Remedial Potty Training a Corgi Puppy in Santa Monica

Rico (left) is a five-year-old Chihuahua mix who lives in Santa Monica with five-year-old Chihuaha mix Lola. Their guardian set up this dog behavior training session because one-year-old Corgi Clara recently moved into the home and needs help with a potty training problem.

Clara was the first dog to meet me at the door, shortly followed by Rico and Lola. They showed good energy and aside from Clara’s jumping up, were very welcoming.

Rico and Lola have lived together for years and aside from some nuisance barking, were pretty well behaved. Due to a change in her living situation, Clara and her guardian recently moved into her mother’s house and some potty training problems quickly surfaced.

While I was discussing the situation with their guardians, Rico and Lola took turns barking at people passing by their deck. I immediately hissed and was able to get the dogs to stop barking. The guardians commented on how impressed they were with the response I got. This was a result of having really good timing and using the appropriate intensity of correction.

I went over new ways to disagree with the dog with the guardians. Using these escalating consequences consistently should allow the family members to get the same results when they want to stop dog barking.

The conversation turned toward the main dog problem that I was called in to fix; urinating on the couch and Clara’s potty training problems. After chatting about it for a few moments, my conclusion was the way Clara was house trained may have included a few missed steps.

After suggesting some day to day structural changes, I pulled out my camera and handed it to one of the family members so I could share some potty training tips and common mistakes many people make when teaching a dog to not have accidents in the house.

Potty training is all about observation, positive reinforcement and repetition. If the guardians come up with a new command word, use it with good timing and ensure someone watches Clara when she is “loaded” until she eliminates, her family should be able to get her to stop having accidents in the house pretty quickly.

We also went over ways to build up Clara’s confidence. While she seemed fine the majority of the time, there were interactions where she was acting too submissive or cautious for a dog her age. Im guessing that she is a sensitive dog and there may have been someone in the house speaking to her in a raised or yelling voice in her previous home.

Teaching her some new skills, petting her with a purpose and rewarding desired actions and behaviors should go a long ways towards helping her adopt more appropriate interactive behaviors with humans.

Near the end of the session, I went over a way to add structure to meal time. Since this is an important and repetitive activity, adding a small bit of structure can make a big difference in how all the dog’s see and respect their human’s leadership.

We finished things up by shooting a short Roadmap to success video that detailed the highlights of the session. You can check it out and get some free dog training tips by watching the video below.