Animal Care 101

Positive House Training Tips

Punishing a dog (puppy or adult) for an "accident" does not work!

Positive reinforcement for correct behavior is the best way to develop and control your dog's education.             Here are a few suggestions to speed up the house-training process: Plan potty times. Puppies have a tendency toeliminate right after playing, eating, sleeping, and drinking. Plan potty times to correspond with these activities. When playing outdoors, have a treat ready when the puppy eliminates. Control food and water intake--what goes in must come out! Regular feeding means semi-regular elimination.Select the best-quality food and stick with it. Many low-end foods contain fillers and increase the number of eliminations perday.Sudden changes in diet should also be avoided.

Use an airline carrier or kiddy gate to confine the puppy in your absence. A crate can be used or abused. Long confinements (more than eight hours) may cause the puppy to eliminate in the crate. If you use a laundry room or bathroom for confinement, you can avoid paper-training by using grass-training: get a shallow oil-drip pan at an auto-supply store and put a piece of grass sod in it; change as needed. By using grass, you'll have an easier transition to outdoor elimination.

Use food treats for correct elimination. This is probably the most powerful and least-used house-training tool.

Set up a potty ritual. Use the same door each time you go outside. Go to the same area of the yard. Wait patiently and quietly while the puppy eliminates. Say "Good dog!" at the end of the sequence. Do not interrupt the puppy with lots of encouragement. Once the pattern starts to become predictable, start saying, "Hurry up" or "Go potty" just before you think the dog is about to go. Wait until it finishes, then say "Good dog!" and deliver the treat.
Gradually allow the dog more responsibility. Begin by taking the puppy to the potty area and remaining there until it eliminates. Gradually allow the puppy to go part of the way by itself. Soon the puppy will be able to do the routine alone. Make sure your dog eliminates--if not, you can expect a surprise indoors later. Be willing to get up during the night. If your puppy is less than 3 months of age, expect to get up to let it out. The alternative is to let the puppy eliminate where it sleeps, prolonging house-training.
Do not punish accidents, or your puppy will be afraid to eliminate in your presence. Instead, it will go in your absence and be afraid to eliminate outdoors while you hover.

Let the puppy grow up. Until it is 5 or 6 months old, its muscles are incapable of controlling elimination like an adult's can. If you can cut down on the number of accidents in the meantime, the dog will soon be mature enough to control itself.

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WHAT TO DO IF YOU FIND A LOST PET

What do you do when you find a stray animal? You are sure somewhere someone is certainly missing his or her beloved pet. How can you make this a happy ending and reunite owner and animal.

The Medina County SPCA offers these suggestions to help you plan a comprehensive strategy to rejoin a lost pet with it’s owner

1. Check for a tag. This may be all you need to do. Sometimes the only tag may be a license or rabies tag. The license will give the county it was issued in. The rabies lug may include the number of the animal's veterinarian.

2. Ask around the neighborhood. Children are especially knowledgeable. Postal workers, paper delivery and pizza delivery people also may be helpful in recognizing the animal.

3. Call all the local veterinarian offices, groomers, police stations, and emergency clinics to see if someone has called searching for a pet matching the one you've found. If not, be sure to leave a description of the animal and your name and number in case someone does call.

4. Check the lost/found ads in all the local newspapers (local to where you found the animal). Place a "Found" ad in these papers.

5. Make up flyers and place them in the vicinity where the animal was found. When making up the flyers include: Found: Describe animal, but leave out some characteristics about the animal so that when a person calls you can verify their ownership. (For example, you could leave out information concerning gender, white feet, etc.) Don't forget your phone number and times you can be reached. Make sure flyers don't look crowded   Make sure they are easily readable from a distance. Use large, bold, black lettering  emphasize important parts such as your phone number. Place these flyers in the neighborhood and at the intersections where the pet was found.

6. If you have internet access, go to the SPCA home page: www.netpets.org/~medsh Click" lost& found"

and see if the pet is listed there.

7. Beware of dishonest callers. Some people falsely claim ownership only to turn around and sell the animal to a research fascility.

8. Ask caller to bring a photo of animal to meeting place.

9. Ask for their Vet's phone no. and make a followup call to the Vet to verify

Note how the animal reacts to the caller in person.

If you are not satisfied ask for more proof. Make sure to get the owner's phone number and address.

10.Contact the SPCA & local shelters. Give them a complete discription of the animal, your name and phone number.  Care for the animal until the owner is found.  If you can not hold on to the animal turn the animal over to the local shelter, but continue with your search to find the owner. Reuniting a lost, scared pet with a worried and frantic owner is very rewarding and heartwarming experience