She Can Ring My Bell!

Okay.  I've now decided not every treat in my blog will be food related.  This is a little treat that my dog has given me (take that how you may...).  The title  of this post actually reminds me of the song "You Can Ring My Bell".  Unfortunately I can relate different cheesy songs to all kinds of things in my life. 

Getting a puppy has had its challenges and its rewards.  Overall, it has been a life changing experience for the better.  There is nothing more wonderful than having someone be soooo excited to see you every time you walk through the door--even if you were only taking out the trash.  She loves the kids and also adores Chris and myself.  Roxy is my buddy all day long, following me wherever I go (and crying outside the bathroom door because she can't see me) and sleeping next to me wherever I sit down in the house.

One of the daunting tasks for our family has been potty training.  When we picked Roxy up from the breeder in Westlock, she was paper trained (with some exceptions).  With the weather being what it was, and Roxy being so little we had mercy on her and allowed her to continue with her using paper as her potty.  But when we had some unseasonably warm weather in January we found our window to the outdoors for her and started to encourage her to go outside.  Chris, my clever husband, took some of the paper she had used (by the way--when I refer to paper I actually mean plastic lined puppy pads) and put it out where we wanted her to go.  It didn't take long before she started to figure out that she needed to go outside to do her business...but we still had one little problem.  Roxy was not very good at asking to go.  She wouldn't bark or whine and if we were busy doing something, we would sometimes miss seeing her at the back door and she would go elsewhere (usually back to her paper).  So we did some research and some talking to friends and decided to try the back door bell. 

Essentially, you train the dog to ring the bell when they need/want to go outside.  I never would have believed it if I hadn't seen it...it works.  Roxy will take her nose and nudge the bell for it to make noise and then wait for us to let her out.  She'll get busy out there and come running back in for her treat (very proud of herself).  We are loving the fact that she is so smart! 

Okay...I just realized that she looks like she is trying to eat the door right now...what a silly girl...she noticed condensation coming off the window and was "cleaning it up".  (Let's be real here...she's really no different from a toddler...only she rings my bell when she is potty training)