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????

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Permalink Reply by Marina Holshevnikoff on April 14, 2014 at 12:29pm

Oh my gosh Rebecca, yes! 498 more to go!! LOL!

Those days just recently started fading and I've never been more thankful. We live on the second story of a condo building so we had to go up and down two flights of stairs. Good for our legs and bodies, but SO annoying when you're carrying a wriggly, pee-damp ball of fur that just wants to untie your shoes.

Vicky, we hit five months yesterday officially, and Jerry followed us around the house during chores for an hour, then slept for two hours before we took him out. Your time is coming, and soon!! Glad to hear that you're feeling better about everything. I think Ruby knew you were at the end of your rope and wanted to apologize with good behavior! :)

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Permalink Reply by Vicky Hay on April 14, 2014 at 12:52pm

You're so brave!! I can't imagine trying to house-train a puppy without the Great Outdoors adjacent to the back door.

Actually, at one point I looked at a very nice condo in a mid-rise building. Cassie was fully house-trained (and always has been since she arrived in my precincts at the age of two), but even then I thought...ohhhhhh! Up and down those stairs or in that elevator first thing off the bat in the morning (that would be 5 a.m.) and last thing before bed (can be as late as midnight or 12:30 a.m.)...not good! So I'm still in my house in the increasingly decrepit neighborhood. What's the occasional burglar or raving homeless mentally ill person or meth house when you have a nice backyard? :-D