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!