Mike’s Doghouse

Mike is one tricky pup.

House training is still on going with some great progress and still very little progress.

I purchased an elastic dog collar that has 4 huge bells on it. The pet supply store had them on sale from leftover Xmas stuff. I can’t imagine putting this on a dog as the noise is way loud. Anyway, I was going to take off the bells and hang one or two on the door but they make enough noise as a group that I can’t miss it. I even hear it all the way in the kitchen!

When we go out, we shake the bells and say something along the lines of “do you need to go outside?” “ready to go outside?”. The idea is that when he needs to go, he will ring the bells. He can’t reach them without standing with his front paws on the door. He’s managed to take it off the doorknob twice but usually just nudges it with his nose. He has already learned that ringing the bells and/or whining gets him outside. Big step considering we’ve not worked on “touch it” yet!

However (with Mike, it seems there’s always a “however”), what he wants is to go outside and eat sticks, walnut shells, pecan shells, leaves, dirt, bark, packing peanuts (long story), and almost anything else he can find. He loves to hunt down and carry huge floppy gross mushrooms, too.

We’ve stopped the long walks and instead stand in one place with him limited to with about 5-8′ of that spot. He must do his business there or back inside we go. If I know he needs to do his business but he’s too interested in the other stuff, we go back inside and he goes into his crate. 20 minutes later, we go back outside. Eventually, he will either do his business outside or I get impatient and we go back in where he promptly poops in the living room.

As with any dog training, most mistakes are the handler’s fault. Mike doesn’t have accidents, I do.

And while we are on the subject of Mike’s weirdness, here’s another for you. Mike will chew on anything made of any material. He will even chew on my chair. He’s pulled out some cosmetic tubing ends, roughed up an adjustment knob, and he has left his mark on the metal frame. The below image is the frame above the rear wheel. That’s tooth marks on the metal.

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