Hi everyone,
Abbie was born Dec 1, '05. She's 4months.
We have tried to stay right on her, putting her on the paper when she misses, and reinforcing "on the paper, Abbie. Go potty on the paper". And when she hits the paper, we have Potty Party! "YaaaaaaaaaaaY! we pottied on the paper!" (lots of praise and hugs). But, today I just lost it. Normally, she goes from crate to paper in the morning. But today she goes right into the den, and poos on the sofa! My knee-jerk reaction was to snatch her up, yell "NO! Abbie", swat her little bum with a rolled up newspaper (one sheet, very flimsy - more for noise than anything), and deposit her in crate for time out (more for her safety than punishment, if ya know what I mean!) Later, when I opened the crate door, she wouldn't come out. I just let her stay until she was ready to come out; but, she wouldn't come to me for a couple of hours.
I have no idea what would trigger this behavior. The sofa doesn't smell any different than it did before, and nothing traumatic has happened in our home, recently.
As far as not letting her near the furniture until she's better trained; that's not an option, here. I don't know how we'd keep her from the furniture if she's a part of the family, and I don't like putting dogs in playpens. |