Naughty box, is it humane? (pup isolated in a box for inappropriate toileting*

I went to see a friend last night who has bought my puppy's brother and i wanted to see how he was getting on.
He lives in a high rise council flat with no communal garden so he is trying to housetrain too.
We walked in to see his puppy sitting in a huge cardboard box crying his head off I asked him what it was and he said it was his naughty box and if he went to the toilet on the floor he ended up in the box for half an hour Now i think this is so bad i cried last night just hearing the little puppy upset. Now he is only 10 weeks old and from the advise i've had on this site makes me think this behaviour is totally unacceptable and i told my friend this too. He just shrugged it off saying he'll get used to it.
What should i do to get him to stop using a naughty box?

I am afraid there is probably nothing you can do if you have told him you believe it to be unacceptable and he ignored this he obviously is going to do it regardless of what you think, this is no way to house train a puppy IMOH I agree with you that it is unacceptable perhaps try telling him how you are training Sanchez and advice you have been given or scare him with how Sanchez was retaining wee and could have cause him serrious problems and how he could cause his pup to do the same perhaps then he would stop, I dont know but hope you do talk him out of it!

Thanks, I'm going to make it my mission to get rid of the naughty box. Even if i tell him to try a crate instead

What a dreadful way to "train" a puppy. I'd best just leave it at that - not sure I can trust myself to comment further......

I know how you feel! I had to leave before i threw the box out of the window with my mate in it

Well, that just goes to show that any fool can get a dog! Sorry to insult your friend, but where the hell did he get this idea from?

To get him to stop it, I would start by telling him that it's not going to achieve anything. Puppies that age can't physically hold it, when they've gotta go, they don't have a lot of choice in the matter. He's punishing the pup for something it can't help, and half-hour timeouts for an animal with an attention span of about 1 minute are about the most stupid thing I've ever heard. How is a pup supposed to take responsibility for something it can't even remember doing?

If he doesn't want it to pee on the floor, he'll have to take it somewhere he does want it to pee every half-hour or so during the day. If he isn't prepared to go outside with the pup that often, then it sounds like paper-training, or those puppy-pads you can get are his only option. Once he's got used to that idea, he needs to take the pup to teh appointed place and stay with it until it performs, then reward with praise and a food-treat. Eventually, with much hard work on the part of your friend, the pup will learn that it's worth its while to pee in the right place. All it's learning now is that mad things happen if someone watches you pee, so peeing in secret places is a better option.

I didnt think of it like that!! He might not wee in public if he keeps being given the box treatment
I'll tell him that and sit him down and explain it step by step and if he tries to leave i'll hit him over the head with the naughty box

Thanks for putting my anger so eloquently Jenny

Poor puppy. Maybe this friend just doesn't know how to housetrain a puppy?

I housetrained my boy by taking him outside to a designated spot in the garden every half hour or so, after meals, sleep, play and if he was seen circling/sniffing. Then using a trigger word (in my case it was "be clean") and when he did the deed, I immediately rewarded him with a treat and praised lavishly. He is now a really clean dog and never, ever soils inside the house (unless it's during a seizure). Also if I found mess in the house I said nothing whatsoever unless I caught him doing it, then I'd quickly take him outside so he could go out there.

Pups only have a small capacity for urine retention so if they're not taken outside regularly what else are they to do?

Why not show your friend this thread and explain to him how to train properly and successfully?

Some others on here train using crates which also works well as dogs don't tend to like to soil near their beds. My dog doesn't even like to soil near the house .

Here's a link to one of Minihaha's excellent articles, about house training pups. You could print it out to point your friend in the right direction.

http://www.dogsey.com/dog-articles.php?t=8974