The YT Potty Log

[ParrotLady]

Originally Posted by Sweetlips6

Maybe yesterday was not a fluke! Bonnie was in the living room with me. She ran through the breakfast area, down the hall, through the utility room and to the bathroom, and pooped on her pad. I am just holding my breath, hoping that this is the "real thing".

Oh, and she is getting spayed Thursday. I have heard that some pups have a potty training set back after their spay

I am so happy for you. These success stories give us hope! Penny is getting spayed on Wednesday, I am in the same scary boat as you.

[QuickSilver]

I've heard that s/n can affect potty training too, but if they learned it once, they'll get back on track that much more quickly.

[Sweetlips6]

DAY THREE!! YEA!! Poop on potty pad.. She is so proud of herself!

I never though I would be so obsessed about poop
I am glad I have you-all, because anyone else would think I am a nut! LOL

[QuickSilver]

Ha ha. It's so exciting once they get it, isn't it? Congrats to both of you!

[lemonlauren]

Originally Posted by Sweetlips6

I never though I would be so obsessed about poop

LMAO! I completely understand... it's amazing how much your life has to start revolving around poops and pee during potty training. To this day, I still have the occasional nightmare that Nikko has an accident, and I wake up panicked only to find him happily asleep, completely unaware of the impact he's made on my conscious and subconscious mind... how my brain is still struggling to recover from those torturous potty training days.

Lauren & Nikko

[QuickSilver]

Well, Thor is on Day 30, or Day 2, depending on how you look at it.

He has not pottied in my apartment in thirty days, which is great, and obviously the most important thing. Unfortunately, he peed in my office the other day. The silver lining is that I did catch him in the act and correct him. The dark, stormy cloud is that he made a tiny puddle before I caught him.

He's definitely made a lot of progress; he knows what the pads are for, and he uses them, even at my office. However, he clearly doesn't have the idea that he should ONLY use a pad indoors, no matter where the indoors happens to be.

I also still have boxes up in parts of my apartment. He's been banned from my bedroom for two months now. I've given him partial access, but I don't think he's taken advantage of it yet. I don't feel like I can push the boxes back until I've seen him check the new area out. Otherwise, I think he'll suddenly realize, hey, there's this whole new room we haven't spent time in, perfect for peeing in!

Again, I can tell he's getting better. I really, really to be able to trust Thor indoor implicitly. I hope we get there. Part of me thinks we'll get there even if it takes a year, and part of me thinks maybe never. I mean, I can't watch Thor every second for a YEAR. It can be hard to see the difference between really slow, erratic progress and no progress at all.

[ParrotLady]

Well, congrats and I am sorry! LOL

Penny hadn't gone off the pad for a couple of days and then today she left a puddle in the middle of the kitchen floor. Her pad is in the kitchen, but not in the middle of the kitchen!

Once she is over her surgery, we are going to try diapers a few hours a day so that she can have more space to "run" and enjoy being with anyone she chooses. Right now she is pretty stuck with me most of the time.

[JMuedog]

Well, as of tonight we're back to day 1... its raining out again.... Gwenni cannot understand that outside isn't only for #2, but also #1...

[lemonlauren]

Originally Posted by QuickSilver

He has not pottied in my apartment in thirty days

Yes! Yes! YES! YESSSSSSS!

Hey, at our thirty days, I hadn't given Nikko access to any rooms that required doors to go through. And within our first thirty days, he pooped once inside the neighbor's house, but I didn't count it because it wasn't our apartment. My point is that you shouldn't think of your apartment's 30 day mark as any less of an accomplishment than it absolutely is! This absolutely shows massive progress, serious wheels turning inside lil' Thor's brain machine! He is ON HIS WAY, no doubt about it. And all thanks to your patience and consistency... Thor is so lucky to have you teaching him. Congratulations!

Lauren & Nikko

[QuickSilver]

Thank you! You are right, as usual. This is certainly a change from the start of the thread, when Thor thought rugs were for peeing and pads were for napping.

[TheTeddyBear]

AHHH potty training, I am losing hair let me tell you.. I'm looking into belly bands because today we were at my grandmothers and I was standing right over top of him, he lifted his leg and peed right on the chair.. I grabbed him and put him outside and said no.. Im lost in potty training

[mblab]

We're back on day one again. Zoe had been doing sooooo well, she has been crying at the door to go out! I'd reward EACH cry at the door with a treat and a "good girl" and then always walk her. (She'll still wait and hang around the door, silently, and I've stopped acknowledging that as wanting to go out, because she'll do that just because and hang out there for a while. So now crying *at the door* is the real indication she has to go out, and she's been doing really good at it!) Some times I didn't know if she was abusing it or just simply unable to, as there were days that I'd walk her 3+ times in 30 minutes and she wouldn't make! But all the same I'd been confining her and ALWAYS watching her and we'd been doing good. Except yesterday. She had an accident inside the house out of no where! I didn't catch her in the act, only the puddle itself. Of course as I was cleaning that up I found an old accident in her x-pen. I had thought she was finally starting to get it so I'm just going to keep up what we'd been doing and hope it'll kick in soon!

-Vicky & Zoë

[QuickSilver]

Aw, mblab. That stinks. It sounds like Zoe is getting there though, you have a signal, which I never did figure out with Thor. He just does on his pee pad.

In terms of the abuse, do you have a designated potty spot outside? I would take her straight to her potty spot, give her a couple minutes, and if she doesn't go, take her back inside. Only reward her with a walk if she actually goes.

I wonder, was she playing around in the house? That was a huge challenge with Thor, he would just pee as he was running sometimes. Maybe that's why she lost it, so to speak.

Anyway, three steps forward, one step back. She'll get there!

[mblab]

Originally Posted by QuickSilver

Aw, mblab. That stinks. It sounds like Zoe is getting there though, you have a signal, which I never did figure out with Thor. He just does on his pee pad.

In terms of the abuse, do you have a designated potty spot outside? I would take her straight to her potty spot, give her a couple minutes, and if she doesn't go, take her back inside. Only reward her with a walk if she actually goes.

I wonder, was she playing around in the house? That was a huge challenge with Thor, he would just pee as he was running sometimes. Maybe that's why she lost it, so to speak.

Anyway, three steps forward, one step back. She'll get there!

Thanks, your advice/reassurance means a lot! Zoe's never been the quickest or brightest (I still love her!) Anyway, it's been small baby steps. At first I thought her waiting at the door (something she came up with on her own) would be the "signal" but she likes the rug there and will sometimes just lay there for the fun of it. Trying to reinforce that every time was looking to be a nightmare. Since she sometimes would make a noise at the door I decided to try to reinforce* that instead. In the past week I'd say she's barked/cried at the door to go out more times than we've walked her just because it was time to (as in, it's been an hour or two and you haven't made lately, time for a walk!). So I saw that as a good sign.

By the way, when I saw reinforce and walk I mean reinforce with a treat and a "good girl" and a "walk" in our family is actually a quick trip to our front yard. In reality our "yard" is the grass strip no more than 2 feet wide between our house and the next house. But that's where she makes, along that strip. She favors one section over others sporadically, sometimes she likes to make by the sidewalk, sometimes by the trash cans, it changes every day/every trip. Am I doing the wrong thing by allowing her to choose which area of our small grass to make? Should I just confine her to one section always? I just thought since our "yard" is so small her choosing with the limited space available would be fine. (When she does make, especially after indicating so, as a reward I'll walk her farther, like around the block or to check the mail since our mailbox isn't at the end of our driveway...)

I'm not really sure where that accident came from. We'd played with some toys, but not intensely, and she'd been asleep the last I saw (as I'd run in to the kitchen briefly). Even as a baby she hasn't really been that prone to accidents around playing. She's a water FANATIC (and drinks like a fish, sometimes she'll wake up from a dead sleep and climb down the couch, on her stairs of course, and get something to drink). I'm wondering if she woke up to get something to drink, thought, hmm I've got to pee, and that was what happened.

As good as I thought she was doing the accident definitely frustrated me. But so far so good today. I'll just keep up the routine we have going, hopefully that'll eventually make it work.

-Vicky

P.S. 11 weeks until we have to move out of current house and move in to our new place. We're in negotiations for our lease, so assuming that goes through, we have somewhere between 7-11 weeks before we actually move 100%. The new place looks to be ALL carpet (light carpet too!) so we have until then to do our BEST to get her 100%. I know 100% isn't going to happen but she needs to be as close to that as possible!

[QuickSilver]

Hee! Thor is not the sharpest tool in the shed either. He makes up for it in other ways.

It sounds to me like you are doing the right thing with the potty area. I thought you meant you were taking her on long, rambling walks through miles of meadows and rolling hills before she decided to potty.

Don't worry about the carpet. A good cleaner will make it look like it never happened, especially if you catch it right away. I speak from experience, sadly.