I was having my second visit to my Home Dog Training client in Forsyth County and her little French Bulldog puppy, Daisy. Her initial obedience commands of “come” and “sit” were beginning to sink in and she was no longer nipping and jumping on my clients. Her pottying was also coming along, but my client said that she still had one big problem. Twice a week she would have to drive up to Wellington to have a sales meeting. This normally took most of the day and she had to be gone far longer than she knew Daisy could “hold it”. She tried leaving Daisy in her crate and she would go to the bathroom in the crate. She didn’t want to leave Daisy out in the house because she would never know where the accident might be left.
This is a common problem with almost every “potty training” client that I have ever had over the last ten years. They can understand about getting their puppy out when needed, but when they are gone a long time, the entire process just goes out the window.
My client and I have worked to have her French Bulldog understand that she would rather not go to the toilet in her crate. This gives my client a little “wiggle room” when she needs to be on the phone or attend to other matters around the house. When she leaves Daisy in her crate far longer than she can hold it, Daisy has no other choice than to go to the bathroom in the crate. The continued action and smell will diminish any thought of “I really don’t want to go here” in Daisy’s mind. So, this is a bad thing.
Next, if my client leaves Daisy out in the house all day while she is at her meeting in Wellington, Daisy will have to find somewhere to go to the bathroom. She will normally look for an out-of-the-way spot that my client might not find. Many times, my client might never find “Daisy’s toileting”. This will only set the scene that it is OK for Daisy to go in the house and be counterproductive to any potty training. This, too, is a bad thing.
So we know that my client needs to be at that meeting to keep her job. We also know that we can’t leave Daisy in her crate or free in the house. We also know that my client can’t take Daisy with her to the meeting (she already asked her boss). What is the answer?
First, we have to understand that this is a temporary situation that will end once we get Daisy potty trained and she matures to hold her potty for a longer period of time. Next, we need to understand that we need to create a consistent rule that will keep Daisy safe, allow her to go to the bathroom (if needed), and not counteract our potty training.
The answer is that we need to find a small area such as a powder room or laundry room. This area must have a tile or linoleum floor that can easily be cleaned if Daisy goes to the bathroom. We must “police” the room to make sure that there is nothing that Daisy can pull down or rip up while we are away.
Next, we take some of Daisy’s toys and possibly her bed; and place them in the room. We could even leave a little bit of water and a little kibble in the room. We place a doggie gate across the door entrance so that Daisy can be contained in the room, but still can see out, smell the “smells of the house”, and hear all the regular “house noises”.
We place Daisy in that room whenever we are going to be gone a long period of time. If Daisy potties in the contained area while we are gone, we can easily see and clean it up. We never leave Daisy in that area unless we are going away for a long period of time (longer than we believe she can “hold it”. When Daisy is not in that room, we keep the door closed so she cannot see it.
What we have created is a “time out from the potty lesson” area. Potty training is based on observation and scheduling on a consistent and repetitive basis. Our goal is to successfully get Daisy outside to potty. If we know we can’t accomplish that because of a specific reason (long meeting in Wellington), we need to call a “time out”.
The small area that Daisy is only placed when we are gone a long time is that area. Although this practice will cause the potty training to take a bit longer, it won’t destroy the benefit of the dog crate or having to look for Daisy’s accidents all over the house.
Please call us at (770) 718-7704 it you are in need of any dog training help. We have a lot of good dog training advice at Best Dog Trainers Forsyth County Georgia. Find all our phone numbers, text addresses and email contacts at Dog Training Help Center Forsyth County Georgia.
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