Hurricane Sandy Housetraining Horrors

For those of us in the midst of the monster that is Hurricane/Nor’easter Sandy, your housetraining will probably take a huge step backward as the dogs refuse to go out into the maelstrom. No worries, it’s not a permanent step backward.

If you’re wondering how you can prevent your dog’s house training from taking a hit from Hurricane Sandy, consider these ideas:

1. Get yourself into a rain suit, leash your dog, and run outside with them. Whoop it up, yell happily, and jump around (pretend you’re having fun). This has helped me get all four of my dogs out into the storm. Once they’re out, they want to then hurry up and get their business done so the can come back inside.
2. Be prepared to make a fool of yourself for your dogs’ sake. Yes, you’ll look like a loon, jumping around and singing a silly song in the hurricane, but you’re reassuring your dogs that the world isn’t coming to an end. And hey, isn’t it worth the label of loon to prevent poopies inside?
3. Get an umbrella over your dog — keep as much rain off them as possible.
4. Put a doggie coat on your dog to keep the rain off. We have to do this for Nemo because he’s got a single-coat (unlike the Labradors who have a nice, thick coat that keeps them warm and dry even in hurricane force winds).

If your dog still looks at you’ve lost your marbles and won’t go outside, do the next best thing and set up an acceptable indoor bathroom area. This is a great time to use your bathroom cue. So, select an easily accessible area, preferably in your view, and put down some newspapers. If you happen to have puppy pads, which I normally advise against, even better. Put those under the newspapers. When it looks like your dog has to go to the bathroom, take them to the newspapered area and give your go-to-the-bathroom cue. They may look at you funny, but if you calmly stand there and wait for them to go, I’m betting they will.

This will all be over by tomorrow afternoon. Hang in there another 24 hours!

What Hurricane Sandy modifications have you made to your dog’s bathroom hours/walks/opportunities?