Bailey and Friends

Marie-
Yes, everything is okay. I've just been not very good company. This house training is getting me down. In the past two days we've had more "accidents" than ever. Thank you for asking.

I've been peeking in, but just didn't have much to say.
It seems to me Carrol had some medical tests to deal with. Don't quote me on that.....I am not sure that's correct.

My son is down for Mother's Day weekend. :)

Bailey just got her 3rd bath. I moved her to the laundry room sink this time. I'm trying to make bath time something she won't dread or be afraid of. My other two dogs put up with it, but weren't happy about it.

Bailey weighed in at 5 lbs. this week. :D:D:D I've not checked in a few days, so that may have gone up or down.....but 5 lbs is wonderful. She is starting to look like a doggie.....not some teeny tiny little thing that you're afraid you could squish if you stepped on her. :eek: It looks like she may be tall. :cool: She looks tall now. Very long legs. We should get some pictures this weekend, so I"ll post something early next week.

The nipping is posing another big problem. We don't seem to be getting anywhere with any of the training. The only success we have had is with the crate at night. She has ten tons of energy and it's hard to see that she gets the exercise she needs. Our yard is not fenced in, nor is there a logical place to do that. She loves to run but she will not come when called.....so there is always the risk of something bad happening. :eek: I have found that if I have her out without her leash that we can run and then if she starts to go too far away, I just call to her, tell her bye, bye, and that I am going in now. So far-that has worked. But this has also been in the back yard.

This is now tourist season here :(:(:( which means a doubling or tripling of the traffic. While we are on a cul-de-sac, at the end of our street is one of the main roads. If she ever headed off for down there, she might become road kill.:eek::(

Happy Mother's Day to all you wonderful ladies. I hope each of you is treated royally this weekend. You do great jobs, so put up your feet for a few minutes and let someone bring you something cool, or warm, to drink.
I got myself a massage today. I'd like to go back tomorrow!!:rolleyes:

Love,
Susan
(still feeling kind of lousy.)

Oh Susan,
I'm sorry you have the puppy blues. I can totally relate to the house training. I remember only to well with Koko. Sometimes when their bladder is really small they have a hard time holding it and learning control. You'll get there and soon all of this will just be a memory.

Training should be fun for you and Bailey. Something you look forward to. Tap Sas for help and feed back. She is so great with training.

You will get there. Time to rally!!!!!!!! We are here to rally.

Hey, I have been trying to teach Koko not to pick up things and eat them when we walk forever.:rolleyes::rolleyes: I was just reading that one of the mistakes I made was stopping the rewards too soon.

So off we go again:p:p:p:p He's getting alot of chicken now but he is focusing on me more so I keep hoping we will get there.
I always look at it that if a certain training is not working for me, I must be doing something wrong:p:p:p And I don't take that personally:D:D:D

Happy Mom's Day!!!!!

Love,
Addy

Oh Susan,

I too remember having the blues about training. Maddie was a holy terror--always jumping up on me scratching and biting. My arms were all scratched up with the puppy nails and teeth. Then the bigger teeth and nails came in and I looked like my husband beat me on the arms--had to wear long sleeves even when it was warm. I remember having my daughter's confirmation party and I had to find something with long sleeves and I think it was close to Memorial Day.

I remember calling the trainer and asking "now how long will this last"
2 years was the answer and I did not think I was going to make it. Finally my husband took her out in our wetlands area and ran her (him on the bike) for miles--what a different dog she became--it became her job. If you have ever watched The Dog Whisper he says the way to make a dog part of the pack is Exercise, Disapline, Affection.

Try using the cookies as a reward during bath time. I would always take cookies with me when we went to the doggie spa where I could bath her. She knew if she was good then the treats were there.

We always used the treats as rewards. Also, try the long, long lead or rope and use the calling her name once with "come"--pull her back to you--treat as rewards--good girl. This way they understand the come command. I use to test Maddie when she would walk ahead of me. I could tell her to sit and wait--basically I wanted to make sure I had control when she was off leash.

Believe me all will come together at the right time--just be consistent and enjoy--this too will pass--haha--then you will wish you had the puppy look back, but not the behavior.:D:D I am looking forward to this and NOT....:eek::D

Have a wonderful Mother's Day!!! Enjoy having your son home and make sure he pampers you--SURE!!!!:):)

Thank you Addy and Marie.
I felt as if I got a hug.
TWO YEARS??!!Are you kidding me????!!!!
We went out to dinner tonight to a very nice Italian restaurant.....and Ryan treated. Quite often Ryan and Bob split the bill.....but Ryan wanted this one. It was a great dinner.
The plantings with the neighbor went very well and very fast. :) Now I have to keep going back up to water the gardens until the stuff becomes established.:(
Bob and I planted some Lantana along the walkway. It's a place that retains a lot of moisture and we have finally found that Lantanas do well there.
I am SO SORE today from yesterday's massage. :eek: At first I thought I was coming down with the flu. Then I remembered yesterday. It felt really good and I had her back off her pressure level a bit....but my body is super sensitive and it's not happy today!
I need to get to bed. Thanks gals for your kind words. IT really helps.
Love,
Susan

Hi Susan :)

Eventhough I have no time right now, I wanted to let you know I saw your post and I will come back to you, hopefully later this evening if I am not too tired.

Some minor consolation...the smaller the breed, the sooner they "mature" (usually) ;) Very large breeds can take up to 3 years to mature, the medium sized breeds take an average of 2 years and the small ones will mature around 18 months...so forget those 2 years :D That's already a 6 month advantage, right there :p

We all know those frustrating and disheartening times where it seems our pup is not going anywhere and all our efforts are in vain. Don't be discouraged, it will happen sooner then you may think :)

I'll write to you soon...

Sas and Yunah :)

Okay Susan,

Here we go :D

Probably the best thing you could do right now, is to start the housetraining all over again. For whatever reason, it’s not working right now so we start all over again. There’s a few facts you need to know about housetraining. First of all, mini breeds have mini bladders and therefore need to pee more often then larger breeds. (even when fully grown) Since the muscles needed to fully control the bladder won’t be fully developed until Bailey is about 6 months old, she will have accidents (unless you are very diligent) Since I am not familiar with how things are going right now, I will simply tell you what you should/could do to improve the situation.

Okay, like I said, we will start all over again. This means that you will have to take Bailey outside every 30 minutes (we want to prevent more peeing and pooping in the house if possible) Take her to the designated “p&p” area, put her down and say “go peepee”. You do not say anything more, do not say anything else, you ignore her if she wants to play, turn your back if you have to and you wait about 5 minutes. If she did her peepee or poopoo, you know the drill, praise her straight into heaven and make sure something wonderful follows, playtime, a walk…whatever she enjoys doing. But if she didn’t do anything, pick her up and carry her back into the house. Wait 15 minutes, pick her up again, carry her outside again and do the same routine. Tell her to peepee and wait about 5 minutes. If she pees, you do this again in 30 minutes, every 30 minutes for a couple of days. If there have been no accidents in the house for 3 days, you increase the time between taking her outside to pee to, let’s say, 50 minutes to an hour. (watch her closely for signs that first day you increase the time between peepee breaks outside) And this way you slowly work your way up till she has no more accidents in the house. Every 30 minutes may sound an awful lot but the goal is to set her up to succeed, not to fail. So by taking her outside this often, you greatly decrease the chance that she will pee indoors (fail) and you will greatly increase the chance that she does do her peepee and/or poopoo business outside (success) :)

A mistake many people will make is to take the pup on a walk (with the purpose to poo/pee) and when it has pee’d/poo’d they go straight back home. This only will encourage the pup to not pee/poo during a walk (“if I do, this wonderful thing called a walk, will end”) and then the moment it returns home, it will poo/pee inside the hose, leaving the owners very frustrated since they feel the pup had all the time to do it’s business during the walk but didn’t.

A much better way would be to let the pup poo/pee in the backyard and as a reward then take the pup out for a walk. That way a walk is a walk and a fun time with no pressure to poo/pee but simply fun time with its owner :)

Create a toilet space, the same space where she has to do her business every time. It may help, at first, to leave her poo’s and not clean the pee’s right away till the next morning. The smell will help and stimulate her to do her business at that same place again. And if there’s nothing there yet, you could use the accidents she had indoors. Pick up the poo and place it in her toilet area. Use a paper towel to absorb the urine and place the paper towel in her toilet area :D

Think of a fun activity the both of you can do every time she is successful outdoors. A special “after pee” game with a special (for that purpose only) toy. This will help her to understand faster that whenever she delivers, she gets her special treat. It can also help to keep her on her leash till she poo’d/pee’d. This way she cannot run off and you can keep her in her toilet area that way. When successful, take the leash off :)

If you can manage to keep this schedule, she might amaze you at how fast she can learn what’s expected of her. And if it sounds like a lot of (time consuming) work think of all the time it will spare you cleaning carpets and floors :p

So forget feeling down, take a deep breath and make a new start. Give her a new chance at doing it right this time, don’t hold a grudge, invest time and energy and the reward will be a proper housetrained puppy ;)

Sas and Yunah :)

Okay Susan,

Now it’s time for some tips about how to train a reliable recall :D

I’m not sure what command you use but I will use “here” in this example. Of course you can use any command you prefer :)

First of all, what NEVER to do if you want a reliable recall. Never call the dog over to you for something the dog doesn’t enjoy. For example, if you want to give Bailey a bath, and she is not too crazy about them, don’t call her over, just walk over to her and pick her up. Recalls should always be positive and associated with something good :)

Secondly, I often see people calling the dog over and before rewarding the dog, they make the dog sit and then reward. The person (in his mind) is rewarding the fact the dog came over to them, the dog on the other hand is thinking it gets rewarded for sitting. So, if the dog comes to you, reward, immediately, do not let the dog sit first before giving him the treat :)

To train a reliable recall, always start indoors. And start with a small distance between you and the dog. Go sit on the floor and play with the dog. Then when the dog is just a few inches away, call it….tap on the floor with your hand, be happy and exited and reward the dog immediately. I personally always reward the command in words as well…and will say “good here, that was really a very good here” or something to that extent. Do this several times a day…sit on the floor, play and every now and then call the dog over to you when she is close by.Slowly increase the distance and when the dog will come even at a greater distance then you can start practicing without the sitting on the floor. At first I would still squat when calling Bailey, she’s so little and it makes you less intimidating to her. You then can move to calling her when you’re in another room… Once you have a good recall indoors, you can start practicing in the yard. Start the same way…sit on the grass, play a bit and call Bailey when she’s close to you, tapping your hand on the grass. Make sure you praise her incredibly every time she comes, have the treats ready in your pocket when you are about to train this. Step by step, each step should be stuck in her mind before you move on to the next step. And if you move to the next step, and she’s not doing well, go a step back again, it was obviously too fast to move to the next step :)

Apart from all this, how is your relationship with Bailey? And with that I mean, how is your interaction with each other? Does she “respect” you in the sense that she will let you go through doors first for example? Will she sit calmly before she gets her food? I ask this because without some basic respect, it will be very hard, if not impossible to train :)

Not meaning by any means this is what is happening with you and Bailey but I will give you an example. There was this elderly couple who got a mixed breed small dog. Indoors, the dog ruled the house. If it wanted to be petted, it got picked up and was petted, if it wanted to sleep on the couch, it slept on the couch and when one of the couple wanted to sit on the couch, it would growl, the dog ate at the dinner table, sitting on a chair with a plate of food served before the couple had their food, etc. They called me because the dog was impossible to walk on a leash. He would go in any direction it wanted, would sniff for as long as it wanted, would lunge and bark at everything and everyone in sight, in short, a disaster. He was the neighborhood terror. I have been there about 8 times and tried to explain to the people that they had to change the way they treated the dog indoors in order to be able to change the way it behaved during walks. The dog had no respect for the couple what so ever…so why would it have respect during their walks? You cannot expect a dog to respect you in one area if there’s no respect in other area’s. They weren’t able to see that and kept insisting the dog was their “baby” and deserved only “the best” (meaning, sleeping where it wanted, eating at the dining table, etc)

And of course, this is an extreme example, but I just wanted to make sure that you and Bailey have mutual respect because that will make training and teaching a lot more easier. If the respect is not there, that needs to be dealt with first…

Saskia and Yunah :)

Hi Sas and THANK YOU for the detailed instructions.:D:D
Bailey does follow me in to a room. Also-while we don't have the nipping stopped, once we yell "NO!" she backs off. I try to give her something to chew that is not me.
I will share with you that last night, first time EVER, she took herself to her crate and "crashed." (Twice!) I was so pleased to see that. I've tried keeping her in the crate upstairs when I need to get work done. but so far no luck----just crying.
I can't say she's really calm before her food. Once she knows it is being prepared she seems to say..."Hurry it up, NOW!" That's not every time but more times that not.
I'm going to print out your suggestions and we'll give it a try. As I have said before, I am not getting tons of cooperation from the male side of this household.
We are doing more walks and she is walking pretty well. She is still way too excited when she meets people but it might be getting just a tad under control.
For now-I must go....I feel klike I have the flu and it's NO FUN. :( Best I get to bed (7pm!!)
Thanks again....I'll keep you posted.:)

Love,
Susan

Feel better real soon. The flu is not fun!!!!

Love,
Addy

:(:(:(You are right..........and this is the flu. 103.2 Down to 102 now.:(:(:(