Potty Training with Bells!

My little Cricket is very subtle with her signals to go outside to potty.  Either that, or I am very dense :).....Sometimes I read them and sometimes I miss them... so I thought I'd try the bell system.  I bought a pack at WalMart yesterday, brought them home and have been amazed at the results so far.

Originally I thought that maybe she would ring the bells even when she was playing or give me a false alert... and I think that happens, but the majority of the time she will be telling the truth!! Maybe we are finally on the way to potty training success!! I still have to remember that she is only 16 weeks old as of Jan. 20th...... still a puppy!!

An update on Andrew (aka Andy)

Last year I fostered Andy, as you can read from some older posts he was quite a learning experience.  The efforts paid off and he was adopted by a wonderful retired couple who live in Tennessee.  He had a bit of an adjustment period where he bonded more to the Mom than the Dad at first, but all in all for a pup that was so severely shy and untrained, this couple did wonders with him.  They are going through a bit of a rough patch with him right now.  He's marking for some unknown reason.  They've been advised to begin housetraining all over again and my prayer is that this little fellow will get over this time of anxiety and be trustworthy in the house again.

Learning "OFF" and naptime schedules collide!

It's strange but I really need to coordinate MY naptime with that of the puppies!  I always seem to miss out and then by 7pm each night the dogs are ready for bedtime... I would prefer going to bed at about 9 or 9:30...but the puppies are drooping at 7pm.  SO...off to bed at 7 pm for the last three nights.  We are getting up at 4:30 AM or so.... which is OK, I usually get up at 5AM anyway.

But next week will start the first week of all-day crating for Cricket.  She can make it through nine hours of sleeping at night, so I figure it's about time I quit coming home at lunch to let her (them) out.  It's costing a lot of time and gas to make 2 roundtrips each day.  It's a 40 minute roundtrip without potty time for a 1 hour lunch break....

Cricket is learning "Off!" this week.  Her favorite place of all is my bed, she's learned how to climb up on the bedside bench (for BonnieBlue to step up on since she's 15 and needs the boost) then hop up on the bed.  When I can't find her anywhere in the house, that's where she'll be.  She also likes my favorite tv watching spot in the little recliner.  So we have many opportunities to learn "off!"