We had torrential rains all day recently.
Siena doesn’t like to get her feet wet, so getting drenched was not on her list of things to do that day. Which means she didn’t go to the bathroom outside very often. Which is a nice way of saying she went to the bathroom inside a lot.
I’ve been giving her more house freedom as she’s shown more mastery of her bathroom abilities.
She’s also been fairly good about going to the door — and even pawing at it — to tell me when to let her out. She’s also been in a heavy growth period which means she sleeps an awful lot. It’s easy to watch a sleeping puppy — they don’t make many house training accidents!
Anyway, yesterday and today have had more than their fair share of house training mistakes. Apparently Siena thinks that because she went to the bathroom inside on Tuesday, that now every day is go to the bathroom inside day.
Starting last night and continuing through the coming weeks, I’ve taken away a good portion of her house freedom.
Puppy gates are back up, we’re using the tether and the crate again, and she’s always in the same room as me. Not surprisingly, the puddle and pile count has decreased in direct proportion to the amount of supervision.
House training a puppy takes time.
And it’s really easy to be lulled into thinking your pup is farther along than she really is. If you notice that your pup is having more bathroom incidents indoors, simply tighten up your supervision: use that crate, the gates, tether, and keep that pup with you.
It’ll take Siena another week or two to get back on track — and even then I’ll keep a lid on her house freedom. I don’t need another regression in house training!
We’re fostering for a couple days – kinda funny how courageous we humans get when a puppy demonstrates bladder control. 😉 Back to square one. 🙂
Ugh, we really thought we had something going. ‘Til Tuesday. Back to square one as you say…
What do you think of using a litter box? sometimes my dog is alone for 9 hours while I am gone. I have been using a litter box, which works pretty good, but sometimes she makes mistakes (work in progress 🙂 many people tell me not to use the litter box. What do you think?
Every time we foster puppies, most of the house training accidents happen when both my husband and I are home. “I thought you were watching him.”
When I’m home alone, we do fine. Of course I don’t get anything else done.
I think everyone underestimates how much supervision it takes to avoid house training setbacks.
Hi Joe, I think the litter box can be great. If she uses it consistently, of course. What material is in the litter box for your dog?
Yes, I’m familiar with the “getting nothing done” part! Oh, am I! Our house training woes have evened back out, but I’m not kidding myself. A lot of it’s because I’m watching her like a hawk still. 🙂
It is called Purina second nature dog litter – basically it is little rolled pellets of paper, when wet they swell up and you can easily remove it. She does use it, but not always for peeing. Is there anything I can do for that?
I think I’d treat it like I would a regular housetraining problem. I like to limit house freedom — meaning you don’t give your dog a chance to make mistakes and go in the house (or anywhere other than the litter). Use an enzymatic cleaner that breaks down (not just covers up) the urine. Otherwise, the old pee spots are a neon sign that says “PEE HERE!”
You keep the litter in an easily accessible room, where you can see her when she goes, right? And you’re limiting her house freedom so she can’t go in any other room without you knowing (and following)? If you’re doing that, you should be seeing progress any day now! 🙂
yes i am limiting her freedom…I’ll start watching her even closer now 🙂 thanks a bunch 🙂 oh and this might not be the place to ask, but I was also wondering if I was doing something wrong with loose leash walking. She walks good on concrete but goes crazy on grass, trying to pull. I’ve tried to teach her (using food in the beginning) but she isn’t interested. I am also trying just standing there until she stops pulling, but as soon as I lift up my foot she runs off again. What do I need to change?