The day I've been dreading has finally arrived.
For the last few months, we have been enjoying toilet-trained Danny. We could let him out all around the house and as long as we have a paper out, he'd go on it like some expert marksman. No more worrying about stepping on ;"something wet", or needing to keep bottles of vinegar handy. It was a dream come true.
And all of a sudden, literally overnight, it was back to square one. At first I thought we forgot to give him paper; then, I realised there was a huge wad on the balcony all nice and dry. He now is back to going wherever and whenever he feels like it, and even when he is confined, he will pick the spot WITHOUT paper.
Why? Well, back in puppy class, Danny's first trainer was teaching us about toilet training. It was about confining him to one area and getting him used to having the feel of paper under his feet to do his stuff. We were all happily taking notes, when she said that unfortunately, despite all efforts, when dogs hit 9-11 months, they will untoilet-train themselves. A huge sigh went up. It is sort of like they hit their teenage phase and become rebellious, wanting to test whatever they've been taught. Toilet-training will have to be restarted and once we win that battle, we would have won the war.
Danny is now a week short of 9 months. For the last week every non-papered place has been fair game. We've dusted off our toilet training notes and geared up for Round 2.
*Ding ding!*
Donations of kitchen towels and disinfectant are welcome.
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