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Puppy Capers- Potty Training

Since we are officially keeping Penelope, now comes the daunting task of training her. I can tell she is a smart cookie. She totally gets the "sit before you come in the house rule" (while Lily jumps above and overand around her.) She will sit on command, and is a total treat whore. I can put her into a submissive position, by slightly sitting on her. Sure, she fights me, but only for a few minute, then she sighs and lets go. I just look at Lily the right way and she drops to the floor and shows me her belly. At night she happliy goes into her crate, and whimpers only a few times before she settles in for the night.

The one thing she is just not getting yet, is potty training. She will just go, whenever she feels like it. Lily got this right away, she had very few accidents, but she was also only 3 months when we brought her sweet, pudgy, puppy self into our home. We were on top of her. With Penelope, I didn't think we would keep her, so I wasn't on top of it from day one. I will never make that mistake again.

She will have a good day, which usually means, we were home all day and the girls took her outside to play often. Then she will take a dump right in the middle of the kitchen the next day. I have taken steps to limit her exposure to our house. She is gated into the kitchen/living room area. (And I have moved my computer into that area, too.) I try to go out with her, and tell her good dog when she pees. I crate her at night, and she wakes up around 5am, at which time I let both dogs out for the morning then I go back to get for a few more hours.

I suppose my next step will be actually taking her out at regularly timed intervals (every hour, since she is still a puppy). I also want her to pee on a leash. Lily won't. She will not make while she is leashed. This is good and bad, I think. We'll see how this goes. Cross your fingers that is becomes a smooth process at our house.

On a side note, I feel like an idiot. Seriously, give me my forehead "L" now. I took the girls to Petco and got Penelope a tag, right? Well I put my home and mobile number on it. But I flipped the two middle numbers in my mobile number. The worst part was, that I stared at it, and thought "That isn't right." But left it, to be engraved. In. Metal. anyway. Dur dur dur.

1 comment:

bodaat said...

i don't envy the journey of potty training but stay strong sister. you can do it. :) if she's food motivated, maybe give her a piece of regular kibble or a treat after she goes to the bathroom outside? and i know this is bad but i do yell up a storm at taz/shila if either goes in the house. to the point that they covering in fear. it usually works. good luck!

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