Puppies are naughty. They are mischievous. They are bad. They chew things and they potty where they are not supposed to.

Since I’m also in the puppy training trenches right now I wanted to share my 2 cents on how this should be done, or maybe just how I am going to do it.

Have you ever wondered why service dogs are such good dogs? I have my opinion. From what I’ve learned from a friend, a prospective service dog is either with their people, on a leash, or directly interacting with their people, or in their crate. They are never left unattended unless they are crated. Period.

When a puppy is crated they cannot get into trouble. Period. They learn to be content and you have peace of mind.

The two naughty puppies that are living with me right now, Bella and Louis (pronounced Louie, the Blenheim Accelerated Puppy from Pansy’s litter-he finally got named this morning) are currently crated. I have peace of mind. They are peacefully sleeping. They just had a grand playtime where I was in the room next to them. I was watching them, had to spray bitter apple on the doggie door flap because they were chewing it (naughty puppies-it was Bella), so I offered them a bully stick as a replacement, which they happily chewed on for a solid 15 minutes until I plopped them in the crate.  Yes, that was a really bad sentence.

They might have been able to chew the bully stick longer, if one of them, and I don’t know who, hadn’t peed on the floor instead of going out the doggie door to use the litter box. I’m pretty sure it was Louis because he was the only one walking around.

So in spite if my efforts to be right near them and supervising them, I got busy shredding papers and had to clean up pee.

But back to crate training…I believe in it and I believe the more contained a puppy’s life is, the more content and calm he will be.

It is like having a new baby. They must be constantly supervised. And taught. And trained. It takes a lot of time. It takes a lot of effort.  These 2 puppies are going to be contained a lot, either in their crate, or in their small space shown in the photo, or on a leash with me in the house.  This is just how we do things here.  I can’t have pee on my carpet, even once.  It cannot happen, and it won’t happen because I simply don’t let them go there.  These puppies will have plenty of space to play and run and have fun.  But it will be on my time clock, when I am ready, and prepared, and willing.  Otherwise, they will be contained….because that’s how I think it should be done!!

I wrote the above about an hour ago, and I’m just finishing it now.  The puppies are STILL crated, sleeping like little babies.  Soon one of them will wake up and cry to be let out.  When that happens, I will let them out and guide them toward the litter box and we will have success.  We will then offer food, inside the crate with a kong ball, and water, and they will have another grand playtime together, and hopefully they will poop in the box as well.  And when things begin to tone down, I will put them in the crate again for another nap.  And they will be content, and fall asleep, and have sweet puppy dreams.

And the wheel will turn like that all day long, and tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, and the next day….till Bella goes to her forever home, and till Louis gets a little older and can be trusted with a little more space!  Happy Potty Training Everyone!!

And that’s my 2 cents!