Our beautiful babies from our last litter just left and are with some great Bully families. Some are new and some have lost their bully and brought a new love into their lives. I thought about making a post on fb or my secret page, but there's so much to say, so I thought this would be a great opportunity to write a new blog post. Remember that it takes about 21 days-6 weeks to create a habit. Hopefully, we've done some of the work for you to help assist you.
POTTY TRAINING:
When they are at our house, we litter box train them AND we take them outside. Every time the big babies go out, the little ones go out. By the time they leave, they cry and would rather go potty outside vs even going in the litter box. It DOES take time to adjust to their new home, new family, surroundings etc. Here are some tips to hopefully make things go easier:
1. One thing we do is put bells or wind chimes on the door that they go out to. That way, they will hit it or know which door to go to in order to let their people know to go potty.
2. When they wake up, you take them out to go potty. Tell them to go potty and as soon as they squat, tell them to "hurry up."
3. If you're playing with them inside, make sure you keep an eye on them and as soon as they wander off, take them out.
4. After they eat, immediately take them to go potty. They will poop immediately. If you cannot watch them the whole time, put them in a potty training crate, only giving them enough space to move around but not go to the bathroom. They will not poop in the same area they sleep in.
5. Each baby has a poop dance and it's like a fingerprint. They have their own unique poop dance. Watch them so you can recognize what that looks like.
6. Also if they're passing gas quite a bit, it's time for them to go out. Reward them with little treats if they go potty or don't have an accident in the house. Bulldogs ESPECIALLY are not only people pleasers but highly motivated by food/treats.
7. They will have their own language. Here, if they're whining, they're either begging (for food!! They come pre-rotten around here) OR they need to go potty. We take them out, everytime that we can so they can recognize when they need to go potty. Everytime that door opens, they're crying to go outside and go potty.
CRATE TRAINING:
Crate training is a little easier but takes patience. Dogs, especially bulldogs, are creatures of habit. If they are crying, they're either needing to go potty, they're bored or at first, they're missing their siblings/mom. If they cry, take them out to go potty and put them back in. If they are still crying, they're lonely, bored etc. If you have hardwoods (from a hard lesson), put a waterproof layer of some kind UNDER the crate. There are whelping pads on Amazon to protect your hardwood floors! Urine will severely stain the hardwoods.
Here are some ideas to help make it smoother.
1. Put them in the crate, and make short trips to the store or run an errand. Make sure they've been out to potty after they've had water etc and then put them in the crate. They need to get used to you being there, all the time. When you come back (do it intervals of 1-2 hours), if they haven't had any accidents, praise them and take them out immediately outside.
2. We give a toy that's got the scent of their siblings on it. So put that in there. You can also put a shirt, t-shirt or something that you are okay with in their crate.
3. Kong balls with cheese whiz are amazing but they can usually go through them within an hour or two or get done with them quickly. These are also included in our New Welcome Home packets.
4. Nylabone keys and toys are great for them to knaw on and given in our Welcome Home packet for our new owners and babies.
5. The absolute BEST thing is an almost empty, plastic jar of peanut butter. Make sure it's all natural and the ONLY ingredients are peanuts, salt and maybe oil. Not only can they chew on it, but it takes them absolutely FOR-EVER to get to the bottom of the jar. It's an extremely popular item in our house and if we only have 1-2, they get stalked or passed around between our babies.
Hope this information helps anyone that needs some ideas in helping their new baby adapt to their new surroundings.
No comments:
Post a Comment