Grace 10wks

Little Grace just turned 10 weeks old! Things have been going very well other than the one crappy issue. Pun intended. As Grace is one of Those puppies who doesn't mind peeing or pooping in a small crate.

Her crate training has gone very well. Her crate is right next to me in the bedroom or right near the action and she doesn't make a peep. Even when she clearly has to go.

And it didn't help that after the first week she started to have some diarrhea issues! Ugh.
I got so sick of cleaning up a poopy crate and giving constant baths that I decided I'm done with the crate. On the positive side, Grace loves her baths!

Until the issue is resolved we are only using an xpen to confine her most of the time. At least that way she can have a bed on one and then wander over and poop at a different end. Hopefully preventing her from lying down in it and painting everything.

Despite the horrors of this issue, her potty training isn't going too bad. She's one of the few dogs I'm choosing to use cookies with to reward her for potty outside, and we just go out a lot. I always take puppies out a lot, and Grace is definitely going out more than just "a lot" most days. There's no safe spot for her if she doesn't actually do anything outside and that's the most frustrating piece. But she does seem to be getting it. A few nights without an accident at least!

Netta's been very helpful in training her house manners too! She likes to say "Grace!!" and then "chew bone" and runs to grab a toy when she sees Grace chewing something she shouldn't be!

She's been on some hamburger and rice the last week so not much training has been happening. We have a bit of W/D I've been giving her occasionally as well, but things are looking better so hopefully we can resume training.

Mainly we are working on 2 skills
1. Put your feet on things. 2 feet on a perch, 4 feet on a platform, 4 feet in a box...

2. Learning to wait for her food dish cue. My goal is to get her food bowl to the floor when I'm training and have Grace ignore it as I grab handfuls to train from. Right now I'm starting this with the food bowl high and working on picking it up and setting it down in different locations. When Grace turns to me I reward her lots but I'm not yet having any eye contact criteria.

As it gets lower, if she goes to it I try to quickly use my food hand to stop her and reward her for stopping, then move the bowl higher if that location still seems to hard.