Housetraining a Puppy

…is a pisser of a job. Pun intended.

I got this 3mos old pup and 4 older dogs. The back door opens onto the back porch which is connected to the dog lot. All I have to do is open the door and out the monsters go. Easy.

Until the pup. It’s really not good for him to just be let outdoors. He needs to understand that outdoors is not just play time but poop and pee time. So after several days of cleaning piddle puddles, we’ve backed up to evaluate just what the heck we are doing.

I’ve hit the ‘net and read a lot of advice. Some of it is weird, some of it just plain wrong, some of it actually makes sense. House training a puppy is a science full of opinion and myth. You want the pup to understand where to go and where not to go. And the human has to learn how the pup tells them it has to go (which usually means “I gotta go NOW”). Mike and I need to learn to understand each other.

Luckily, Mike is old enough to grasp the situation soon. I am soooooo glad I didn’t get a younger dog.

Other than the piddles and piles, Mike is doing great. He and Sam play several times a day. He loves to nap laying next to or within sight of Joella. He knows to avoid Casey. He’s friends with Sassafras but he and Callie have a spitting relationship. As in he likes to irritate her so she will spit on him. She’s tried to rip him a new nose hole several times but the little snot is too fast.

I’ve got some more pictures and some video of him and Sam playing. I’ll upload them. Someday. Maybe.