The crate training device...

photo courtesy of http://www.gollygear.com/

That is Ghilley.  Quite the confident puppy and also a handful.  Cute as can be, in my not so humble opinion.  I love just about everything about her.

That leads us to what I do not love and that is the whole potty training thing.  Puppies are always stressful.  Friends of mine insist that puppies are cute for a reason, we would kill them otherwise.  ;-)

Ghilley has come very close to "getting it" with the potty training.  What has not helped our cause is all the rain we had in October.  October officially had two days (out of 31) that qualified as "sunny days."

Well, Ms. Ghilley has decided that she can potty outside but prefers to poop in a more hospitable environment, inside my condo.

The accidents are few, but they still occur.  The time I take with her outside increases as she decides to hold out and make me walk her back and forth outside for 20-30 minutes.  We come back inside with no success and I figure she does not have to go.

My mistake is not restricting her enough with crate time if she does not go.  Frankly, with the days I am at work, I honestly feel bad denying some freedom to my dogs when I am home.

The trouble is, a puppy is not so sure of what to do with all that freedom and needs structure to understand the rules of the house.

I finally reached my boiling point with Ghilley when she decides she has to go, she dashes upstairs and makes it a "you cannot catch me" game in order to go poop inside and not outside in the rain.

I have a twitter account (www.twitter.com/bts4me) that I decided to keep track of the boxing rounds with Ghilley vs. Mom.

Rounds 1 and 3 went to Ghilley.  But I have owned Rounds 2, 4, 5, 6, 7 and now 8 (this morning).

Ghilley was quite put out this morning when upon our first visit outside she chose to be distracted instead of doing everything.  I have decided that she gets 5-10 minutes to do all of her business, when I figure she has both duties to do.  After that, it is back inside but she is not given free range of the house to blast around.  She gets to hang out in her crate while I get dressed and prepare breakfast for everyone.

After breakfast, which she barely touched, we went out to success and she got a cookie.  Her big brother, Duff, got a cookie too for going.  She then got to go on a little walk with Robbie while he did his business.  It was a nice break.

I hated leaving to go into work.  I was off on Friday and Monday mornings, Ghilley resists the crate for my departure.  I pick her up, giving her hugs and kisses, telling her I would rather stay home with her.

I always hate leaving my puppies (whatever age) home.  Need to find that job where I can bring them in.