My Discovery

Last night, with Diva feeling rather hard done by, I made the decision to bring her into the house. The rationale being I'd crate her overnight near Reba's bed, giving her some company to take the edge off of lonely. It was shaping up to be a miserable stormy night. Not the best for her to have her first alone experience.

I spent a fair amount of time putting her in the crate, waiting until she settled and then letting her out again. At 10:30 I let the dogs out for their night bathroom break. Once back in she seemed content in the crate. She was in a relaxed lie down, quiet but alert. At 12:30 she let out a whimper and grabbed the crate gate, so I hopped out of bed and let her outside with her mom. Both dogs started barking wildly, fairly quickly, causing me to bring them in.

This morning at 6:30 I went to let her out again. And I was surprised to find that she had pooped in the corner. Understand that this is not an overlarge crate. In fact, it's probably on the smaller side for her. I've never had a dog do this before. Did she call out and I missed it? Or did she really have to go when I let her out and not have time to do it? Or did she just not understand I'd let her out. I cleaned up the crate, tossed her bed into the washer, put in a fresh bed and put her back into the crate for a while. She would have rather zipped around the house but went in fairly easily.

I think my plan of attack on this one is going to be bring her in often, crate her often, but let her out every 2 hours, to try and teach her that she will get out and she can go potty outside. She needs to be crate trained and relaxed in one because she'll need to be in one a lot when we travel and trial. And the last thing I want is for her messing in her house!