The Potty Training Blues

Here’s our new little pooper.

I’m just going to go out there and say it: I am a miserable failure at potty training puppies.

Ok, I’m exaggerating a bit; Mia and Katelin are pretty well trained at this point. So I can be happy about those guys. Scully was dubiously house trained, at best, but she’s dead now. My floors were happy.

So I finally get to a point where I can walk through my house, giddy with the (almost) absence of pet excrement smell (the gerbil cage gets pretty rank near cleaning time), and what do I do?

I let my family talk me into getting a puppy….

…who performs a feat of bodily excretion in my house almost every day. Might I add, that “family” includes The Husband who told me, only slightly kiddingly that he’d divorce me if I got another dog post-Scully.

She has pooped on my son’s computer twice in the last 48 hours.

She’s little, so her accidents are stealthy and not quickly discovered. Except for the computer poo. My best friend and her kids were over, so there were five kids gathered around the computers playing Minecraft. They spent quite awhile trying to figure out which kid was producing that stinky smell before they found the little present sitting beneath the table.

The kids have stepped on dog poop INSIDE THE HOUSE!

We have had to roll up all the rugs to try and eliminate potential targets. She seems to prefer rugs to the wood and tile. (But I guess computers are ok)

I know I just have to keep plugging away at this. I also have a few tricks up my sleeve that I haven’t employed (mostly because they are labor intensive and I’m not ready to go there yet).

In case you were wondering, our puppy is a rescue. My coworker Carmen’s mom was fostering them. I think 4 of her foster puppies were adopted to people somehow related to Animal Medical Center of Plano. They came from a hoarder who had 20 something dogs. Chihuahuas, rat terriers, an Italian greyhound, and God knows what else. Hence, our puppy, Nixon (named that for no particular reason by her foster’s kids) is of very indeterminate breed lineage.

She’s super sweet, very cute, loves everyone we welcome into the house. However, she has a terrier-esque streak that makes her seem pretty protective. So far she has bravely alerted us to invasions from the vacuum, broom, anything else that’s out of place, shadows, and Katelin.

She is also an excellent lap dog.

She likes to sleep in the laundry basket, on top of all the clothes.

The kids love her when she’s not in “crazy mode” and using their extremities as chew toys. Mia has finally warmed up to her and they have very careful tug of war and sparring sessions.

Good thing all that cute, sweet, lap-dog cuddliness helps counterbalance her house training deficiencies, because she’s pooped in the house twice this morning.

I think it’s time for the extreme labor intensive potty training methods. OK, not that extreme, I just have to actually follow my mother’s advice and put her on a leash and walk her around the yard constantly telling her to pee/poop to combat the fact that she gets distracted outside, neglects to excrete, then subsequently lets loose in the house later. Sigh.

To be continued.

Addendum: She pooped in the house three times on Friday, so we now have to roll out the super heavy artillery, “the umbilical cord” potty training method (or at least some version of it).

Withering sigh.

Oh well, here’s a cute video of Mia playing with Nixon. Hm, nevermind. WordPress won’t let me load videos unless I pay extra. Maybe I’ll start a Youtube channel for videos of my dogs. I’ll get right on it.

As soon as I potty train this puppy.