Better Go Now

Belle's potty training was a piece of cake. Or so we thought the first two weeks that she was with us. She gave us relatively clear signs she had to go out, but we also got pretty good at training ourselves to take her out if it felt like it had been a while. Then horror struck. The puppy Belle got her first bladder infection - a not uncommon occurrence for her breed.

Having had one or two of those nasty infections myself, I winced when she'd take a step, squat, take a step, squat, take a step, squat, look at me and whimper. Worse, it was winter and she was leaving little blood spatters on the snow wherever she squatted. I felt like such a bad mom! Since it was a Saturday night (seems like dogs are a lot like kids in never getting sick during office hours), I packed her up and took her off to the emergency vet on University where they took a urine sample, confirmed the infection and gave her the meds she'd need to recover.

After that episode, it seemed like it took us forever to get back on track with the potty training. The infection left Belle with some residual urgency and when she had to go, she went - whether she was inside or out. Still, despite the set back, by three months of age her accidents were few and far between. Best of all, with all the practice we'd had, she'd mastered the cue - "better go now", and would willingly go upon command.

All in all, potty training wasn't as difficult as I was afraid it would be. I kept plenty of puppy pads on hand, a bottle of clean-up spray, and my trusty Swiffer (how did I raise kids without that thing?) cleaning up accidents was just no big deal. I did have to roll up all the rugs and put them away for a time. She tended to think of them as big puppy pads. If only potty training my kids had been so easy.