Uhmmm...Signs of Doggy Hope?
Is it possible that all it takes to house-train a puppy is for the human to fall on its face and have a near-nervous breakdown?
After the recent whine about the flood of dawg pee, Ruby the Corgi Puppy has succeeded in alerting the slow-witted human not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES that she wished to go outside to water the gravel.
Since my late, great whinge in which I worried whether the pup had something wrong with her, so interestingly recalcitrant did she seem to be at the ripe old age of 13 weeks (aww, c'mon, folks: that's more than three months old!), the Ruby has invented a number of ways to communicate her wishes. This is quite a trick, since some of the signals overlap with a) Playing and b) Trying to extract Chew-Stick from Cassie the Corgi's greedy little fangs.
The first couple of times, I wrote off as flukes. But it just happened again. Three (surely!) is a charm.
Here we have the Ruby Signal:
RUBY: {run run run run run} WARF!
HUMAN: {continues trying to eat its dinner}
RUBY: {run run run from back door to kitchen door} SQUEAK!
HUMAN, evincing EARLY NEANDERTHAL facial expression: Huh?
RUBY, continuing to race back and forth: WARF! You idiot! WARF, I say!!!
HUMAN: {Manages to put down fork and stumble to the back door.} D'you want to go outside?
RUBY: How alert of you to notice! {Ruby runs outside and pees on...can you believe it??...the ground!}
HUMAN: omigod, you BRILLIANT little dog! GOOOOOOD RUBY, WONDERFUL RUBY, FREAKING MIRACULOUS RUBY.
RUBY: You. Are. Weird.
There's hope. This is the third time in two days the puppy has indicated, in a way intelligible to thick-witted humans, that she wanted to go outside. Could it be????
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Yuki & Ellie on
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Have you considered training her to use bells to signal? I know I had a horrible time trying to train Ellie. Even at nearly 1 year old she was still relieving herself in front of the door or at the far end of her crate instead of actually signaling for us to let her out. Yuki was so easy to train that I was seriously stressing out over Ellie's numerous accidents! However, I finally decided to give the bells a whirl and, literally, within 24 hours of hanging those bells she was reliably ringing to go out. Obviously Ruby is still just a wee little thing, but it might be worth a try if you find she's lacking a good signal.
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Permalink Reply by Vicky Hay on
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Trainer was here today. She felt positive...and reinforced the idea that Pup needs to be ushered outside at every obvious juncture and then whenever you think of it, too. Took her outside 20 minutes ago and then thought about it again? Out with her! Also she urged keeping pup confined in a crate or X-pen every single instant that you can't keep an eye on her.
Bells, hm? It's a good idea. But I don't know...I can't afford a new paint job for that back door (bells will rub the paint right off), and also the door is out of code -- it opens inward instead of out, which in AZ is illegal for a kitchen door. Don't know if I can get a licensed contractor to repaint, don't want to do the job myself, and most certainly don't want to contend with yet another bat-brained unlicensed handyman.
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Permalink Reply by Bev Levy on
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I always say that "as soon as you think it is hopeless the pup is potty trained". This seems to prove it! I am getting a 12 week old pup next week, wish me luck!
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Ruby was only 8 weeks when she was consigned to me and Cassie. It could be that she really was too little (some folks on this site have remarked to that effect, in non-Ruby-related threads). Maybe having that extra few weeks of maturity will make a difference.
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Permalink Reply by Diane on
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Are you really?!? How exciting....hopefully that will help fill some of the void left by losing your other fur babies :-(. Can't wait to see pics!
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Permalink Reply by Anna Morelli on
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Vicky, this post sounds better than the initial one.... you are not just trying to create and understand signals, you are mostly trying to create a PREFERENCE FOR SURFACE. So gravel, grass, dirt, any outdoor surface. BTW most pups at 8 wks pee just about every hour of their awake time, and sometimes in between :-D That's why I find it's a little easier to get a pup around 10 wks.
It can be very distressing when you have dog experience and things do not proceed as you expected them to, but that's how we all learn and earn those well deserved wings! Honor you new little "teacher".... Chin up.
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She does seem to be doing better. If every three or four weeks she had another incremental improvement, in a couple of months she'd be doing just fine. And that timeline would be fine by me.
And yeah...I really do think that our breeder (a lovely young woman, with all the advantages and disadvantages that come with lovely youth) may have let her pups out the door a couple of weeks too soon. Pretty sure the Famous House-Trained-in-One-Day Golden Retriever was at least 9 weeks old, and he may have been 10 weeks when we got him. Ruby was so, SO tiny and really, the word that came to mind was "frail." Possibly pups from some breeds need to be with their mommies a little longer than the standard 8 weeks?
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Vicky, some breeders, especially inexperienced ones will do many matings in the course of the heat cycle, which can result in pups being conceived at different times but they will then all be born together. When this happens, you can have one or more who are developmentally less mature, a few days more or less in the womb potentially making a big difference, particularly in a large litter. This may be the case with your pup from the way you describe it.
Nothing wrong with getting a pup at 8 wks, but it is more work.
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Yes, I've read that. Ruby's litter had six puppies, of which one died. Ruby was then the smallest of the surviving pups. She may have been what's called a "true runt"--that is, one that's underdeveloped, rather than just being a little small. She looked a little odd in some ways, especially around the eyes.
The vet said she was healthy, though. If there was any catching up to be done, she's doing it. She's beginning to look more like a dog and less like a late-term fetus. In the "tamale puppy" photo, I think she's the second from the right. If you click on that image to enlarge it, you can see that pup is smaller than the others, and it almost looks like its eyes aren't open yet...tho' o'course she may just be snoozing.
She's now growing very strongly...between her second and third set of puppy shots, her weight almost doubled. She a tiny bit over 4 pounds when I got her and about 7.5 pounds at the next vet visit. Her eyes are beginning to look more like normal corgi eyes -- her littermates had regular, normal big shiny corgi eyes, while this puppy's looked strangely small and weak, like they were out of proportion to her other features. I asked the vet to check her eyes, which he did, and he thought they were OK. She eats well and she seems energetic and healthy. She's utterly unafraid of anything (except the sound of large dogs barking in the dark) -- right now she and Cassie are having a grand competition over the Ball: Cassie chases the ball and Ruby chases Cassie. So if, as one might suspect, she might have been a little underdeveloped, she seems to be coming into her own.
Heh! She's learned that she can slow Cassie down enough to keep up with her by grabbing Cassie's "mane" and clinging to her hair. Cassie is quite the rocket and Ruby can't even begin to run at those speeds. The bizarre thing is, Cassie doesn't seem to mind this trick! She just runs along with the pup hanging onto her.
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Permalink Reply by Rebecca Marie O'Bryan on
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i promise theres a light at the end of the tunnel and things will get better. when i was potty training Baden (he has been the 6th dog i have owned) he was very difficult to potty train. it took until he was 6months until i could let him out of sight just to do laundry but the first few weeks he would piddle every 13mins, i thought he has a UTI but that wasnt it. he just had to potty all the time. so i would have to watch him like a hawk and when i couldnt watch him (changing cloths, showers, etc.) in the crate he went and the right back outside he would go. after ever meal, playtime, nap, he would go right out. i finally was able to increase the time to 20 mins, then 30 and eventually it turned into hours. i thought the piddles would never stop but i promise they will, just takes time and patience :) hes now 2 1/2 years old and goes out 3times a day, u would never know he had to go outside 500 times a day lol
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LOL! Thanks so much for that comment!
I think I'm going to print out 500 TIMES A DAY! in 90-point type and tape it to the wall over the computer.
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glad i could cheer you up :) lol at the time it really did feel like 500, so sometimes i would be like 2trips down 498 more to go....
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