Hi Sheila, Welcome and congratulations on your new puppy...although you are probably not feeling very congratulatory right now.
I really think that some Cavaliers can be very slow to potty train at times. Of course if you have a doggie door it seems to make it easier....I don't have one :). I once had a girl that sounds very much like your girl. I was frustrated beyond belief with her and did many of the same things that you are doing. What I had to do was basically follow the Evans book to the letter, which meant keeping her crated much more than I wanted to. It is very important to make sure that the space in the crate is not big enough for her to potty in the corner and sleep at the other end. I put a milk crate into the crate, to restrict the space....a fuzzy and a few toys. There was basically only enough room for her to stand up and turn around. As she became more trustworthy, I lengthened both the time that I would let her out of the crate for play/exercise time and the amount of space that she could have. It was a trying few weeks, but it did make a difference. Of course, being a dog person, you know how important it is to praise, praise, praise when she does it where she is supposed to. I don't do this with all of my pups....but this girl just needed some xtra help learning what was expected from her. Please don't be afraid of putting her out in the cold weather. I live in the mountains of NH and it gets very very cold up here as well. My puppies go out for short spells by the time they are 8 weeks old and are happy to be out in the snow. My oldest girl came to me as a puppy of 12 weeks in January and I took her outside on a leash right from the start...never bothering with papers and she did great. Of course, i was right out there with her and she learned the command..."Hurry Up"...very quickly...haha!!! There is not too much you can do about the poop eating, except clean it up as quickly as you can. Some puppies (and dogs) just seem to do this for whatever reason. It is gross, but almost impossible to make them stop if they are determined. Most puppies outgrow doing this as they get older. Good luck with your pup...and remember...this too shall pass <grin>. Kindest regards, Kim Ballymena Cavaliers ========================================================= "Magic Commands": to stop receiving mail for awhile, click here and send the email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?body=SET%20CKCS-L%20NOMAIL to start it up gain click here: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?body=SET%20CKCS-L%20MAIL E-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] for assistance. Search the Archives... http://apple.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ckcs-l.html All e-mail sent through CKCS-L is Copyright 1999 by its original author.
