Welcome back, readers! I have a lot to share with you guys this week! The progress with Zola has been so shocking and amazing. To say I am surprised would be downplaying my emotions. As you know my goals for my puppy are to have her completely house trained and to calm her down. Last week I chatted about how well her crate training has been going and all around she has improved so much since then!

This week has been about improving what we already know, and building off of it. I really enjoyed this article about potty training, and believe it could help you guys too!

First, let’s talk about what we all want to know, Did Zola have any incidents this week? No, she didn’t and I am so proud of her! No messes in the house at all this week. With the help of ” The Canine Coach Dog Training ” on YouTube I have been able to successfully teach Zola the importance of being on a schedule. I have it set up now that she is taken outside 30 minutes after breakfast and dinner, and after she drinks any water. She might not be able to tell the time but she knows when it’s time to go out and so far it’s worked. I learned recently that the number of months your puppy is is how long they can hold their bladder.

ie: My puppy is 5 months, so she can only hold her bladder for 5 hours.

Are you struggling with your puppy not being potty trained? I highly suggest creating a schedule to get your dog used to going outside and not relying on taking them out when you feel like it. Puppies are newborns who don’t know much so we can’t penalize them because you aren’t doing your part with them. As much as you use the bathroom every day, your puppy does too, if not more!

This concept was really hard to commit to because I can admit I was a lazy dog mom at first, who did the bare minimum and just hoped my dog would know better. Once I realized how much my puppy relied on me I started giving her the energy she deserved, whether it meant taking long walks or just bringing treats outside to encourage her to use the bathroom outside.

Another part of training and raising a healthy dog is all about the rewards you give them. My puppy LOVES peanut butter treats, and bacon treats. She would do anything for one and I have definitely been using it to push her to do what she needs to do. Also after a successful day with no accidents, I like to give her a good reward besides the little treats. This week I boiled chicken and gave it to her with her kibble, she loved it and she knew how much she deserved it! Also if you’re like me and love to be extra, I like to give her ice cream on a good day as well. I know you’re thinking ” How do you give a dog ice cream? Do they even make that?” Yes, yes they do. At Petsmart, you can find Dog Ben & Jerry’s ice cream in their frozen aisle. It’s about $8 a box and comes with 4 in it. The box I got lasted me 2 months because I would only give her about 2-3 scoops when she deserved it. This is a great way to applaud your dog for its hard work!

All in all this week was a great week. She has had no accidents and we plan to keep this going. I’m so proud of her progress, and also proud of myself for taking the time to learn how to effectively potty train my puppy which has saved me easily almost $200-$300  on professional puppy training. If you guys don’t remember anything I’ve told you just remember :

  1. Applaud outside potty use.
  2. Have treats on hand when going outside to promote quick bathroom trips.
  3. SHOW YOUR DOGS LOVE!