What Chaining a Dog Cannot Do

Chaining your dog cannot …

… housetrain your dog.  Dogs normally try to keep the area where they live clean, and it can be upsetting to them to have to do their business in the same small area where they sleep and eat.  Even baby puppies who can barely walk will toddle away from their eating and sleeping areas to do their business.  A dog left chained outside for long periods of time may be harder to reliably housetrain because he is learning to do his business in the same area where he spends a lot of time. 
 

Most likely, he will end up stepping in his business and spreading it around, so the entire area resembles a bathroom spot.  While this may seem ok to you because it is outside, when you bring your dog into the house, your job will be harder to teach him to keep your house clean.  Did you know that dogs can be taught to do their business on cue so you can have them go quickly when you ask them to?  I will show you how to teach your dog this in a future post! 

… exercise your dog.  Dogs need running and aerobic exercise and he can’t do that on a chain.  Most dogs will pace back and forth and pull on a chain, which is not releasing any pent up energy, it’s just increasing his frustration levels and his need to run and burn off steam. 
 

What can you do to exercise your dog instead? Brisk walking, jogging or hiking with you, swimming in warm weather, chasing and fetching toys, running with you on a long leash or in an enclosed area – these are all great forms of exercise that will allow your dog freedom of movement to exercise.

… teach your dog to be calm in the house.  If you want to have a dog that is calm and well-behaved in the house, you must bring him into the house and teach him what you expect.  Dogs don’t know the rules of living with humans unless we teach them.  Putting him outside on a chain will not solve behavior problems, but it may increase some of them!
 

If you follow these blog posts, I will show you how to begin to teach your dog to be calm inside the house and how you can encourage your dog to behave in the ways you want him to!