I still remember the glory days...
After months of stomach allergies, Calvin had finally come into his own, mastering the notion of being house-trained thanks to a white fish and sweet potato diet. Those were truly magical times. Calvin would nap on the couch all day while we were at work, wag excitedly when we got home at the end of the day, and then we'd all go play in the back yard to play.
Well...Calvin would use mostly just use the washroom but he'd think about playing after...
Okay fine... he'd just try to coax us into a nap again...
Then Theo came along and ruined everything. Theo took much longer to even come close to understanding why he should ever be expected to hold it for any length of time. So we crate trained. And crate trained. And crate trained.
This process was made more complicated by the fact that Calvin refused to be separated from his new brother. If Theo was in the crate, Calvin had to be in the crate. If Theo finally earned our trust to be in the spare room, Calvin had to be in the spare room. Calvin quite literally gave up his well-earned freedom just to be with his bratty little brother.
So now? Well...Theo has been shockingly holding it for entire work days in the spare room that we converted into a dachshund delight - blankets, pillows, two crates, toys, water. Calvin's happy as a clam just to have the company. But yet I can't help but dream of the days where I might be able to let them both just have free range.
Will we ever get back to the way things were?
Here's what some of our Twitter buddies had to say:
Friends
Posts
4 comments:
Our Karli is now 3 months old as she was born on Jan. 4th. We are crate training and because she is 3/4 miniature Dachshund and 1/4 Jack Russel, she was so tiny when we got her. We live in Western NY and we are still having some cold weather. Due to the freezing temps we decided to paper train until the weather improved. The problem is that sometimes she will go right over to her paper and go and other times she goes wherever she wants. There are times she walks around on her paper and then walks off and goes on the floor. She also thinks she is a cat and gets on our dining room table and walks around until we catch her and get her down. She gets right on the stand by my hubby's chair and get the t.v. controller to chew on. Anyone else have these strange occurrences?? I would love any suggestions on the house breaking that anyone would like to share. I also wanted to share this awesome fabric I found at JoAnn Fabrics for all the Dachshund lovers out there.
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=23430347
Arelel: Tofu came home to us in late December in the middle of a snow storm. Potty training was incredibly difficult due to the cold weather but we bought him a sweater and tried figuring out a routine. At 3 months of age you'll have to go out fairly frequently. Just be patient. And when the puppy does her business give lots of praise and a treat every single time. I read that not letting them see you clean up the mess helps too. Not sure why but we used a mix of vinegar and water to clean up after him.
Another thing that helps is keeping the puppy close and knowing what the signs are before they potty. Most times it involves intense sniffing and circling to find a spot. At that point, it may be a good idea to pick the puppy up and go outside.
Tofu eventually learned to tell us when he needed to go out by pointing at the door and has been accident free for almost a year. If you're training for indoors potty you might want to invest in some pee pads instead of just paper or a dog litterbox (I think you can only use these after they turn 6 months old though). Hope some of this helps.
I echo everything that Kimberly says although I can't really say it had as much success with us. Calvin had tummy troubles that kept his training from being as effective as we had hoped. After he worked through that though, he's been a trooper at holding it and making it clear when he has to go.
Theo on the other hand remains a tough case. He holds it all day most days, but there are others that he simply doesn't for whatever reason. We still have to keep him confined to one room of the house because of this.
At three months though? The bladder capacity is only at about four hours maximum. You're looking at quite a few bathroom runs no matter what!
To the above:
We got Lila and Rusty when they were *tiny* (6 weekd) so we had a hard time in the beginning. Mostly we just took them out a lot and made sure to praise them when they did their business outside. They're a year old now and while we still have the odd bouts of rebellion they mostly know to go outside and are pretty good at holding.
I hope that the very good advise Kimberly gave you helps!
On the post:
Lila and Rusty have the whole yard to themselves during the day. It's not that big but big enough and very well secured so they can't get out. They mostly sleep in their kennel but have the freedom to play on the grass. At night they're inside.
Post a Comment