Kaylee pees everywhere and anywhere. My first plans were to have her sleep in bed with us at night, but when I realized she didn't have the bladder control to hold herself all night, I decided to have her sleep in her crate. Within 3 days I have gone from taking her out twice at night to just once. This morning she held herself until 4am! Her crate training is progressing nicely, but more on that later.

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I have been setting a timer for every 45 minutes and taking her out to her new toilet area. This has been a challenge for me, but she is improving. Kaylee was accustomed to relieving herself on grass and I've decided her toilet will be gravel. Of course she hasn't a clue about that and naturally prefers the grass. So I take her to the gravel every 45 minutes. She plays with it, digs in it, barks at it, sits, lies down, rolls around and does everything but pee. If and when she does, it's merely coincidental. But she's relieving herself there more and more everyday. When she does, she gets enthusiastic praise and even a treat, but progress is slow.

I have done more laundry in the past few days than I have in the past month! Even with all my diligence she has managed to pee in her crate at least 3 times, on my bed, on the carpet in every room in the house, on several pillows, cushions, on two of her beds and of course on the floor in her pen and even on my lap!!

A friend of mine gave me a gallon of Natures Miracle and I secretly laughed because I hardly used a cup of it when housetraining my other puppies. But I ended up purchasing a 5-gallon jug!!! It borders on humiliating, but actually it's simply humbling. Kaylee is a young puppy and has minimal bladder control and no understanding yet of where she is expected to "go." Her instincts to keep herself, her den and dining area clean have not kicked in yet. But every day I watch her I see her developmentally maturing and more and more instincts emerging, so soon her "clean" instinct will also manifest.

On a positive note, she has defecated outside on the gravel 100% of the time. She gives huge intention signals, so it's easy to know when she has to poop. Then I can take her to her toilet and keep her there until she goes. She still doesn't give any intention signals for peeing and she isn't predictable time wise either. I thought after she emptied out she would be reliable for at least 30 minutes, but she's not reliable for even 10 minutes! That's how she ended up peeing on my bed, in her crate, etc. But everyday she's getting better and she's sooooo cute. I don't believe in using any kind of reprimand during housetraining as puppies have no idea they are doing anything inappropriate. Instead, I go overboard on the reward and praise when she does get it right.

I'm also chanting a choice word (mizu which means water in japanese) when she pees so that later I can get her to urinate on command. I trained all my dogs to urinate and defecate on command and it's makes life so much more convenient especially when we're out of our usual environment or routine. By the way, her #2 command is "unko" pronouned oon-ko, also a japanese word, just in case you wanted to know.

Day 6 : She's going to the gravel all by herself to do her business now. Yippppeeee!!!