The Crate Update

I love my dog. She is the smartest, prettiest, and bestest dog in. the. world. Shortly after my last post about crate training she figured it out. It was maybe 5-7 days of varying degrees of confusion, but now she's got it. She eats in her crate with door closed three times a day. This a must so Mommy can get kids ready for their day, down for nap or to bed (as well as an important step in helping her accept her den). Since she is only very rarely home alone during the day this was a way to consistently reinforce daytime crating. Now when we do all run to the store or to pick up kids she doesn't give us such a hard time about going to her "room". She also sleeps in her crate overnight.

She expects us to ask her to get in there when it's bedtime now. In fact, in the beginning she had to be almost touching our bed to feel secure at night, but now we're able to keep her crate at a little bit of a distance. She's gaining confidence and independence. My big girl. At bedtime we get her settled in and then about 2-3am she pushes on the door with her paw and makes two short barks. We take her to pee and then straight back to bed so she knows it's not playtime. She sleeps until 6-6:30 and then she's up for the day and ready to potty again.

She's made a lot of progress on the potty training front too. Instead of pee pads in three rooms we only have one now. She has a distinct bark when she needs to go. She generally heads for the back door and makes an effort to get outside. Last night while I was home resting my injury with Leeloo in my room and the door shut she got upset. She started to whine and scratch the door. I was slower than normal and I was sure she'd have accident. She held it all the way to the pee pee pad in the living room and I was sure it was all over, but when I opened the back door the pad was still dry. I was so proud. She sniffed around, trotted out and did her business. Such a good dog. Just turned 12wks old the day before and she held it and waited. Superstar.