Monday, December 28, 2009

Potty Training 101....



When Cricket came here she was already pretty savy with the idea of not going potty in the house. I can not imagine she would have EVER went potty in her xpen or her crate and as long as I was paying attention we had almost no accidents. I think her success was because I let her out a LOT, about every hour, a few min. after she was playing, as soon as she woke up from her nap, a few min. after she ate, when she had a funny look in her eye and pretty much any time I thought about it, LOL. I was really fanatical about making sure I went out with her each time she went potty and gave her a reward and said "go pee" or "go potty" as she was getting ready to go, so she pretty much will go on command and knows she should go out and get her business done. I also have adjusted so we do not play outside until the business is done, then we spend a little while playing before we come in most times. Anyway, so I am patting myself on the back, LOL, but it has really gone so easy with Cricket.

On Christmas day Cricket gave me a very NICE gift. She started using the bells on the door to tell me she has to go out. Up until now she really did not seem to have a way to tell us that she had to go out, sometimes she would vaguely walk in the area of the door, but she really had no clear signals and not sure she really understood potty in the house bad, although with the treats she seemed more clear on the concept that potty outside is GOOD. So it was interesting to see her run to the door and set off the bells. I have had three dogs now that just learned to do that-call people to let them out with the bells, and one dog (Liz) that never did. I stuck the bells on the door when I either was potty training Breeze, or maybe when I was potty training Liz-but I do not think I had them for her??? Breeze learned to use them pretty quickly, Cherry learned to use them in the first couple of days probably because she was an adult and now Cricket.

This is one of those things that I never really taught, just from the time these dogs came to the house when the door was open you hear the bells, so guess that is enough association that they put it all together and figure if they make noise with the bells that will give someone the idea to come and open the door. I think that is just too cool.

I was originally going to buy some of the bells they sell to hang on the door but I made this by just braiding some fleece, actually I think it originally was a toy I made. I have a tennis ball on one leg of the toy, and then I took some bells and stuck them on a round clip thingie for holding papers, and threaded that in the braiding, I stuck on some Christmas bells I got on a clearance, and just tied in a bunch of bells. The door is a slider, so I just sort of fashioned something to hook the toy onto the door. Anyway, little brilliant Cricket has been going to the door a lot for the past few days and seems pretty reliable letting us know she has to go out, so we have been able to relax the vigil a little more, LOL. I can hear the bells through the whole house because our house is small-a benefit to a small home-YIPPIE.


STALKER CRICKET-hummm, you would think she is a border collie! I am not sure what she was stalking because all the dogs are behind her?

The picture of Cricket with the prick ears is a total misrepresentation because her ears sit sort of half up in the front but very floppy, I think there is no chance she will have prick ears, LOL, but in that picture she looked up at me and that made her ears fall into a prick position, LOL.

Little Cricket also had another suprise for me the last few days....LOOSE TEETH!!! Poor baby has some very loose teeth, time is marching on!

COOL NEW THING I FIGURED OUT-I figured out how to download the videos from youtube and then convert them so they go on Itunes so I can put them on my Ipod. I downloaded a few sequences from Agilitynerd, and figure when I go to the yard to work on them tonight I can work on the sequence, but if I get stuck or want to try other ways to handle things, I have a little video tutorial right at my finger tips, how cool is that? It always takes me awhile to figure out the technology I have available, LOL.

10 comments:

Sara said...

Bells are a great idea. My dogs never tell me when they have to go out. I ask them! It would be nice for them to have a way to communicate with me. Maybe I'll try some bells.

Isn't Cricket little miss smarty pants? Hope you get to save some of her teeth! Maybe the toothfairy will bring her something fun!

Chris and Ricky said...

That is so cool that Cricket was so easy to housebreak and now rings the bells to go out! She is so brilliant!

I didn't even know you could download videos off YouTube so how's that for technological savvy? LOL!

Diana said...

Wow that is great , downloading the youtube video. I think if I had bells on the doors, the dogs would just ring them just to go outside. They would do it constantly, LOL , and drive me crazy. Im glad its working for you.

Sam said...

Glad to hear of the potty success! I've thought of implementing the bells but Marge is old enough to hold it for long period of time, and she always seems to know to come bug us when she wants to go out.

Awesome about the videos, too - my boyfriend suggested I bring my laptop to practice yesterday, I thought it was too much of a hassle, but putting it on an iPod would make it much easier!

Morganne said...

Very cute pictures. Love the one of Cricket at the door.

Natasha said...

Cricket learned house-training so fast! I should put bells on the back door again, it'd be useful. I bet Wall-e would be ringing them constantly, LOL.

Aww, Cricket is a natural little herder already!

~Nat

Sam said...

Kathy,

You know I love your long comments more than anyone's. I really like when you come by my blog because when you do, you genuinely try to say what's on your mind, try to help with my training, share feedback, etc. I feel like you're really reading and interpreting Marge's story - I appreciate anyone who reads my blog, but I really appreciate people who dive deep into it, like you.

I had never seen that Journey video before and I think it's one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. If I wasn't sitting in a room full of people I'm sure I would have let loose and bawled. That message is such an important one - it's not about how many ribbons you wind up with in the end, but it's about what you did and what you experienced to get there. I am thankful to have a friend here on Blogger who gets that. People don't always understand what it's like to have dogs like Liz or Marge. You are a special person for sticking by your dog through thick and thin!

Thanks again for all of your help, you have been such a great friend, I'll never forget when you came to my blog after my trial and bragged about it as if Marge was your own - you were so happy for us.. I can't express how happy that makes me feel! Have a wonderful New Year and I'll catch'ya plenty of times in 2010, for sure, reading the adventures of Liz and Breeze and now the new baby!

Steve said...

Sounds like Cricket is a little smartie! And so cute...

I think your idea of putting YouTube videos on your iPod/iPhone for review in practice is great! And I'm happy to hear my videos are worth doing that with :^) What software are you using?

Kathy Mocharnuk said...

Yep Steve, you are now our new agility instructor, LOL. It really is nice, my training partner and I set up the sequences and then run them how we would, then it is great to try some of the other ways to run them and push our comfort zone-things we might not have thought of. I just happened on the software, I think it is real player???? I have real player on the computer and there is a download this video now box on the top right side of the youtube videos, then it offers a choice to add the video to itunes, not sure how it all works but it works well and was very easy to do once I stumbled on it!

Sam said...
This comment has been removed by the author.