Human Training

I'm sure that you've heard about the process of "dog training" but did you know that often dogs do a little "human training" and you don't even know it?

Tilly and Bess had done some "human training" of Troy and I and last night we had to start the process of letting them know that we are the ones who do the training, not them.

The foster dogs sleep in crates in our bedroom at night. We keep the house pretty cold at night so I prefer to have them in either Hunter or our bedroom upstairs where it's warmer. Anyhow, one night I was woken by Tilly, frantically scratching at her crate door. I figured it was a bathroom emergency and carried her crate downstairs and let her outside. She immediately ran and leaped off deck for the nearest fern she could mark. After that she did her typical wandering and marking every shrub and tree she could find in the back yard (trust me, there are a LOT) and then she was back at the door, ready to go back to bed. Of course, when I went back upstairs Bess was awake and so I figured I might as well take her out as well if she needed to go. So out we went.

That was the first night. Well, this became a nightly occurrence. Bess wasn't as bad as Tilly. She doesn't like being cold and so the prospect of a cold backyard wasn't as enticing to her as it was to Tilly. Tilly on the other hand got to the point where we were taking 2-3 trips a night down the stairs to the sliding glass door. Yesterday I realized what was happening. As long as she had a chance to run around outside before bed there was no reason she needed to get up 3 times for trips outside. She had trained me to get up at 1, 3 and 5am so she could have a little fun.

So last night the retraining happened. I went to bed with a squirt bottle at my side. That was all it took for Tilly - a squirt bottle sitting next to me where she could see it. There wasn't a peep out of her last night, even when I knew she was awake because Bess was being loud. Bess on the other hand, needed a couple squirts from across the room before she realized the "make the humans get out of bed" trick was no longer working for her. After that it was quiet. Everyone slept until 6 am. I was SO glad it was as easy as a couple of squirts.