I thought I posted this last night, but I can't find it so I must have forgotten to hit submit before I closed my browser.
We have a 3 almost 4 month old catahoula puppy. She's very smart and fully understands going to the back door when she needs to go potty. Since she's a puppy I still try to keep her near me to keep her out of trouble. My husband and I spend a lot of time in our computer/TV room, so the puppy (Misty) and our older dog (Abby) stay in there with us with a gate up to keep them in the room. If the puppy needs to go potty, she goes to the gate and paws at it, and will sometimes whine quietly.
When my husband is not home I'll try to get some cleaning done around the house so I like to let the dogs run around too rather than keeping them locked in the one room. When this happens, Misty will inevitably run out of sight at some point. I usually call her back every couple of minutes that she's out of sight and she's been very good about that too. The only problem is, sometimes when she runs off, she's going downstairs to sit at the back door to be let out. Unfortunately, she doesn't vocalize about it at all. She just sits there. I'll notice she's out of sight again so I'll whistle for her to come back to me. At that point sometimes she does and sometimes she doesn't. If she doesn't I know to go to the door, but often it's too late and she's already piddled by the door a little. I take her out immediately and she finishes outside and I praise her for it. Other times, she will come running to me after she's been sitting at the door.. Which I find out when I see the piddle trail leading from the door back upstairs to me
I know she's still young, but she's a very smart pup so I'd really prefer to be able to let her and Abby play around the house while I'm cleaning rather than locking them in a room. Ideally if she would sit at the door and bark, I'd be able to let her out immediately. Sometimes I'm lucky, and the other dog sees her sitting there and barks for me to come let her out :rofl1:
Currently Misty only barks when she is playing with Abby, when she is put in her crate because I need to go out for errands, or if I leave her in the backyard and walk off to do something in the house she'll bark to be let in after she's been out there alone for five minutes or so.
A doggie door is unfortunately not an option. Too many creepy crawlies outside I'd be afraid of getting in, and cats getting out.
Okay that was probably a lot of rambling, but long story short.. How on earth do I get her to be vocal enough about needing out that I can hear her upstairs or over a vacuum?
We have a 3 almost 4 month old catahoula puppy. She's very smart and fully understands going to the back door when she needs to go potty. Since she's a puppy I still try to keep her near me to keep her out of trouble. My husband and I spend a lot of time in our computer/TV room, so the puppy (Misty) and our older dog (Abby) stay in there with us with a gate up to keep them in the room. If the puppy needs to go potty, she goes to the gate and paws at it, and will sometimes whine quietly.
When my husband is not home I'll try to get some cleaning done around the house so I like to let the dogs run around too rather than keeping them locked in the one room. When this happens, Misty will inevitably run out of sight at some point. I usually call her back every couple of minutes that she's out of sight and she's been very good about that too. The only problem is, sometimes when she runs off, she's going downstairs to sit at the back door to be let out. Unfortunately, she doesn't vocalize about it at all. She just sits there. I'll notice she's out of sight again so I'll whistle for her to come back to me. At that point sometimes she does and sometimes she doesn't. If she doesn't I know to go to the door, but often it's too late and she's already piddled by the door a little. I take her out immediately and she finishes outside and I praise her for it. Other times, she will come running to me after she's been sitting at the door.. Which I find out when I see the piddle trail leading from the door back upstairs to me
I know she's still young, but she's a very smart pup so I'd really prefer to be able to let her and Abby play around the house while I'm cleaning rather than locking them in a room. Ideally if she would sit at the door and bark, I'd be able to let her out immediately. Sometimes I'm lucky, and the other dog sees her sitting there and barks for me to come let her out :rofl1:
Currently Misty only barks when she is playing with Abby, when she is put in her crate because I need to go out for errands, or if I leave her in the backyard and walk off to do something in the house she'll bark to be let in after she's been out there alone for five minutes or so.
A doggie door is unfortunately not an option. Too many creepy crawlies outside I'd be afraid of getting in, and cats getting out.
Okay that was probably a lot of rambling, but long story short.. How on earth do I get her to be vocal enough about needing out that I can hear her upstairs or over a vacuum?