Info Awareness Report

Information Awareness Report

I recently bought a puppy which is still living with his mom and the other puppies. Before I bring the puppy home, I want to learn more about how to train dogs, specifically how to housebreak a dog. I realized I didn’t know much about this subject, because all the dogs my family had were already trained when we got them. I definitely need to be knowledgeable on the subject, so that my dog won’t ruin everything in my house.

Initially, I looked on Wikipedia just to get a general idea of things. The page on housebreaking was not very in depth. I did examine the external link on the page, though. The site, titled Housebreaking a Puppy, featured six steps to go through when trying to housebreak a puppy. I thought the steps offered valuable information. I especially liked step two, which entails understanding your puppy and his mannerisms. Because this site offered only one way to train a dog, I decided to continue my search.

I went to the local library to search for relevant books. My first search was for “housebreaking,” and this turned up zero results. I then tried “housetraining.” This search turned up four relevant results. To ensure that I found all the relevant titles, I visited the non-fiction section on dog training. There I found more titles pertaining to housebreaking than the search returned. Many of the books about dog training were checked out, but I was able to find four books with helpful information. The four books I checked out were

1. 101 Dog Training Tips by Kirsten Mortensen


2. Click & Easy: Clicker Training for Dogs by Miriam Fields-Babineau


3. Mother Knows Best: The Natural Way to Train Your Dog by Carol Lea
   Benjamin


4. The Complete Guide to Dog Training by Katharina Schlegl-Kofler

These resources offered valuable information about training your dogs, and I found two common methods for housebreaking a dog: crate method and clicker method. Clicker training was an intriguing option. I heard that it was a pretty good method, but it seemed to have many steps. The crate method seems to be the easiest method, but the most expensive because a crate must be purchased.

After consulting the books, I did an internet search to make sure I hadn’t missed anything else. I searched using the phrase “methods for housebreaking a puppy.” The first results were sites that I wasn’t sure were reliable. I looked at a few of them, but they didn’t look like sites I would normally get information from. They had poor design and layout, and there were too many ads. I decided to check out two of the sponsored links, which I don’t usually do. The sponsored links were from Iams and Eukanuba. I felt that I could trust these sites, since they are in the dog business. I also found a helpful site from The Humane Society of the United States. The following sites were helpful in my quest to learn about housebreaking:

1. Housebreaking a Puppy http://housebreaking-a-puppy.org/


2. Peteducation.com http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=2+2114&aid=157


3. The Humane Society of the United States http://www.humanesociety.org/animals/dogs/tips/housetraining_puppies.html


4. Eukanuba: Top Five Housebreaking Tips http://www.eukanuba.com/en-US/puppy-guide/top-five-housebreaking-tips.jspx


5. Eukanuba: Housebreaking Your Puppy http://www.eukanuba.com/en-US/puppy-guide/housebreaking-your-puppy.jspx


6. Iams: Housetraining Your Dog http://www.iams.com/iams/pet-health/puppy-training-tip.jsp?gclid=CKGd-Oy3h6MCFYx25Qod7G6kdg

I found these sites along with the books from the library to be sufficient enough to teach me how to housebreak my dog. Overall, crate training seems to be the way most people go about training their dog. The information I gathered taught be about dog mannerisms, the importance of timing and routine, how to punish and reward, and overall, how to be successful at training my puppy. Because I felt that my information needs were met, I concluded my search knowing that I found exactly what I needed.