a minute to tell me how you taught your dogs to walk into their own collars? You had four dogs the last time I saw all of you together, the three Tervs and Kari, your Golden. You held out a collar, said each dog’s name and each walked right into their collar! How did you teach them that? I’ve been trying with my dog for weeks, it’s not working. I send you my warmest wishes for your Christmas. I pray that your heart is healing from Dancer’s passing earlier this year and that you’re making room for another. Karen

Dear Karen, Just the other day Tilli came to me and as I hugged her close and put my nose into her back for a great big whiff of warm, loving Terv and I started crying. She smelled and felt so much like Dancer that it brought waves of missing my old girl. I know that Dancer is safe and at peace. She was my best dog ever. One of these days I’ll be ready for another. No one could ever replace her of course but all of my dogs have been special in one way or another. Dancer and I had that connection that is simply beyond my understanding, we really knew each other. I’ll love her forever.

Okay, on to a dog walking into it’s own collar. It’s easy to teach. Some dogs will learn faster than others, if you’re consistent and never put their collar on for them, you’ll see quick results.

Practice by yourself first before you start with the dog so your motions will be fluid and easy. It only takes a couple of practices to understand how to do this. The dogs will be fast so knowing what you want to do before you start will help you teach them more quickly.

Hold the collar open with one hand. Reach through it with a treat in your other hand so the collar is around your forearm. Offer the treat to the dog. You might need to take a step or two backward, you want the dog moving forward into the collar to take the treat.

When dog is moving forward to take the treat, slip the collar over your treat hand and onto the dog’s neck while the dog is eating the treat. While he is taking the treat say, “Put your collar on.” Keep a hold of the collar if your dog is one that takes off. Count to three while the collar is on. Without letting go of the collar say, “Let’s take your collar off,” and take it right back off. Immediately praise with pleasure, “Good dog.”

Do it all once again and stop, that’s enough for right now.

Do it again in about an hour. And again in another hour. And every time you need to put collars on to go somewhere. Practice in the kitchen, the bathroom, the bedroom, on the couch, on the floor, on the bed, outside the house.

The reason to practice behaviors in all places and with different people around is that when a dog learns a trick in the kitchen and you move to the living room and then to the yard or street, it becomes a new trick to the dog. The scenery has changed, the people are different, there are more distractions. Make sure that everyone in the family and all of your friends can put the collar on and take it off, giving a cookie when the collar is going on. Soon you won’t need a cookie any more. Fade the treats fast, that means only treat until your dog gets it and then maybe every third time for a while, then not at all. Praise always.

Don’t worry about training perfectly, you don’t have to be a perfect trainer to train anything. It’s all about having fun and getting the job done. I do a lot of laughing to make training fun. See those wagging tails!

Ultimately the behavior is, “Put your collar on.” Dog walks into the collar you’re holding open for them. Very soon the reward will be, put the collar on and we go out! Dogs love to go!

It’s so much fun to watch people’s reactions to this trick. How did you do that?! Stay humble, you really didn’t do anything but hold a collar and give a cookie. The dog did all the work. LOL!

Have fun! Merry Christmas to you and yours, too! I love you all. – Darcie

This was the first time these puppies have trained to put the collar on. Kent let me use his pups because I needed a video for you! (Remember, Kent is training these dogs by himself from start to finish, he’s never done that with a dog before.)

Dear Darcie, Help. I just brought a large rotti rescue into my home. Big problem is that no matter how many times I walk her outside at night she urinates during the night on the same area (Laminatefloors). I don’t have a clue how to stop her from doing this. I locked her out of bedrooms at night becasue they have carpet and she loves to go on carpet. Is there anything I can use on laminate flooring because I am afraid it is going to seep through and start an oder problem! Marti

Dear Marti, Not being house trained could be at least one of the reasons why she was in rescue in the first place. It will be okay, you just need to house train her. It’s pretty easy, it takes a conscious effort, consistency and supervision. If you brought a child into your home, you wouldn’t let them have the run of the  house. It’s the same with dogs. They all learn at about the same rate, pretty quickly.

Laminate floors aren’t usually very porous so you shouldn’t have much trouble keeping them cleaned up if you clean immediately, if you were asleep in the night that’s pretty hard to do. High quality laminate is supposed to be nonporous but call the maker of your flooring or your local cleaning company to see if you need to do anything other than just clean with one of these products. Get Serious, Nature’s Miracle and Urine Off are three really good odor, feces and urine removers. Get a black light Urine Finder to make sure that you get it all cleaned up. We have all of these at SitStay.com. There are some home remedies online but I’ve never know any of them to work very well.

The floor and carpet have to be cleaned completely of urine or she’ll be drawn to that spot again and again. It’s where she thinks her bathroom is because it smells like her pee. If you’ve already cleaned with another product and it didn’t work, these products may not work as well, they are all fabulous but once another cleaner is used, they aren’t guaranteed to be as effective. You might have to call a commercial cleaner who specializes in pet odors to come and clean your house.

I’d suggest right away that you get her to a Chiropractor vet for a check up. They’ll  check her all over and will be able to help if it’s an alignment issue and will take a urine sample to see if it’s maybe a urinary issue. It’s always best to have a thorough check up right away when you bring a new dog into your home. That will tell you if you should have any concerns that you wouldn’t have known about otherwise.

If she was mine, I’d get a crate just large enough for her to lay down, stand up and turn around in and put it by my bed. She more than likely won’t potty in her crate without first making some noise which should wake you to take her out. Unless she is from a puppy mill situation where they are forced to potty in crates, that should solve the nightly problem.

Make sure that you teach her that you “live” in every inch of the whole house. Clean the spots that she was peeing on and sit right there with some popcorn and a book. Read for a while, have her lay down with you and give her a bite once in a while. She’ll learn quickly that the whole house is where we live. Humans and dogs don’t potty where they live unless some drastic emotional, mental or weird training took place. Don’t forget to spend time under tables and in corners, too. You’ll want to keep her on a leash when you go visit other people’s houses until she learns that potty is only for outside, not inside. Just because she’s potty trained at your house doesn’t mean she knows that goes for all inside places…until you teach her.

You don’t say how old she is but rescues should be treated just like new puppies until they learn the house rules. Here’s an article I wrote on house breaking (potty training), it should really help you. The times can be extended for older dogs but the basics are the same.

When you take her outside, stand still on your end of the leash until she potties, no walking around. (It works best if you take her to the same spot each time…and it’s easier later to clean one spot of poop than it is to clean a whole yard. With consistency, you’ll find that she’ll always go to that spot even after you get to let her off leash again.) If she doesn’t potty quickly, go back inside, into the crate or on a leash with you, and try again later. You can’t house train if you’re not in the house. If you’re watchful, she won’t have another chance to potty in the house. Take some treats when you go outside, give her “One, two, three” treats immediately after she potties and praise her quietly, “Good girl”. You’ll find that she’ll start to understand very quickly.

The main two things to remember when you bring home a new dog, puppy or older doesn’t matter, we live in every inch of this house and supervise, supervise, supervise until all house manners are perfect.

Let us know how it goes. Thank you for rescuing this girl. You’ll have years of friendship. – Darcie