The Streak Has Ended

Payton had an accident in the house yesterday. She was only 3 days away from making it to the 30 day accident free goal. If you remember Mark said that Payton had to make it 30 days and then she wouldn't have to be crated when we leave the house. The nice thing about this prospect would be removing the crate from it's spot in the living room, giving us more space. Anyway, I think Payton really doesn't want her crate to be removed so she sabotaged her incident free streak. Payton loves her crate. We leave the door open and she often goes in there to take naps or chill out and chew on a bone or toy. I think she'll be a little displaced when the crate is moved. We have already decided that we'll put a bed where the crate used to be and move it to a different location a few feet at a time.

The accident happened when Mark was home for lunch yesterday. Payton didn't do her business after lunch and Mark didn't want them out in the muddy yard because I get mad when I come home after a long day of work to find mud on the floors that I had just cleaned. Guess Payton just slipped off for a second while Mark was getting ready to go back to work and she pooed in the basement. Oh the horror! So now we begin what hopefully will be the 1st day of our 30 days with no incidents.

No, I don't have any pictures of the poo to post, Sorry!

Peace,

Jamie

A Tired Dog Is a Good Dog

Why are all the girls being so good today? Because they are very tired! Most dog owners know the saying "a tired dog is a good dog" and I have found that to be soooo true. I was off today but had a hair appointment and went shopping. I got home from my errands just a few minutes after Mark had arrived to fix himself some lunch (lucky guy works just a few minutes away from home so he comes home for lunch everyday. Today was gorgeous and he was able to ride the motorcycle to work!). Anyway, Mark warned me when I walked into the house that Payton was especially wound up when he arrived. She was extra anxious to get out of her crate and was jumping up on him which she really doesn't do. She was demonstrating the same excitement, and rudeness, to me so I said "somebody needs a W-A-L-K"! Of course I can not actually use the word until we are ready to go. Unless you want to deal with three dogs going bonkers until they actually hit the sidewalk.

I played with the "chuck-it" and the girls in the backyard a little bit before I put their leashes on. This helps with the initial excitement overload that they usually get at the beginning of a walk. Once we get about half a block away from home they fall into line. Do I walk them all at the same time?!!? Yes I have developed a system that allows me to walk the threesome all at once. When we first brought Payton home I didn't think that I would ever be able to walk all of my dogs at once. Taryn and Kylie were a challenge by themselves. I need to have them both on gentle leaders when they are on leash (If you have a dog that pulls I would recommend this product. It is not a muzzle, but it goes around their nose to keep them from pulling). Luckily Payton is the easiest dog ever to walk. She does not pull or strain or object to the leash in the slightest. The only challenge with her is that she wasn't walked before she came to us so she doesn't fully understand what we're doing when we take off. She wants to look over her shoulder at me to see what my cues are. She is focused after a few minutes of just moving forward.
So here's the pre walk drill: I put Kylie and Taryn's gentle leaders on, put them on a coupler (it attaches both of their gentle leaders to one leash) and I put Payton's leash on and we are ready to go! It is a really cool feeling when all four of us are moving forward together. It is like we're on a mission and we are united and invincible. I am able to totally stop the self talk that is constantly going on in my head and just live in the moment. I hope that happens to the girls too because it is a really cool feeling. Another benefit is that we are burning calories and toning our muscles as we go. My whole body feels it when I return from walking all three of the dogs. I took all three to PetSmart last week and felt like I had worked out with weights. The stimulus of the store made them harder to handle, thus a harder work out.

It is only supposed to be 42 degrees tomorrow with a chance of snow. Gotta sneek in the fun in the sun while it lasts. Hopefully Mark will take me on a ride when he gets home from work!

Peace,

Jamie

P.S. For those of you who cannot tell the girls apart, Kylie is closest to the shed, Taryn is clockwise from her, and Payton is front and center.

Pee and Poop!

We brought Payton home at 5 months old and she was pretty much potty trained. She had a couple accidents when she first arrived, but we attributed that to nervousness and not knowing how to let us know when she needed to go outside and do her business. We started working on potty training with her on day one and she seemed to do just fine. For us potty training is a very proactive situation. You have to keep an eye on your pup at all times and close off any areas of the house where they could quietly sneak off and do their business. You also have to be proactive about taking them out after they have woken up from a nap, had a meal, been playing vigorously, got startled by something, or it's just been a little while since they've gone. For little puppies we take them out every half hour that they are awake, or after any of the above mentioned activites. For teenage dogs with well developed bladders they can be awake in the house and only need a potty break every 3 to 4 hours. When sleeping, puppy's can only go about 2 hours without releiving themselves, so you need to get up and take them out throughout the night. Eventually as they get older and their bladders develop they can go longer and longer without having to go outside. Soon they will be able to make it all night without having to drag you out of bed into the harsh elements of the cold night (remind me again Mark why we bring home our puppies during the winter months?). Crate training really helps with this process because they do not want to soil their "den" and will alert you when they need to go. All of our dogs LOVE the crate because from day one we made the crate a really positive experience (i.e. treats and praise every time they enter the crate whether voluntarily or after being asked to "go to your crate".)

All that being said we thought that Payton was fully potty trained after being with us for almost three months. Uh Oh! We are not quite out of the woods yet. Monday afternoon Mark warned me that Payton was a "hold out" and didn't poop after lunch. I needed to keep an eye on her because she was due. So we went on a walk, no poop. Let her play in the backyard, still no poop. I had her inside with me when Kylie got really frisky, picked up our big squeaky Air Kong football, and started zooming inside the house. I was laughing my you know what off as I watched Kylie get her sisters just as excited about the football as she was. I watched as they all flew by me to chase Kylie down the stairs into our finished basement when it dawned on me "this is a lot of stimulus for a young Payton who hasn't pooed yet!" I ran down the stairs maybe two seconds behind them but it was too late! There it was, right by the pool table..... fresh poop and Payton looking really guilty off in the corner of the basement. Well, my bad, and now a training opportunity. So I go over to the poop and ask Payton "What's this? Did you do this? Nooooo, we go outside!" I pick up the poop and take Payton outside to set it out in the yard so that she can see where poop goes. Well, situation dealt with and we move on right? Nope. At the end of the day I am getting ready to go to bed when I step into something wet and yellow on our bedroom carpet. Pee! What is going on here? I thought we were past all of this. Anyway we realized that Payton is not fully potty trained and we need to back up a little bit. She is always in her crate when no one is home, but we are back to keeping an eye on her at all times, being more proactive about taking her outside before she has an accident, and closing off hiding places in the house. She still sleeps in our room with us at night. We have a baby gate to keep them all in our room with us but Payton could still wander off to the corner of her room to do her business. Since Monday if she wakes up in the morning and doesn't go right back to sleep I get up and put her in her crate knowing she can stay in there for a few minutes until I am ready to fully get up and take all the girls out. You're probably asking yourself "Why don't you just open up the back door and let her go out and do her thing?" Well, we don't have a back door. Yep, three dogs and no back door. So for one of us to take the dogs out in the morning, namely me, we have to get dressed first. A back door is definately on my wish list. Someday maybe!

I know I have blogged alot about poop and pee this morning, but I think it's OK considering my sister in law recently blogged about one of her boys barfing and she included a picture as evidence (Hi Christi!). At least I spared you any pictures of the subject matter! : - )

Peace,

Jamie