Minor setbacks
Things could have gone better this weekend in terms of potty training Cassidy. She had two accidents. Each of them occurred in the loft, when she was out of our sight. The reason for this: us. House training a dog means tirelessly watching it for the inevitable misdeed. Catching Cassidy in the act is important, because those teachable moments for dogs only occur in real time. If the reproach is a second too late, the dog won’t make the connection, and all the punishment in the world won’t deter a repeat of the offense. Correcting the chewing and pooping and garbage picking before they become habits means that when Cassidy is out of her crate we have to keep constant eyes on her.
We have since gated the stairs to the loft.
Why we train our dogs to ring a bell.
We first bought the got-to-go bell when Ripple was being house trained. We figured, if we did’t wanted her to pee in the house, we had to give her a way of telling us when she had to go out. We hung the bell on the door in our family room, 
even though we usually let her out through the laundry room door. The reason for this is that the family room is where we are most often. The bell should be placed where people are most likely to hear and respond to it as a signal. Ripple got the idea quickly and is now our model for teaching Cassidy.
The simple steps
- Whenever Ripple rings the bell, or right before we are about to take Cassidy out, we let Ripple out. (We do this before bringing Cassidy to the bell, because having Ripple present is too distracting.)
- Then we put a leash on Cassidy and walk her to the bell.
- We bring it to her nose, or push her paw against it until it dings.
- Then we praise her and take her outside.
We repeat this ritual before each time we take Cassidy out to do her business. Whenever Cassidy rings the bell on her own, which has happened quite a few times, although she does not always “go” when we bring her out, we respond quickly by praising her and bringing her straight to the door.
Next Friday: Old Dogs, Young Dogs (part 2)
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I think it’s wonderful you teach them to ring a bell. Our SPCA has gone one better and taught a couple of their dogs to drive. Check it out: http://tinyurl.com/cghscw8
Ha! Now if they could only learn to vacuum.
Trackback…
[...]Wow, superb weblog structure! How lengthy have you ever been running a blog for?[...]…
Thank you so much. Blogging is very new to me. I started this five weeks ago. I’ve taken a few webinars and have tried to learn about blogging and structure and such. The reason for the blog is that two of my passions are animal rescue and writing. Because we adopted Cassidy from rescue, I thought it would be a good experience to blog about it. I’m committing to the blog for year to see how it goes and if I enjoy doing it. So far, I really do.
I really like your writing style, wonderful info , regards for putting up : D.
Thank you. That’s so nice of you to say. If you would like, one of my short stories is posted in the bar with all the links. It’s called “A Guide to Rejoining the Universe.” It was inspired by our dog Zach, who recently passed away. If you click on the link and scroll down to second story you will find. Thank you again, and I’m glad you’re enjoying the blog.
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[...] http://www.mimirosen.com/teaching-cassidy-to-ring-the-bell/ [...]
[...] http://www.mimirosen.com/teaching-cassidy-to-ring-the-bell/ [...]
I Am enjoying your Blog Space. Jan & I hope to make it “up country soon”, and we look forward to meeting Cassidy. You have opened up the Blogosphere to me so I will follow Cassidy’s Journey with keen interest. But please don’t teach Janice any of the training tips. This old dog is set in his ways and my nose is too small for bell ringing. A Wish For Peace & Hamony To All During This Holiday Season. Love to All
Glad to see you hear Jimmy. Thank you for reading about Cassidy. Hope you guys can come up to meet her. I think Mike’s set in his ways too, although I keep trying the positive training strategies. Cassidy is doing much better with these. Happy Holidays.
Hmm it seems like your site ate my first comment (it was super long) so I guess I’ll just sum it up what I submitted and say, I’m thoroughly enjoying your blog. I too am an aspiring blog blogger but I’m still new to the whole thing. Do you have any suggestions for novice blog writers? I’d certainly appreciate it.|
Wow! That is a huge compliment. I have been blogging for about six weeks now, so I consider myself new as well. Please take what little advice I have to offer with a grain of salt. My daughter helped me set up a blog on WordPress (because I knew nothing and couldn’t make what I had initiated work.) Then I took a webinar that was offered through WriterDigest University. It was excellent, and you can probably still access it through their archive. The tutorial is called, “50 Ways to Increase your Blog Traffic.” The instructor said that making lists, using bullets and putting key phrases in bold is good form. So that’s what I’ve been doing. He also said that using pictures and video (which I hope to try soon) really helps to engage readers. I am now taking month-long workshop, and on the advice from this teacher signed on with the website host – Bluehost. This has been good in terms of technical support, because again – I have so much to learn about blogging. So far my feedback has been good, so I think I’m on the right track and am now looking at ways of increasing traffic to my site.
Thank you so much for the compliment and for reading my blog. I wish you success with yours.
hi!,I like your writing very much! share we communicate more about your post on AOL? I need a specialist on this area to solve my problem. Maybe that’s you! Looking forward to see you.
Thank you, Wilbur. You are more than welcome (in fact I would appreciate it) to share my post with AOL or any of your friends. Believe me when I say that I am no specialist. If you have questions I will happily try to answer if I can, or direct you to someone who knows.
Best wishes.