Saturdays with Scamp: Updates
Based on some comments I received last week, apparently I owe you guys some updates on my puppy.ย I guess it’s only fair after you gave me such good advice!
As far as the bells go, we’ve made amazing progress. I followed everybody’s advice and have been very consistent in putting him outside every time he rings the bells. Sometimes he rings the bells and runs like he wants me to chase him. Those times I just ignore him so he doesn’t get any attention for ringing the bells. Recently he’s done a lot better. He only seems to ring the bells when he wants to go outside, or when we are in another part of the house and he doesn’t know where we went. It has made our evenings a lot more peaceful. ๐
The crate issue has shown less progress. We’re working on a trial and error basis, and so far nothing has made a big difference. We’ve tried leaving the radio on, giving him a shirt that smells like us, and the most recent change was making his crate a little bigger and giving him a sort of “den” in the back by covering the back of theย crate with a towel. We tried that last night for the first time and he seemed to really like it. However, he has still peed in his crate every day this week. I’ll keep you updated if I find anything that works.
Now that it’s not quite so hot out, we’ve also been trying to tire him out by playing outside. I took a video of our favorite backyard game to show you. It’s not the best quality since I was playing and videoing at the same time, but it works. ๐
p.s. A Nutro employee tweeted me that she made my chai banana smoothies and loved them! Extra points for Nutro in my book ๐
This is a sponsored post. Nutro provided me with products and promotional items and is compensating me for my time. As always, all opinions are my own.
Welcome! I'm Megan and it's my hope that here you'll find food that has been made with love and recipes that are shared with joy. Thanks for stopping by! 
Did you reduce the available space in the crate? And I mean drastically. He will not pee if he has to lie in it.
Our puppy comes home today and I can not wait!! I forgot to get the bells and now I'm kicking myself!
As for crate training, I've always heard to REDUCE the space if they are peeing in it. ๐
As long as there is too much space in the crate he will continue to pee in it. The crate needs to be smaller.
Thanks for the advice guys. Just so you know, his crate was already REALLY small. Like small enough that he only had room to lie down. It was not stopping him from peeing, so that's why I decided to make it bigger. I'm pretty sure the reason he's peeing is that he gets so worked up that he can't hold it any more. I'm hoping that by making it bigger and a little more “den-like”, he will be less stressed out. It's an experiment.
Oh! Scamp is just too adorable! I'm glad to hear that he's doing better with the bells. Training a dog is all about patience.
How long do you leave him in the crate for? His bladder is still tiny, so he may not be able to hold it too long. I also make sure that my dogs pee before I leave the house. You can also try to limit the amount of water he consumes before you leave.
Another option that we used for a while when our second dog was a puppy was to have an exercise pen set up with the crate in it. The crate is where he would rest, and then you could place a pee pad outside of the crate. (My dog tore up the pee pads so we ended up getting one of those grass pads, like the potty patch) and he would pee on that if he had to go while we were gone. If he does ok with that, then you could actually leave a water bowl in their with him.
I would always tell my dogs that I was “going to work” and eventually they would understand that I was going out and would be gone for a while, but would come back. I think this helped with any separation anxiety. You might want to try practicing this for short amounts of time (like on a weekend) and then slowly increase the amount of time you are gone. As he gets older you will also be able to be away from him and the house for longer periods as he will be able to hold his bladder for longer.
Don't have time to read all about your training “opportunities” (oh so much fun ;)) w/ your beautiful dog, but check out Patricia Mcconnell's blog/books. She is fantastic and will also provide you with other links. Best of luck to you !!! Sharon – trying to rid the world of unwanted, homeless dogs & cats – pls adopt!!!