Bad Mommy

ugghhh - I think I'm in for a long night. Max came home on Saturday and has been exceptional about his house training (his breeder said he was litter trained but I was skeptical). This morning he even yipped at the door to go out. Of course that gave me a false sense of security and if something seems too good to be true it usually is. Tonight he was being a holy terror chewing on everything he shouldn't (me, hubby, Mindy) and not willing to be distracted by any of his toys until I pulled out a bacon flavoured edible nylabone. That kept him happy for more than an hour. It made him thirsty though and I felt sorry for him frantically running from his crate (where I feed him) to where Mindy's water bowl is. I put some water down thinking there was plenty of time until bedtime. Well I let him drink too much and he has started to pee on the floor several times tonight before I could wisk him out. He just got up from a nap and he literally stood up and peed before moving 5 steps. I'm a bit afraid to put him to bed for the night because he hasn't had an accident in his crate and I don't want to set him up for failure. I guess we'll just stay up for another couple of hours until it works through his system.

Oh well tomorrow is another day - I won't make the same mistake again!

Good luck, housetraining can seem like it will never end sometimes, but it seems like one day they just "get it" - then they regress, and then they really "get it" the next time! I'm not sure how old he is, but once you get into a routine I'm sure he'll be back on track. I never lifted water with my two because they were always so active, but I know that works well for many people. I agree that it would be hard not to give them water if they're looking for it! Good luck with the housetraining, he'll eventually get it! :flwr:

Recommendation:

1) forget whatever the breeder told you about how trained this dog is or isn't . It might actually be true or rather, might have been kind of, sort of, true, but if this is a puppy, there's no way he is already trained, and a move to a new home will cause housetraining to go out the window. He knew where to go in the house he'd been in all his life. Now he needs to be totally trained again from scratch as the whole world has changed for him.

2) buy Shirlee Kalstone's book on housetraining

3) there are excellent links in the Library section on crate and housetraining. The main element is: 100% supervision and management, 100% of the time. Every accident is one big step back, so the goal is to never, ever give a dog enough unsupervised time, out of immediate arm's length reach or out of a crate, to allow it to have an accident. Set things up so the dog always succeeds, inasmuch as is humanly possible, and your housetraining time will be cut significantly!

4) reward, praise, reward, praise!

He's only nine weeks old so it's more us being trained than him. I am impressed though because he does seem to "get it". Last night was totally my fault because I let him have too much to drink. With a bladder that full the poor guy probably had a tummy ache too. Anyway - I got him up an hour or so after I posted and took him out again. Then we went to bed. He was still tired from his evening of fun and frolic so he crashed right away. He only woke up once in the night which I think is probably the most I can expect from his bladder at his age. We started out this morning on the right track again. He is absolutely brilliant about knowing when I take him to the spot he is supposed to do something. I'm very very impressed. Mindy is a help as well of course because she'll usually come out with us and show him what is expected. I'm thinking that's a sign of her softening towards him because she could take that time to recover from the body slamming (he's realized she won't tolerate nipping at her but she's okay with body slamming).