Two Little Doggies and Potty Training

Dealing with a dog who doesn’t want to poop or pee is exhausting. I’ve been good about the potty breaks and Tucker has been really good about it [save for a few mishaps due to my poor judgement calls], but Princess absolutely refuses to do anything outside except sit and watch. I’ve literally had to pick her up and move her onto the grass several times before she does anything.

Yesterday morning she decided she didn’t want to go outside, yet again, so I figured she’d go in her own time. Little did I know that “her own time” would be shortly after coming back inside while I was upstairs getting dressed for work. Not only did she pop a squat down in the living room, she came up the stairs and started peeing in the walkway while looking at me! I sent her downstairs only to have a long pee trail following behind her. *slams head on the wall*. Needless to say, it’s time for some tough love.

She’s been in her cage most of yesterday, last night and so far this morning. I came home from work and let them both out. When she decided she wasn’t going to go, I brought them back in and put her in the cage. She whined about it, but too bad. I let them out right before bed. Tucker was great and peed so he was allowed to sleep with me. Princess opted not to so back in the cage. Well, it’s now 3am and I needed a glass of water so I woke Tucker up and went downstairs to let them outside again. It’s raining so neither of them wanted to go in the grass, but I picked them up individually and put them further out in the yard [so they could smell around and eventually find a good spot]. It took several trips out and even bringing them back in for some water before Princess finally relented and pooped. Tucker happily followed suit, thankfully.

I was going to let Princess out of the cage for the night and back into the room [since she did achieve the ultimate goal], but I’ve done instant rewards with her before and it doesn’t really seem to work. I think once she consistently goes outside, without my having to force her further out into the yard, then I’ll let her out. Tucker knows instantly what going out in the back yard means so he gets special privileges. Of course, if he decides to regress on his potty training hell receive the same treatment.

I can’t wait until Charlie comes home. These two are stressing me out. lol