thanks, Summerthyme, I'll try your ideas. I like the "that'll do" command idea. thanks!!
Land Owner
thanks, Summerthyme, I'll try your ideas. I like the "that'll do" command idea. thanks!!
~Kate
Mary is the Mother of Jesus and the Mother of all of us even though it was Christ alone who reposed on her knees… If he is ours, we ought to be in his situation; there where he is, we ought also to be and all that he has ought to be ours, and his mother is also our mother. —Martin Luther, Christmas Sermon, 1529.
Judge
Oh, and Davy? You DO have newspapers or puppy pads or SOMETHING down for Molly to "go" on when she simply can't hold it, right?
If not... do it now! It came to me last night what was missing in your post... pups WANT to be "clean", and not mess up their home, but they just don't have the physical ability to do it. Having an area where you can leave newspapers that the pup can access when needed lets her be "good" without having to be "all grown up"- which she can't be yet!
What we've always done when housetraining is put a pretty good sized area of multiple layers of newspapers... if the pup messes anyplace else but on the papers, we take them TO the papers and explain that's where the mess belongs. (When you change the papers, leave a SMALL bit of wet paper on top of the fresh ones... it will "mark" the area).
Then, once the pup has it figured out, we start making the papered area smaller. Usually by the time they're 16 weeks or so, they'll be pretty reliably house trained, with possibly an occasional accident when they "misjudge" when they needed to ask to go out.
Oh, and if you're not, start using the same words... I use "do you need to go out?" (although "go out" is probably all they are responding to)
Dixie will "nudge" me when I'm on the computer... some of the time she's just saying "ok, you've been on there long enough! Pet me or come play with me!"... but some of the time, she's asking "let me out". When I ask "do you want to go out?" If she does, she immediately walks to the kitchen door. If she doesn't, her head stays firmly planted in my lap!
But of course, "go out" also means "you're going to go out now" when I want the dogs out of the house. You might be surprised at how many words even an average Border Collie can learn! Red knows "take them to the kennel"... by the time her pups are walking, she'll lead them all to the kennel every morning on command. It's pretty darned cute... a whole wobbly puppy parade following her.
Now, she doesn't always WANT to go into the kennel, but she knows what it means, and she DOES go in even when she's reluctant. (of course, she gives us "the look" first!! You know, the one that says "you are SO mean!"? LOL!)
Summerthyme
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