Housetrain your dog

Dogs are social animals who like to be with their humans. A dog who is outside when the humans are inside may act out by barking, digging, and other signs of boredom or separation anxiety. Of course, in order to welcome your dog into your home you will want to insist that they learn how to deal with a home. This includes matters like chewing and greeting visitors at the door. But this lesson is about teaching your dog to go to the bathroom outdoors. Your dog will need to be taught - they won't immediately understand the difference between outdoors and indoors - but with an adult dog you should be well on your way after the first 24 hours of vigilent training. Puppies lack the physical self-control to get results quite that quickly, but the techniques are much the same.

I'll be talking about rewards in two main contexts: for going into the crate (more about crate training later), and for going to the bathroom outdoors. While praise, play, or other things the dog likes are never a bad idea, I'd also recommend using food rewards at least some of the time.

You should be especially generous with your rewards when your dog is first learning the behavior. So the first few times that they go to the bathroom outdoors, praise like they just won the Olympics and give them a treat. Later on, the praise can consist of a "good dog" or two and the treats can be occasional.