Good Potty!
Day three and we have been doing great so far on the house training. No elimination indoors. She whimpers while crated, when she wakes up and needs to go. To be totally honest, most of the “success” so far has been based on my predicting that she needs to go versus her asking to go out.
I trained Fergus by putting him outside every time after he drank, ate or woke up and he only peed inside the house once in 11 years. I am trying to remember when he was able to tell me when he needed to go outside. I do remember that we had bells for him to ring when he was a puppy and I will get her some bells soon. The book Goldendoodle (Designer Dog)
I have done some other reading on the web to brush up on my house training skills. BEFORE You Get Your Puppy is a free e-book by Dr. Ian Dunbar. The 73 page book is available here. I agree that it is important to learn about what you are getting yourself into before beginning a new puppy adventure. Some of the book is repetitive and it hits hard on the point that the training is the person’s responsibility. Some puppy “problem” behavior is actually natural canine behavior that can be redirected. The aspect that I have been focusing on is anticipating her need to eliminate and getting her outside. Every time she wakes up or drinks water, out the back door she goes. She gets a treat, praise and play when she has eliminated. With Fergus, I also let him out as soon as he ate but we are trying something a bit different with her food. Per the BEFORE You Get Your Puppy book, I am stuffing her Kong with her food and then wedging some bone shape treats in the opening so she has to work a bit and chew on her toy to get to her food.
