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Before teaching the housebreaking pattern, mark a spot at the side of the door leading outside where you want your puppy to sit before leaving the house or apartment. Put a mat or small area rug to mark this spot. You want the spot to be off to the side of the door so you won't have to move the puppy again when opening or closing the door.
Once you have a mat or area rug marking where you want your puppy to sit, place your puppy about five feet from the door area. Do not face the door, but stand sideways with your arm towards the door and the motivator in that hand. Give the command, "Go to the Door!" Using the motivator of your choice, extend your arm out and motivate your puppy to lead you towards the mat area.
The key point here is that your puppy is learning to lead you to the door - you are not leading her. Once she gets to the mat, instruct her to Sit, and reward and praise her immediately. By rewarding her, you are making your puppy connect her action with the reward.
After doing this once, lead your pup with the motivator back to the area about five feet from the door. Put her in the Sit position and start the Go to the Door command again. Avoid frustration for you or your puppy - don't practice this for more than five minutes. Dog trainers have found that if a puppy does relieve herself on the floor, the best action to take is to work on the Go to the Door command. You don't want to punish or yell at your puppy for relieving herself on the floor.
This is a great exercise to work at your pup's mealtimes. Measure out her normal portion of food and use the food as the motivator. After she has eaten her food from the training session, she will be ready to go outside to the potty area.
The puppy will begin to blueprint this command, and by her third or fourth month, she will set the housebreaking pattern in motion by signaling to you that she must go outside to relieve herself by running back and forth near the door or sitting at the door. This eliminates the guesswork of wondering when she needs to go to the potty area.
The more you work with this command, the more your puppy will crave this exercise because you are not reprimanding her; you are not saying no, but working with a spirit of fun. And your puppy's attitude will be, "Work with me, this is fun!"
As your pup gets older you will be able to give the command Go to the Door from longer distances. You can increase the distance from the door to ten or fifteen feet. Before you attempt these distances, however, make sure your puppy can do it with ease from five feet.
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