[Dailydrool] Reasoning with the hounds

[Katie Strobel]

Hello,
Watson and I have conversations sometimes too. When he's trying to
kill the bear toilet paper holder in the bathroom, I try to explain
that it's not a real bear. That never works so then I try to "remind"
him that he's killed this bear about 4 millions times already so it's
already dead. That doesn't work either. I MUST put the bear on the
bathroom floor, walk away, and let Watson knock it over. Then I must
wait until Watson's sure the bear is dead and he walks away. Only then
am I allowed to go back into the bathroom, pick up the bear, and place
him back on the toilet. This happens at least once a day - somedays,
when Watson is feeling especially "protective" we kill the bear twice
or three times for good measure.

On food, Watson had me fooled for a long time last fall. He got all
picky about his food and wouldn't eat it. I relented and started
feeding him by hand (he eats wet and dry food mixed). At first, I
would feed him his entire meal by hand, but I quickly got over that.
Instead of allowing him to pout all day, I slowly weaned him off of
hand feeding. I would get him started and then pick up his food almost
let him have it, and then drop it back in the bowl. He would look at
me like "well??? pick it up!" but I wouldn't I would praise him for
sniffing around in the food and then lavish loves on him whenever he
ate out of the bowl himself. Eventually, he realized that he was so
hungry, and waiting for me to feed him by hand just took too long.
Now, he eats by himself twice a day. They will not starve themselves.
Eventually, they'll realize that you are more stubborn than they are,
and you don't suffer nearly as much as they do if they refuse to eat
because of a technicality. With eating food off of a plate, maybe let
them start with the food on the plate, get into a pattern of chewing
and eating, and then take the food and dump it in a bowl. They'll get
the connection, and they'll want the rest of their food.

Potty training - Watson came to us at 6 weeks old, and he wasn't fully
potty trained until he was about 4 months old. We had to keep him in
an x-pen inside him during the day, sometimes for 5 or 8 hours at a
time, so he would potty in his x-pen at first. Since he was locked in
for such long periods, it took longer for him to make the connection
that he should do his best to hold it and go outside. We have a doggy
door too, and once he was able to use that, the whole peeing outside
thing became easier for him. One day, around 4 months, it just
clicked. He has not had an accident since. Persistence, patience, and
lots of love will pay off in the end. Whenever we were home with him,
he was confined to whatever room we were in, and as soon as he started
to sniff around like he was about to go, we would pick him up like a
baby -- that way he wouldn't pee inside while we walked outside
because he didn't want to pee on himself - take him outside and tell
him to "go potty". After he did - lots of happy happy praise and back
inside we would go. Now, he still knows the "go potty" command, and
will do it on que before bedtime and before going into a store or on a
long road trip.

Alright, enough of my advice for the day. I got Nigel's shirt the
other day and absolutely LOVE it! Soo cute! I can't wait to order my
Llewis shirt as soon as the next paycheck hits ;) Maybe Watson needs
one with him and the bear toilet paper holder....hmmm.....
We send drool and love to all who need it.
Katie and Watson