I’m beginning to wonder if Hershey is much, much smarter than I’ve been giving her credit for. I swear she’s rationing her piddle outside, peeing in several different spots so she’ll get more treats. And sometimes I suspect she’s just squatting to see if she’ll get something for that, too. Good thing there’s snow outside so I can see the evidence left behind! Very often she just sits down and look up at me with pleading eyes, hoping that’ll score a goodie too.
Now that I know she doesn’t go all at once in one spot, I’m obligated to follow her all around the yard until she finds the perfect place to go. (This also gives her time to chew on sticks and follow bunny tracks and romp through the snow.) Certainly seems like she’s training me!
It took a while to figure out that she wasn’t going to do all her business at once. I’d be frustrated beyond belief when I’d bring her outside, watch her go, follow her back to the house and let her in, only to have her pee inside within five minutes! I figured she’d get it all over with at once, and not run back for the door before she was done. So, I guess you can say she has trained me to bring her back to the front yard when she runs for the door after going. This has been quite successful. She almost always goes again. Score one for me. Or the dog.
But then I realized what we might be doing wrong. I just found out that sometimes when my husband takes the dog out, he forgets the treats and gives her a goodie when they get back inside. No wonder she wants to go back in. Admittedly, it is tough to get your winter gear on, grab the dog leash, open the jar of treats and then get her outside before she has an accident. But here’s a great example of consistency not at work.
But the lessons don’t end there. I’ve smartened up enough to realize when she’s sniffing in certain spots in the house, she’s ready to go. It was hard to tell at first, because she always seems to be sniffing around. But there are certain out-of-the-way spots she likes to go when she’s inside, and I’ve been able to scoop her up and get her outside before she gets down to business.
I had been focusing just on training Hershey; but really, I need training too. Like realizing I might be reinforcing some bad behaviors. I couldn’t understand why she was jumping so much whenever we walked by. Then I noticed two things. When she wants to sit on my lap on the couch, she jumps up to me and I pick her up. When she goes outside and I give her a treat, she jumps up for it. I had inadvertently been teaching her that jumping up leads to good things! (When really, it just leads to a lot of scratches—on me!)
Once I realized that, I took action. The next few times she jumped up to get on the couch, I eased her bottom down to the ground, told her she was a good dog and picked her up. And guess what? She comes to the couch and sits in front of me now. I’m going to go out on a limb here and declare that I taught her that! (Although I don’t know what’s going to happen when she’s too big to pick up.)
I’m trying to do the same thing outside, but she’s so excited for that treat, it’s hard to keep her from jumping. But now I kneel down beside her and give her the treat, so there’s not so much jumping.
Encouraged by some of this good news, we began trying to clicker train her, too. We started out just showing her that the clicker is a good thing. Click the clicker, and give her a treat. Well now when she sees that clicker come out, she’s practically doing back flips. (Hey, maybe we can teach her to do that!) It’s really hard to calm her down enough to even do the training. This dog likes her treats. My daughter Riley has been helping with the clicker training, too. And I wonder if that’s why Hershey has been jumping up on Riley more often now.
Oh, we still have lots and lots to learn. Like not chewing on my fingers, hair and clothes. That’s tough, because when I try to remove the body part in question from her mouth, she thinks I’m trying to play and tugs on it even harder! If she gets something in her mouth that shouldn’t be there, good luck trying to get it out. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to train her to not chew on the kids’ toys, the couch, crayons etc. Just when you think everything is cleaned up, she finds something in the corner or under a chair. Nerf darts seems to be multiplying in our house like mushrooms. That dog finds them hidden all over the place. (Pencils are another favorite.) So much for the dozen or so dog toys we bought her. Those are usually the last thing she chews on. She even goes for the cat’s toys before she chews on her own.
But for the most part, this all adds up to a lot of hope that things will get better, that I won’t be going through a bottle of pet odor remover per week for the rest of my life. I remember when my son was a baby, and we were having a particularly bad night. He was just crying and screaming not wanting to go to sleep, so I was crying too, all sleep deprived and desperate. “He won’t be doing this when he’s 18, right? So at some point it will stop. Hang in there,” I remember telling myself.
And at some point, Hershey will be potty trained, and maybe also trained to sit, speak, stay and roll over. I’ve gotta just hang in there. See? I’ve been well trained now to be patient.
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Have you missed any of the articles in this series?
If so, you can find them at:
The Bringing Up Puppy Series page.
Related posts:
- Bringing Up Puppy Series – What’s In a Name?
- Bringing Up Puppy Series – Second Thoughts
- Bringing Up Puppy Series – Hello Stranger
- Bringing Up Puppy Series – The Dog Whisperer
- Bringing Up Puppy Series – First Trip to the Vet
