In my case I had an urgent family matter which required me to travel out of state for a whole week. When I returned, the kids all had the stomach flu. It was a stressful few weeks, and certainly not one where we could stick to a serious schedule....so I knew better than to embark on something new.
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| I showed my kids how to take Coco outside to go potty. Everyone is involved in Coco's training. |
Before I went out of town, I left a schedule on the wall to remind my family to feed, water, walk, and play with Coco. It was a loose schedule ...because I knew that they would not pay close attention to time. When the kids were not focused on Coco, they put her in her large puppy pen with her Ugodog. It worked out well. Coco likes her pen. She regularly uses her Ugodog. It was easy for them to take care of the puppy in my absence. And most importantly, I knew Coco would not develop bad habits when I was gone.
Keep in mind....We let Coco out every few hours to relieve herself! After she goes potty she is allowed to run and play with us for 15-30 min. in our family room or kitchen.
I printed out the Puppy Schedule in bold print and posted it on the cupboard. By sticking to the schedule we will know exactly when Coco needs to use the potty.
We take turns walking Coco out to her potty spot. We put her on a short leash so she can't wander off or get distracted. We give her the command, "GO POTTY". We may say it again a few more times, but within 3 minutes she does the job. We give her a treat and praise her profusely. We give her another treat with more praise. Then another treat and more praise. The idea of three treats is to impress upon her, that going potty on command is a really great trick!
At our home, we prefer our dogs to use the potty in the woods. So we are very particular to walk our 'pups in training' to the woods for their 'potty spot'. It is very nice that we never have to worry about stepping in dog doo around our lawn. I would recommend that everyone choose the most discrete place possible for their puppy to eliminate. You will appreciate your dogs good habits for years to come.
One other Important Note: Do not forget to give your puppy at least one brisk and vigorous walk during the day. Most of our walks on the schedule are short walks around the yard. But once a day the puppy must have a serious walk to expend some of her energy!
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| Coco will go potty in 3 min. when we taker her out of her crate. |
So that is all there is to it. Since we started the schedule last Monday, Coco has been going potty outdoors on command. We had one day of pouring rain, and we let her use her Ugodog that day. I still put Coco in her pen with her Ugodog during the night, so she can use the potty in the middle of the night. I want her to use her Ugodog once a day to make sure she won't forget what her Ugodog toilet is all about.
Some people might stop using an indoor Ugodog Toilet when they start potty training. But I do not recommend getting rid of your Ugodog too soon. A puppy cannot reliably hold his bladder until 7 mths of age...and it is always good to have an indoor option, until you know your dog is reliable.
In my house, I plan to keep using the Ugodog toilet throughout Coco's life. Coco will someday be a Mama dog so there will be times when she will need to use the potty A LOT more than normal. Basically pregnant and nursing females need to use the potty often...and having a Ugodog, will make the frequent potty schedule easy for us and easy for the dog.
In case you are thinking that my house a utopia of dog training, I want to assure you that it is not. I have a real house with real people and like everyone else we DO make mistakes. Basically if someone in the house ignores the rules of puppy training then we will have a potty accident. For instance I had a relative visit from out of town. He let the puppy out of her pen before I came down in the morning. He didn't know the rules for our puppy. Of course Coco had an accident! She started running through our house with her usual morning energy. And sure enough she had to go poo poo within a few minutes. Alas, she was blocked off from all her acceptable options. All she had was the dining room floor. (Well at least a wood floor is a quick and easy clean-up!)
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| We keep Coco's crate in the center of the house, and she is quite content! |
The younger kids too have had a few instances when they did not remember our puppy rules. Was I angry or discouraged when this happened? Not in the least. Our mistakes have been relatively few in number. And they were people mistakes, not puppy failures. The bulk of the time, we DO follow the rules for puppy rearing, and I am confident that the right habits are going to overcome the rare accident. I am thrilled with our puppies training thus far.
Training a puppy can be a little more difficult when you have a house with a lot of different age groups, like we do. If Mom or Dad aren't home to keep on top of the Out door Potty schedule, it is better to go back to using the pen with the Ugodog. The main reason, is you don't want anyone to forget to let the puppy out of her pen and force her to pee in her crate. Also you don't want someone to let the puppy out of her crate and let her soil around the house. The danger of allowing accidents repeatedly is that you are training your puppy to soil in the house.
Interesting blog, thanks Boo
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