# Praise DURING pee-peeing, or after?



## matthew0725 (Dec 25, 2008)

Hopefully a real quick and easy question... When potty training her (housebraking, whatever), do I praise her _while_ she's going, or immediately after? 

I've been saying "Go potty", then when she does, I start saying "Good girl!" while she's still going, but I think I'm distracting her and keeping her from finishing, all the while praising her like crazy...

And do I repeat "Go potty" while she's going to help her associate it, or just up until she goes, then pause, then praise her & treat her after she's done?


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## pamperedpups (Dec 7, 2006)

The most effective way I have found is to be quiet and boring and wait to cue Go potty when the dog has just starting to potty, then as the dog is towards the end of pottying, I click when the dog is still pottying then treat and praise immediately as the dog is finishing, preferably before it moves out of position. Once the dog understands what Go potty means (has heard it and been rewarded for doing it enough times as it happened) I can then tell the dog to Go potty before it starts to on it's own. This is the same concept as not saying Sit or down a bunch of times until your dog can reliably sit or down for you. I don't want to attach the verbal cue to another behavior (such as sniffing or wandering about the yard) or have it be repeated so many times that it becomes like meaningless white noise to the dog.


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## Curbside Prophet (Apr 28, 2006)

I wouldn't worry too much about distracting her. If she's half finished, guess what?, you've just afforded yourself a second opportunity to cue the behavior and praise her again. Opportunity in numbers is where learning takes off. 

I would continue to verbally praise her as she's going, and offer a food reward when she thinks she's finished. If you're not sure that she is, cue the behavior again, or wait for a bit as she sniffs around.


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## Love's_Sophie (Sep 23, 2007)

I usually give a gentle "good boy" as my puppy squats, then when he is done, I give him his 'big praise'. Mine would get so distracted if I praised him a ton while he was pottying, that he wouldn't finish...so I had to just lightly praise during, and then give him more praise when he finished...


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## matthew0725 (Dec 25, 2008)

pamperedpups said:


> The most effective way I have found is to be quiet and boring and wait to cue Go potty when the dog has just starting to potty, then as the dog is towards the end of pottying, I click when the dog is still pottying then treat and praise immediately as the dog is finishing, preferably before it moves out of position. Once the dog understands what Go potty means (has heard it and been rewarded for doing it enough times as it happened) I can then tell the dog to Go potty before it starts to on it's own. This is the same concept as not saying Sit or down a bunch of times until your dog can reliably sit or down for you. I don't want to attach the verbal cue to another behavior (such as sniffing or wandering about the yard) or have it be repeated so many times that it becomes like meaningless white noise to the dog.


this makes a lot of sense... is this how most people do it? after reading your response, I realize that when I take her out back, I'm basically chanting "Go Potty" over and over and over until she does, then I begin praising her... But I don't want her to associate Go Potty with sniffing around or searching the yard... It might work either way, but what your saying seems to make perfect sense...

I'll try to continue praising while she's going, only not TOO loudly... I'm going to get a clicker too very soon so that I can apply the clicker concept to ALL the training I do with her...


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## Love's_Sophie (Sep 23, 2007)

germane said:


> once they start going they aren't just going to stop unless you screamed at them or used a scary tone of voice...


Some dogs DO stop their business if you speak during; my Border Collie would, and my current puppy does, if you talk to him when he was in mid pee\poop...they would get so excited cause you were talking to them, that they wanted to come right over for their treat and further praise... I've met more dogs that it's better to not highly praise during the action, than right when they are done...  But that's just one trainer's perspective...and I have yet to not finish out potty training well on a dog, so I know they "get it", regardless of the praise being right when they are done. My Poodle puppy is better behaved in the house right now than our older dog; but I didn't train her, she came 'trained'; we are just working on modifying her behavior, so hopefully!


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## matthew0725 (Dec 25, 2008)

Love's_Sophie said:


> Some dogs DO stop their business if you speak during; my Border Collie would, and my current puppy does, if you talk to him when he was in mid pee\poop...they would get so excited cause you were talking to them, that they wanted to come right over for their treat and further praise...


I'm going to try it both ways, because I _have_ felt like she's been distracted and gets happy and excited when I start praising while she's still going and runs up to me when she should still be peeing... I'll just experiment and see what seems to work best


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## Renoman (Mar 20, 2007)

What I found works best is to say nothing until the dog starts to go then a one time 'go potty' or whatever your command is going to be. I say nothing while puppy is going, but once done, there's a huge 'good puppy' with lots of praise and petting and treats.


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## Elana55 (Jan 7, 2008)

I say "pee" if the dog is peeing or "Crap" if the dog is pooing and then praise and feed three or four small treats (called jackpotting) as the dog finishes. I am sure, with all the fuss I have made my neighbors think I am insane..(in the past we are beyond this stage now at age 2). I mean THAT excited about the dog Pooping? Really... LOL

I always praise the dog verbally for going potty on command and sometimes feed a food reward for the rest of the dog's life. Yeah.. house breaking is that important to ME. If a few pieces of hot dog reinforce the process once in awhile I think it is worth it. I really don't like cleaning up dog poop in the house. 

Fact is, I even generalize housebreaking because I take my dog with me when I go on vacation. She gets all the house breaking reinforced in those places too. She LIKES vacations!

BTW Matthew, have you ever read the book, "the Culture Clash" by Jean Donaldson or "The Other End of the Leash" by Patricia McConnell? Both are great books and they both will give you a lot of great ideas on helping you understand your dog better so you can effectively train her! "The Other end of the Leash" is a nice book to read in that the author has included stories about dogs she has dealt with.


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## KBLover (Sep 9, 2008)

For Wally, I would watch him and when it looks like he's going to squat/pee (sometimes he does this thing where he "marks" the spot with his nose, then turns around, takes a step forward, then pees), I say "go potty".

When he's done and just getting out of his "stance" I say "good boy!".

I just kept doing that, even when he's just going to mark something, and he got that "go potty" means "go sniff around and pee/poop on something". 

It's to the point where if he _doesn't_ have to go, he'll just sit next to me and look up at me. Or if I'm standing in his way and he doesn't want to cut around me, he'll sit and "glance" over in the direction he wants to go for about 1/4 second.

I don't know if speaking while he's peeing will stop him. He's easily distracted (especially when he was in his more fearful state a couple months ago), so I didn't chance it.


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## SophieOwner (Sep 20, 2008)

My dogs seemed to respond best during peeing. I babysat a dog once that did better if you waited until after. I babysat one dog that peed only with encouragement beforehand.

It really depends on the dog.


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## Ateenta (Sep 11, 2007)

I praise Bandit for both. I say a quiet, singsongy "Good go potty Bandit, good go potty" When he first squats, then when he's done I praise him more enthusiastically, and pet him. My praise during pottying doesn't seem to bother him, though he looks at me with his "Yay, she thinks I'm good" expression. Now once I start saying Go Potty when we're outside he immediatly starts looking for a place to go.
For an extra, something that really makes Bandit WANT to potty quickly(Because I KNOW I can't be alone in the frustration you feel after repeating "go potty" for 15 minuets with no results at 1am in the morning, in your PJ's) is taking him for a walk after he goes. Long or short, it doesn't really matter, just letting him know that when he potties he gets to GO somewhere, and unless he potties he DOESN'T get to go anywhere. Think about it  If everytime YOU went to the bathroom you were locked in your room for 3 more hours, would you want to go to the Bathroom often?
Really though, I would watch to see what your dog likes best. If she looks uncomfortable when you praise her mid-squat, keep your praise until after she's done.


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