I got up at 6:30 to check on Padget, opened the bedroom door and sniffed. No poo smell! And Padget was dry and clean in her puppy pen, wagging her little tail.
Yaaaay!
Padget - A+ !
Pack Leader Lesson: this reinforces the instructions given in one of my dog books. "If your puppy pees in the house, roll up a newspaper and smack yourself with it." It's never the dog's fault, so there's no point in getting frustrated (and they can sense frustration anyway, even if you don't show it). You just have to think harder.
In retrospect, I think Padget has come to associate both crates and elimination with anxiety. That's why the usual treatment (hanging out with her in the back yard until she did her business and then praising her) didn't work. From Padget's perspective, eliminating just gets you into trouble, so it's best not to do it in the open.
I don't think she really wanted to use the crate. But she doesn't like crates - she goes in reluctantly with her tail between her legs. Being in one, combined with having held out for many hours already, was just too much stress for that li'l puppy body.
So we are now 32 hours accident free. Based on the the number of poops I picked up in the back yard this morning, I'd say she's completely overcome her fear of the outdoors. She was very content last night sleeping in the puppy pen on her mat. For this dog, the crate is history, and chances are good that accidents are history too.
Onward and upward!
No comments:
Post a Comment