Changing Directions...

Well, the photo-a-day challenge really fell by the wayside once we bought the puppy. Boy, talk about your full time job! I can always come back to the photo-a-day thing, but for now, this little piece of cyberspace is changing direction.

Since we have bought the dog, and I need to "log" some of her actions, I will be writing a journal of sorts regarding her potty training. Who knows....someday some of this may help someone.

We are crate-training the dog. She has fallen in love with her crate, as predicted. However, bladder control leaves a lot to be desired in a 10 week old pup. We have had numerous accidents in the house. Some due to no muscle control, but a lot due to not watching her closely enough.

I am also "tethering" her when I can't keep my eyes on her 100% of the time. I would highly recommend tethering a puppy because it doubles as leash training. I was having trouble getting her used to the leash......until i tethered her to me. Tethering fixed that issue in 10 minutes...no kidding.

So, to log today's actions:

Allie is 10 weeks old. She can make it for about an hour in the mornings and about 30 minutes in the evenings (when things get more hectic around the house) without going potty. The goal is to start stretching those times out, and to get her going to the door when she wants to go outside.

I reward her for going potty outside with yummy treats w/o fail. I make sure to give the treat to her WHILE she is doing her business....making it easier to associate the action with the reward. We are using the same words, too. "Go outside" is for heading to the door. And, "go potty," is for actually doing the deed. The long range goal is to have her going on command.

Some patterns have already begun to emerge. She will #1 and #2 in the morning when she first wakes up. And, will often do so again after a little breakfast. After that, however, it's pretty random.

I have not been as consistent as I should have been so far with "timing" her potty breaks. I have gone from thinking I was not taking her out often enough to thinking I was taking her out too often and back again. But, this is the reason for blogging the patterns. It will help tone me down and keep me from getting ahead of myself, hopefully.

So, today's goal is to get her on a timer. I have already taken her out twice, as of 8am. Once at 6am when she woke up, and again at 715am after breakfast. Both times #1 and #2. So, off to a good start. (Like I said, the days aren't a problem....it's the evenings.) But, I will still put her on a 45 minute timer for the rest of the week. I plan to stretch it to an hour if all goes well by next week.

The only things that get in the way are naps. When she falls asleep, I take her immediately after waking, and will start the timer after we come in. The problem I anticipate is when she comes back inside and drinks a gallon of water. That usually triggers another potty break, but I can never tell when. So, hopefully paying closer attention will knock that little issue out.

If you read all this, you are a trooper. Entries should stay a little shorter from here on out.