In order to make things easier on myself and the future owners, I had been taking the ten-pack outside to potty for some weeks. They all got quite good at racing outside and doing their business on the lawn. I always had a papered area for those puppies who might be off the schedule a bit, but typically I was not spending much day time hours cleaning because I was busy taking them in and out twice an hour when awake :) When the last of the other puppies left last Saturday, I started Halo's formal housetraining. I share this experience because I know there are people with puppies and people who will get puppies soon.
Today is Thursday, and Halo is accident free and runs to the door when she needs to go out. How was this accomplished in five days? She is watched at all times. When she was awake and playing, I took her out frequently (every 20-30 minutes) and waited until she went potty -- I rewarded that with praise and a treat. If we go outside and she chews on plants, I know she does not need to go and I wait a little bit and try again. It really is that simple. Starting yesterday when it was clear that she had caught on to the idea of going to the door, I started waiting longer stretches before taking her out (about 40 minutes) and also watching for any indication that she was heading for the door so that I could reinforce that behavior. In the past five days, we had one accident (on Sunday) and that was completely my fault. She had been outside playing and I let her in, making the silly assumption that she had recently pottied since she was outside -- I should have known better than that. In order to facilitate housetraining, she spends little time outside unless supervised. Housetraining is simple and easy when one realizes it is the people AND puppy that must be trained, and approach the task with commitment, persistence and an understanding of the developmental needs of a small puppy. I am also glad that I made the efforts to get the puppies used to using the outside potty because I think that made this job much easier. In addition to having caught on to the outside potty business, little Halo is now also sleeping 6.5-7 hour stretches at night in her crate -- she is nine weeks old. I cannot tell you how wonderful it is to sleep that long again!!! So, in honor of my sweet and smart Halo and her littermates (Murphy, Baloo, Zephyr, Buffy, Skylee, Bree, Luna, Bella and Moon) I have sent two checks in equal amounts for the BARC/LOC fund raising, with hope that we can make a difference and that all puppies will someday be loved and cared for as the ten-pack was and is... Mary-Ann Bowman Utah U-CD Emma, CDX, DD, CGC, retired Abra, VCD1 [NA, NAJ, TD, CD], CDX, OA, DD, CGC -- done with maternity leave and ready to roll Maize, NA, TD, DD, CGC Halo -- future star
