Hi Chazhound; yesterday, a certain question that I had been putting off sprang up in my mind.
My friend was a little surprised to hear that we had not yet paved the road into making Wanta a free-roamer, meaning, that we let her walk around the house unattended. I explained to him that the reason was because we felt she was still a puppy and needed a pen and/or constant supervision (in other words, it was not easy to do). Also, she enjoyed sunbathing in the yard during the day hours, so it was relatively easy to maintain this 'lifestyle' up to now.
The thing is, she is now approaching 6 months, so I think his point may be valid at this time? Essentially, I assume that at some point, my dog is supposed to be trained into a free roamer. That is, they become potty trained, etc, and can walk around like family members (I'm not exactly sure how realistic this is, but I assumed it to be somewhat true). Also, I was unaware of the 'perfect time' to do so, but I assumed anytime before 4-5 months was too early?? (was I wrong here?)
I guess the quick question is: what age should I/should I've been getting at it, and with what tactics? As far as I've scrounged on these forums, I am, at that particular time, to start leashing Wanta to a belt or something. And essentially be with her at 'all' times while she was in the house. And then, whenever she was about to poop or pee, I would hurriedly interrupt her (which would show her over time this wasn't OK), and then put her outside to go. Over time, if there were no accidents, I would let her loose and see if she would still continue the same trend, but with supervision. And the last step is supervision.
^my only little nitpick with those steps (if they are in fact correct), is how tedious they seem I guess, it just seemed a little crazy to be watching your dog out of the corner of your eye every moment for a long period of time (weeks). I mean, you couldn't even read a magazine cause then your attention would be subverted, I dunno. Of course though, if this is the most efficient method I'm willing to do it, but I need confirmation.
Thanks again Chaz, need the experts to clarify these matters for me. Also, I assume my friend was wrong about the 'you were supposed to do this as soon as possible' bit? It just didn't seem logical to me, since little puppies, at least as how I saw it, were too young before 4 months to be effectively potty trained anyway (he owns a cat so......I'm not sure where he came up with this anyhow)
My friend was a little surprised to hear that we had not yet paved the road into making Wanta a free-roamer, meaning, that we let her walk around the house unattended. I explained to him that the reason was because we felt she was still a puppy and needed a pen and/or constant supervision (in other words, it was not easy to do). Also, she enjoyed sunbathing in the yard during the day hours, so it was relatively easy to maintain this 'lifestyle' up to now.
The thing is, she is now approaching 6 months, so I think his point may be valid at this time? Essentially, I assume that at some point, my dog is supposed to be trained into a free roamer. That is, they become potty trained, etc, and can walk around like family members (I'm not exactly sure how realistic this is, but I assumed it to be somewhat true). Also, I was unaware of the 'perfect time' to do so, but I assumed anytime before 4-5 months was too early?? (was I wrong here?)
I guess the quick question is: what age should I/should I've been getting at it, and with what tactics? As far as I've scrounged on these forums, I am, at that particular time, to start leashing Wanta to a belt or something. And essentially be with her at 'all' times while she was in the house. And then, whenever she was about to poop or pee, I would hurriedly interrupt her (which would show her over time this wasn't OK), and then put her outside to go. Over time, if there were no accidents, I would let her loose and see if she would still continue the same trend, but with supervision. And the last step is supervision.
^my only little nitpick with those steps (if they are in fact correct), is how tedious they seem I guess, it just seemed a little crazy to be watching your dog out of the corner of your eye every moment for a long period of time (weeks). I mean, you couldn't even read a magazine cause then your attention would be subverted, I dunno. Of course though, if this is the most efficient method I'm willing to do it, but I need confirmation.
Thanks again Chaz, need the experts to clarify these matters for me. Also, I assume my friend was wrong about the 'you were supposed to do this as soon as possible' bit? It just didn't seem logical to me, since little puppies, at least as how I saw it, were too young before 4 months to be effectively potty trained anyway (he owns a cat so......I'm not sure where he came up with this anyhow)